How a Second Phone Call Started Darian DeVries' Journey to Indiana Basketball Coach

ROSEMONT, Ill. — Save for a dent in his bank account after buying a round at Bloomington bar Upstairs Pub, Indiana men's basketball first-year coach Darian DeVries is living the high life.

Sporting a crimson blazer over a white button-down shirt and gray tie, DeVries — along with his son, senior forward Tucker DeVries, and senior guard Lamar Wilkerson — represented the Hoosiers at Big Ten media day Thursday at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont.

DeVries is now positioned atop one of college basketball's most prestigious programs. Without a follow-up phone call from his former coach to Dana Altman in 1998, it's possible he wouldn't be.

"Who knows how it goes," DeVries said, "if he doesn't give me that start."

DeVries played point guard from 1994-98 at Northern Iowa under UNI Hall of Fame coach Eldon Miller, who called Altman, then the coach at Creighton, and recommended DeVries for a vacant graduate assistant position on the Blue Jays' staff.

Altman listened, but not intently. When Miller called a second time, Altman's ears perked up.

"The first phone call, I just kind of took it as a grain of salt," Altman told Indiana Hoosiers On SI on Thursday. "But then he called me back a week later and said, 'I'm really serious, Dana. This guy's going to be really good.' So, I hired him because of Eldon and his recommendation."

Freshly removed from the end of a four-year playing career in which he started 65 games and averaged 10 points per contest, DeVries joined one of Northern Iowa's Missouri Valley Conference rivals in Creighton.

For three years, he wasn't a full-time assistant coach. There was a brief stint where he was the team's equipment manager. Altman joked Creighton "made up a job" to keep DeVries in the building. It was far less glamorous than the seemingly endless line of photo shoots and media appearances he made Thursday, but it laid the foundation for such days to happen.

Altman, now Oregon's head coach, and DeVries ultimately worked together for 12 seasons. Altman knew a few years into their relationship DeVries had the energy, basketball intellect and sheer commitment to become a high-major head coach, even if his role on the Blue Jays' staff didn't reflect it at the time.

"Just because of the work ethic," Altman said. "I knew he had a good basketball feel, good basketball savvy, but you still want to watch a guy with the players. But his work ethic stuck out. He was in the gym all the time and did a great job with the players, great rapport with the players, very personable with our fan base at Creighton.

"So, it didn't take long to know that he was going to do a good job somewhere."

It did, however, take longer than Altman feels it should've for others to reach the same conclusion about an assistant he dubbed "tremendous."

DeVries spent 17 years at Creighton as a full assistant, the final eight coming with Greg McDermott before taking the head coaching job at Drake in 2018. The Bulldogs hired three coaches in the 10 years preceding DeVries, firing two of them for performance while the other — Niko Medved, now in his first year as head coach at Minnesota — left for another job after one season.

All the while, Altman felt Drake overlooked DeVries, who grew up in Aplington, Iowa, only an hour and a half north of the Bulldogs' campus.

Nonetheless, when DeVries' opportunity came, he delivered, leading Drake to 20-plus wins in each of his six seasons and making the NCAA Tournament in three of his last four years.

"I'm just glad he got the opportunity at Drake," Altman said. "He should have gotten it a lot earlier, in my opinion. He wanted that Drake job. He's from Iowa. And it had opened a couple times, and I was hoping he would have gotten it earlier because I thought he was ready a lot earlier.

"But finally they gave him a chance, and he kind of got it going there. Now, Drake's been pretty good since he's been there."

DeVries, however, didn't lament his lengthy wait.

He married his wife, Ashley, on April 5, 1998, just a month-and-a-half after his playing career ended. They built a family in Omaha, Neb., and DeVries said he loved his time as an assistant and the people he met along the way.

DeVries was in no hurry to leave that life behind.

"As an assistant coach, I didn't worry. I was maybe a little unique. I wasn't just every day just like, ‘When can I be a head coach?’" DeVries said. "I was happy in the space I was in and just continuing to learn and grow and kind of like they say, be happy where your feet are planted. And I was extremely comfortable with that.

"And if the right opportunity ever came along, then great."

It came at Drake, and then at West Virginia in 2024. DeVries took the Mountaineers from nine wins the year before to 19-13 and the first team left out of the NCAA Tournament in his lone season at the helm in Morgantown.

DeVries said at his introductory press conference in March he planned to carry the momentum into another season at West Virginia until Indiana athletic director Scott Dolson called and eventually offered.

To coach at Indiana wasn't just the right opportunity, it was a dream opportunity, DeVries said. Altman thinks he'll flourish.

"He'll do a great job at Indiana," Altman said. "He'll work his tail off and try to compete at a very high level. He's earned it. Twenty years at Creighton, he put in his time. He did a tremendous job there. And there's a reason we won all those games and Coach McDermott's won all those games. We had great staffs, and he was a big, big part of that."

Altman added DeVries was instrumental in helping develop Creighton's offense. DeVries has now incorporated ideas from Altman, Miller and McDermott into his own philosophy, forming the makeup of a coach Wilkerson described as an offensive "mastermind," part of the reason Dolson hired DeVries in the spring.

To a degree, DeVries' life came full circle in Rosemont. On Wednesday night, he spoke with Altman, talking about the ever-powerful "what if?" pertaining to Altman's hiring decision 27 years ago.

On Thursday morning, Altman bumped into Tucker DeVries in a convention center hallway. Both Tucker and his sister, Tatum, were born while Darian coached under Altman at Creighton.

Altman was interested in recruiting Tucker out of high school, but Altman joked Ashley wouldn't let her son leave. Still, Altman followed Tucker's career at Drake and saw him twice win MVC Player of the Year. Ashley and Altman's wife, Reba, keep in touch.

Most interactions nowadays between Altman and Darian DeVries come in fashions like Wednesday night: They run into each other on the road and catch up. They'll see each other again this spring, when Altman and the Ducks travel to Bloomington to face Indiana on Feb. 9 in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.

Altman expects it'll be different, perhaps even awkward. He experienced similar matchups with Oklahoma's Lon Kruger, who gave Altman his first Division I assistant coaching job in 1986.

But Altman said he and DeVries will get through it — and eventually get a meal together as they've done many times before. This time, Altman jokes, will have a twist from previous iterations.

"He's always around to get a free meal," Altman said, smiling. "Now, we're going to have to change that. It's his turn to buy."

DeVries surely won't hesitate. He owns a great appreciation for Altman, who he considers an invaluable mentor who helped him grow up in the profession.

At the end of Big Ten media day, Darian and Tucker boarded the same eight-person plane back to Bloomington, back to Ashley and Tatum and back to the prestige of Indiana basketball.

It is, as DeVries said, a dream come true — and a life Altman helped get off the ground.

"I'm just so happy for him and his family," Altman said. "He's earned it. Twenty years as an assistant and working his tail off, he's earned his opportunity. He's made the most of it. I'm proud of where he's taken his career."

And without a second phone call from Miller? Not even DeVries knows if that career exists.