Scott Dolson, Pam Whitten Introduce Darian DeVries As Indiana Basketball Coach

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana university president Pam Whitten and athletic director Scott Dolson introduced new basketball coach Darian DeVries Wednesday in a press conference at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.

Indiana announced the hiring of DeVries Tuesday, moving quickly after its season officially ended Sunday without an NCAA Tournament bid. DeVries comes to Indiana after going 19-13 in his first season at West Virginia, following a six-year run at Drake with a .732 win percentage and three NCAA Tournament appearances.

Here's everything Whitten and Dolson said during the press conference.

Whitten: "Good morning. I am Pam Whitten. I'm the president of Indiana University and I am here on this happy day to kick off an event where we announce our new coach for men's basketball. I'm going to start us off, just make a few brief comments, then we'll transition over to our AD Scott Dolson who will talk a little bit more specifically and then we'll bring up the man of the hour to speak with you and answer questions. Let me start off, first of all, by acknowledging and thanking Coach Mike Woodson, such an important part of Indiana University. He first pulled up in Bloomington back in 1977, a tall skinny kid that came to play basketball and lit the court on fire, and almost 50 years later is still such an important part of the Hoosier family. The porch light will always be on for Mike and his wonderful wife Terri as they will always be an important part of the Hoosier family."

"I also want to take a moment and thank the board of trustees for Indiana University. I want to thank them for their support, and I want to thank them for the trust that they put into both Scott Dolson and myself in terms of the process that was used to get us to this point today to secure such a talented coach. Speaking of thanking people, I need to make sure to thank Scott Dolson. I have to tell Darian that, man, you hit the jackpot with the AD that you're going to work with at Indiana University. Scott Dolson is a man of integrity and intelligence, and I think he very well might be among the best athletic directors in the United States. So I think you're going to enjoy working with Scott, maybe even as much as I do, moving forward. Scott had a wonderful process in play as we went through and were able to take our time and be thoughtful and land such a home run as a coach for Indiana University."

"As all things at IU, we don't do things willy-nilly, we are thoughtful and we are strategic and we are intentional, and Scott is going to talk in more detail in a second about what that means specifically with Darian, but I will share with you that in addition to the obvious importance of character to us at Indiana University, there were three things, three important traits that really were top of our list as we considered who would be the next coach of basketball at Indiana University. That included being a great coach. Really knowing basketball. So knowing how to coach. The second one was knowing how to win. Demonstrating that you could win and you knew how to win, as well. And then the third one in this interesting time of college sports was demonstrating that I know how to be a CEO of a basketball organization, as well, and Darian met those traits for us really in spades. Just a terrific, terrific man in terms of what he's going to bring to Indiana."

"I want to close by saying something that probably won't mean much or get picked up outside this room, but Darian, this is for you and me. When we had a chance to visit during the interview process and we were talking informally about things, I don't even know that you realized that you said some things that touched me so much and were so important to us. That was the recognition that it's about the student-athletes and it's about the students. When we go into Assembly Hall, there's a lot of important people that are going to be in Assembly Hall watching games, but the most important people in Assembly Hall are always the student-athletes, and right behind them are the thousands of students in the student section. They are why we're here at Indiana University is for our students. You in that conversation made comments recognizing the importance of teaching students at all times, student-athletes, too, and recognizing that we want to create an amazing college experience for them, as well. So thank you for that. Now, I will also tell you that these students want to win, so let's go get them some banners, as well. On that note, let me introduce our athletic director, Scott Dolson."

Dolson: "Thanks so much, Pam. Thanks to all of you for being here, particularly on short notice. Honestly, I just couldn't be more excited about today. This is a huge day for IU basketball, a huge day for our athletic department and certainly for our entire university and the whole university community nationwide. I want to start with some thank yous just like Pam did, and I also want to mention Woody and thank he, his staff, his coaches. One thing that was clear during the search process is that this is a coveted job and there's a great foundation in place, and certainly Woody and his team deserve a ton of credit for that. I also want to thank our current players. Our current players, it's never easy going through transition. I know when the transition happened during the season, we talked and talked about hopefully galvanizing the team and coming together, and the team rose to the occasion. I just couldn't be more proud of the current team and just so thankful for all they put into this year's team, and wanted to certainly recognize them."

"I wanted to recognize President Whitten. Honestly, I've said this before and I'll say it all the time, I don't know how she does it. She sets the tone in terms of working hard. She literally has a million things going on, and anytime we come to her, and particularly something like this, we have her undivided attention. Her input, her collaboration is incredible. I remember being on a trip not that long ago, on a plane trip, and Stephen Harper and I when we landed back in Bloomington very late. We talked as we were riding back to get my car, and he just said, I don't know how she does it because she was just so engaged and so helpful and has so much energy. She sets the tone. Honestly, the alignment is critical. You hear those words a lot, alignment between the president and the athletic director and the coaches is critical. We've got an unbelievable situation, and I'm so grateful for it. Honestly, it made this job that much more attractive. Her role is just super important. Just not sure she's really gotten the recognition or the credit which she deserves. But the great things happen in IU athletics wouldn't be happening without her and obviously without the rest of the university."

"I want to thank our department staff, particularly Stephen Harper, our deputy athletic director, who has just been a rock. His tireless work, his invaluable input, he just is super important to me, not just with this search but to the department. I want to thank him. Our secret weapon is a person you may not know, a person named John Decker who's one of my right-hand people. John is behind the scenes and just an unsung hero. He's kind of been the mad scientist as we put together -- he did this with this search in terms of what wins, what are some of the analytics out there, and the information that he produces in a short time is incredible. I just want to thank him. I also want to thank Pete Yonkman and Hoosiers Connect, our collective. Again, this job was very attractive. It was very invigorating for me as we went through the process how many people were interested and how many people were talking about our program and our collective and the resources that provides, how they do it, our reputation nationally is that we do things right, and we're really second to none in terms of our organization. And that goes along with Tyler Harris, as well."

"I also want to thank -- there's several key confidants that we're very fortunate to have. Indiana basketball stretches across the country, college basketball, pros; we have former managers, former players that are in key places. I can't tell you how many conversations I had during this search where confidentially they were giving me information and feedback that is so valuable. They know who they are. I just want to make certain to thank them. Finally, I really want to thank our fans. I want to thank our donors, our supporters for their relentless support. They've been with us through thick and thin, and honestly, I talk a lot about -- I just said this earlier. This job, hearing people's feedback, whether it's candidates or other people, how much this job is coveted."

"It's a top job in America and our fans are a huge, huge part of that. I just want to make certain that they know how excited I am about where we are today and how much they are a part of this process and that we want the same things they want. Again, a big shout out to our fans. The search strategy, Pam alluded to this for a second. We put together a profile, and I won't go through all the qualities we were looking for, but we certainly did a lot of work in terms of what qualities would ensure what we felt would be consistent success here. A couple examples of that, and Pam mentioned a couple, we wanted an experienced, successful coach that had a blueprint for winning. We wanted to make certain that we had someone that really understands and really equally importantly has embraced modern roster construction. That's huge."

"A proven evaluator and developer of players. We wanted to make certain that we had a modern playing style. We have to have a head coach that understands where things are going. It was really important to us. We wanted someone that really wanted to be here. We felt we were in recruiting mode, but at the same time we wanted someone that really was recruiting us, that really, really wanted to be here. So certainly we had a national search, as you know, and were really deliberate with the process, stuck with the process. Had several candidates, and it became clear that we found our person, and we went after him and we got him. We couldn't be more thrilled about that. You're probably wondering why Darian, what separated him, what were the things that really distinguished him to be the candidate, the selection. Honestly, it started really before I even knew that Darian would ever be a candidate."

"I had the opportunity -- there were two occasions that I had the opportunity to watch Darian's team play. Once when he was at Drake, we played in the NCAA Tournament in Albany. Drake played Miami. Stephen Harper and I came out early and watched the second half of that game, and I remember he and I talking about how Drake played. It was impressive, and that's when I first realized who Darian was. Secondly, this year in the Bahamas, again, had no idea we were looking for a coach, more as a basketball fan watching college basketball, I watched the Gonzaga-West Virginia game and was really -- again, Stephen Harper can tell you, we sat there after that game just going, wow, so impressive how West Virginia played. So kind of knew of him. Certainly when we realized that we were going to be in a search, his name then was in the back of my mind, would he be a candidate.

"The things -- there are three things that highlight ultimately when we did get into the search and dug in deeper what really were the reasons that it's Darian. The first thing is he's won consistently and he's got a blueprint that fits here. It was evident in talking to him and learning more about him. His winning, he's done it quickly. His winning at Drake, for example -- and I think this has been well documented, but prior to his arrival, Drake had five 20-win seasons in their history. He was there for six years and had six 20-win seasons and immediately got that going. They had had one NCAA tournament appearance in the last 47 years. He went there three times in six years. Those things are really important, the quick turnaround to understand how to build a program. At West Virginia he took a nine-win team and took that to a 19-win team despite losing two key players to injury early in the season. Was super impressive. One key datapoint that I'll point out, and I'm not going to go into too much detail on data because, again, our mad scientists, we dug deep and really dug deep into key metrics."

"One of the things that was super interesting was looking at what were Darian's winning percentages in games decided by five points or less, and he had a 65 percent winning percentage in his career. That's a big thing. As we looked around the country, that's something that's really significant with winning programs. All that stuff mattered. The No. 2 reason why he was singled out is he really understands and coaches modern offense in a tough blue collar defense. It fits here. One of the things that we learned, recruits really want to play in the type of system he runs, and that was evident, as well. It was super interesting. I got a text last night late from a father of a former player of ours who Darian had recruited out of high school, and that parent texted me just to say, wow, you hit a home run. Darian recruited my son. I don't want to say who it is, and said that he is an absolute perfect fit on and off the court. His style is going to really resonate, particularly how he looks forward. It really meant a lot to me. Just validated what I knew and felt why we selected him. But I thought it was a really interesting text from a father of a former player of ours."

"His offense, I won't go into the datapoints, but we've looked at all the data of his offense. He'll talk about that I'm sure. His defense. But the bottom line, it's a winning formula and a blueprint that we're really comfortable with. The third and final thing I'll mention is that Darian is a great person with an incredible work ethic and incredible character. Again, I talked to a lot of people, a lot of people, and people came back every time with, wow, he's a great person, number one, and he's a ball coach, and his reputation is really, really good. He's super highly respected on and off the court. Then the final thing is, which you'll see, he has a passion to be here. He wants to build the identity of Indiana basketball, and we want a consistent identity. So we couldn't be more excited. With that, I want to welcome certainly Darian but also his wife Ashley, his kids Tucker and Tatum to the IU family and couldn't be more excited. This is a great day for IU basketball, so please welcome our new head coach, Darian DeVries."

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