Sources: Indiana targeting W. Virginia's DeVries

Indiana is targeting West Virginia‘s Darian DeVries as its next head coach, sources told ESPN.

A deal is expected to come together in the near future, sources said.

DeVries spent just one season with the Mountaineers, getting hired last March to replace interim head coach Josh Eilert, who had taken over for Bob Huggins following his resignation in June 2023. In his lone season at the helm, DeVries led West Virginia to a 19-13 overall record, finishing 10-10 in the Big 12 – before getting snubbed on Selection Sunday.

He signed a five-year deal when he was hired, and the total buyout is expected to cost $6.15 million. The buyout for DeVries’ remaining WVU contract is $4.67 million and there’s additional expenses, per the contract, that include expenses such as paying the buyout WVU paid from Drake and other expenses incurred in his hiring.

Prior to taking over in Morgantown, DeVries was the head coach at Drake for six seasons, guiding the Bulldogs to three NCAA tournament appearances in his final four seasons. He went 150-55 during his time at Drake, winning at least 20 games every season. The Bulldogs won the Missouri Valley regular-season championship in 2019 and the conference tournament championship in 2023 and 2024.

Drake won a First Four game in the 2021 NCAA tournament and lost in the first round to Miami in 2023 and Washington State last year.

DeVries spent 20 seasons on staff at Creighton before becoming a head coach, including 17 years as an assistant coach under both Dana Altman and Greg McDermott.

At Indiana, he replaces Mike Woodson, who announced in early February he planned to step down at the end of his fourth season in Bloomington. Woodson, a former Indiana star, led the Hoosiers to the NCAA tournament in each of his first two seasons, but has dealt with speculation surrounding his future for most of the last two seasons. They missed the NCAA tournament both years, being named one of the first four teams left out of this year’s field.

DeVries will take over a program in desperate need of consistent success. The Hoosiers, one of the all-time winningest programs in college basketball and a program with five national championships, have advanced past the first weekend of the NCAA tournament just three times since reaching the national championship game in 2002. They’ve also missed six of the last eight NCAA tournaments, under three different coaches.

DeVries’ son, Tucker, has been at the heart of much of DeVries’ head coaching success, earning the Missouri Valley Player of the Year award in both 2023 and 2024 before following him to West Virginia. He played just eight games for the Mountaineers this season before missing the rest of the campaign with an upper-body injury. The school is expected to apply for a medical redshirt, which would give him one more year of eligibility – potentially at Indiana.