Darian DeVries was officially introduced as the 31st head coach in the history of the Indiana men’s basketball program in the press room at Assembly Hall on Wednesday morning.
Here’s everything he had to say in his first press conference as the Hoosiers’ head coach.
DARIAN DeVRIES: Thank you, everyone, for being here today. It’s truly an honor for me to be standing here as the head coach at Indiana University. I want to start off by thanking President Pam Whitten, Athletic Director Scott Dolson, and the board of trustees for this opportunity to lead this historic basketball program.
One year ago today I took the West Virginia job after I’d left Drake University because I felt like it was a great fit for myself, for my family. It had an administration that I greatly respected and a fan base that was very supportive and a community that was filled with great people.
All that turned out to be true in the past year and we were welcomed with open arms. We met some terrific people, and my family and I are beyond thankful for that.
Obviously my intention was to continue down that path and build on the progress that we made during this first year. However, the opportunity came along to possibly be the head coach at Indiana, a dream job for anyone, but especially for someone that grew up in the Midwest watching the old Big 8 and Big 10 basketball.
The chance to lead one of the biggest brands in college basketball was something that I could not pass up.
This place has many of those same qualities that my family and I look for and want to be around, and I’ve always looked for that fit for myself, for my family, and making sure it all aligned.
We have an administration here that is 100 percent in alignment with navigating through this whole new era of college athletics, from the top down. There’s no doubt that there’s an extreme commitment to making sure we are on the upper edge of all of that. There are resources available here that are some of the best in the entire country.
We have a fan base that is passionate about the Hoosiers and provides a tremendous home-court advantage. Everything is in place here for us to have the opportunity to win and to win at a high level. Now our job is to make that happen.
I am so excited to get to work, and I know that where it all begins is with the work. It has to start and end there, because without that, you cannot have success.
Resources certainly are a huge part of giving you those opportunities, but resources do not win games. We want to be a very process-oriented program with a core fabric built around that work. The people we surround ourselves with and the players that have a desire to want to be a part of something special.
We want to build something that is sustainable for a long period of time, and we will do that by staying true to what this program is about. We will know when we have made it when every time a fan, a booster, an alumni, or a former player comes to watch us play and turns on the TV, and after that game is over, that they are filled with pride because they have so much respect for how our team plays, how unselfish they are, the joy they play with, and the enthusiasm they play with and their love for this university.
Once we get there, and once we get there where everyone can watch us on a nightly basis and they can say with great pride on a consistent level that that is my team, that is when the banners will rise again. It’s time for us to get to work.