What Went Wrong For Indiana And How Can Darian DeVries Fix It? Shooting Woes

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Last week, we started the What Went Wrong series of stories. Shortly afterwards, Indiana hired Darian DeVries as the new head coach.

Naturally, fans have turned to the future and not what happened in the past. However, we didn’t want to completely let go of the 2024-25 season just yet.

So Hoosiers On SI decided to change these to identify what went wrong and what DeVries has done in the past to address these shortcomings.

Before we go on, let’s get some accounting out of the way. The first story in the series, published before Indiana made the coaching change, was on Indiana’s flawed scheduling. DeVries addressed that in his introductory press conference.

“I know we have a couple already scheduled for this year. I think I'm allowed to say a couple of them. We have Kentucky scheduled, and I believe we have Marquette scheduled in Chicago. I believe those are the two that we have currently scheduled,” DeVries correctly stated.

“So we'll continue to work on building on that, as well, and we'd love to get another one or two really good high-quality games and then add that to the 20-game Big Ten schedule,” he continued.

“You have to do a good job of - you've got to get your home games, as well, but also make sure we do a great job of getting ourselves ready for Big Ten play and challenging ourselves before we start that,” DeVries concluded.

What Went Wrong

Trey Galloway. — Indiana's Trey Galloway (32) shoots during the Indiana versus UCLA men's basketball game at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall on Friday, Feb. 14, 2025. | Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

One drumbeat of criticism that occurred throughout the Mike Woodson coaching period was Indiana’s inability to establish a 3-point offense.

Whether it was not taking enough threes or not having enough shooters to sustain a 3-point offense, complaints about the 3-point line was never far from the lips of Indiana fans who wanted better.

To be sure, Indiana was never a 3-point powerhouse in the Woodson era. In his four seasons, Indiana ranked 216, 48, 273 and 286 nationally in 3-point percentage.

The one year – the 2022-23 season – that Indiana had a good 3-point percentage was also a year in which the Hoosiers ranked 352nd in 3-point attempts. So with 5.7 makes per game, Indiana only generated 17 points a game from beyond the arc.

So the 3-point line was always a bone of contention, with related complaints about playing two bigs at the same time – something that may or may not have had a correlation depending on the season.

However, Indiana fans may have been too fixated on 3-point shooting woes. Those were far from the only shooting problems the Hoosiers had in 2025 or throughout the Woodson era.

Anthony Leal. — Indiana's Anthony Leal (3) shoots a free throw during the Indiana versus Ohio State men's basketball game at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall on Saturday, March 8, 2025. | Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Let’s turn our attention to the free throw line. In four seasons, Indiana ranked 236, 207, 334 and 218 at the line. This average rank of 248.75 is much worse than Indiana’s average rank of 205.75 at the 3-point line.

None of this is very comforting for Indiana fans. The truth is that the Hoosiers – both in 2025 and throughout the Woodson era – were a group that never could shoot straight.

Specific to 2025, the shooting woes were supposed to change. Myles Rice and Kanaan Carlyle were coming to the rescue from the West Coast. Luke Goode was throwing off one Big Ten school at Illinois to join his home-state Hoosiers. Bryson Tucker had promise as a highly touted freshman.

There was also hope that Mackenzie Mgbako would build upon his promising end to the 2024 season. There was also hope Trey Galloway would recover his 2023 shooting form after a lackluster 2024 shooting performance.

Some of those things did happen. Goode performed more or less as advertised. He converted 39.2% of his 3-point shots, his main offensive role. But no other Hoosiers who attempted more than one 3-point shot per game were above 32.9%.

Rice did improve his 3-point shooting from 27.5% at Washington State in 2024 to 32.5% with Indiana, but it wasn’t the leap many hoped for. Carlyle shot eight percentage points worse than he did at Stanford as he made just 24.3% with the Hoosiers.

Galloway made some big 3-point shots at times, but overall he was just 32.7% from long range. Unfortunately for Indiana, he was much closer to his 26% 3-point shooting from 2024 than he was to his 46.2% 3-point shooting in 2023.

Despite that, Indiana ranked seventh in Big Ten Conference games in 3-point percentage at 33.4%. What was a bigger killer was free throws.

Big misses at the line – by individuals or from the collective whole – plagued the Hoosiers in their worst moments. The one-point loss at home to Maryland featured a 60% performance at the line. The Hoosiers shot 50% in their Big Ten Tournament loss to Oregon. Included were two misses on the front end of one-and-one opportunities.

Indiana had good free throw shooters. Goode (87.9%), Rice (81.8%) and Mgbako (81%) were all pretty reliable, but they ranked 3-5 on the team in free throw attempts.

Indiana’s lesser free throw shooters were ones who were at the line the most. Oumar Ballo attempted five free throws per game, but only made 57.1%. The next most frequent free throw shooter – Malik Reneau – was much better at 73.3%, but the question of why Indiana wasn’t more aggressive in driving to the rim with its best free throw shooters to try to draw fouls is a legitimate one.

It didn’t help Indiana that two guards who had the ball in their hands frequently in late-game situations – Galloway and Anthony Leal – both struggled at the line. Galloway converted 64.3%; Leal was 61.9%.

The manner of Indiana’s shots was also suspect. With Ballo and Reneau, Indiana was very good near the rim. The Hoosiers were 63.8% on “close 2s” according to Barttorvik.com. That included 81 of 84 on dunks. A hallmark of Woodson’s Indiana teams was to be dominant in the paint.

However, Indiana also took 547 “far 2s” and only made 37.8% of them. Indiana took almost as many “far 2s” as threes (632), which is not an analytically friendly way for any team to go about its business.

Combined with inconsistent defense and other woes, Indiana’s shooting was a problem. It was a Whack-A-Mole issue too, where even some players with decent statistics had some no-show games where they didn’t produce.

When a team loses close games that were the difference between a NCAA Tournament bid and ending the season without a postseason bid, those shooting woes stand out.

What Have DeVries Teams Done?

Darian DeVries. — West Virginia Mountaineers head coach Darian DeVries reacts during the first half against the Louisville Cardinals at Imperial Arena at the Atlantis resort. | Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

As it relates to free throws, DeVries don’t go to the line very often. West Virginia ranked 348th in free throw rate (free throw attempts divided by field goal attempts), according to Kenpom.com, at 25.6. DeVries’ teams have consistently been averse to the free throw line. At Drake, the best free throw rate ranking the Bulldogs had was 188th.

However, DeVries team have generally shot well at the line. West Virginia was at 72% in 2024. Four of DeVries six Drake teams ranked in the top 50 nationally in free throw percentage.

DeVries teams have not all been creating equally as far as 3-point attempts are concerned. His West Virginia team ranked highest of all of his teams in 3-point attempt percentage with 46.1% of all shots being threes, ranked 43rd nationally.

Oddly, the Mountaineers were the worst of his teams in percentage at 32.6%. At Drake, The Bulldogs were ranked in the top 100 in the nation in percentage in four of the six seasons he was at the school, peaking at 36.4% in 2024, ranked 39th nationally.

As for what shots get taken, according to barrtorvik.com, West Virginia had the fewest amount of “far 2” attempts than any other shot. A window into what Darian DeVries values can be seen through son Tucker DeVries, who is expected to join him with the Hoosiers.

Before he was injured, Tucker DeVries too 55 3-point attempts, 16 “far 2s” and 14 “near 2s”.

Only three West Virginia players attempted more “far 2s” than threes in DeVries offense.

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