Ten seasons ago, Tom Crean led the Indiana Hoosiers to the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet Sixteen. Since that time, the five-time national champs have won exactly one NCAA Tournament game.
That’s why Indiana is on its third coach since Crean was fired in 2017 – as Darian DeVries makes his sideline debut Nov. 5 when Indiana hosts Alabama A&M.
DeVries kept two walk-ons from Mike Woodson’s final Hoosiers squad, but otherwise reeled in a new team built to shoot and spread the ball around.
In the Hoosiers’ first exhibition game – a 107-46 wipeout of NAIA Marian on Oct. 17 – Indiana drilled 15 of 30 3-point attempts and handed out 27 assists on 39 baskets. Tucker DeVries, Darian’s fifth-year senior son, led the way with 23 points, six assists and 5-for-7 marksmanship from long range.
“I was really happy,” Darian DeVries said after the game. “It’s the way we’ve been practicing. You just never know when you get on game night whether that will continue – that unselfishness, the ball movement.
“And we have a lot of guys that can shoot it.”
The Hoosiers, who received one 25th-place vote in the preseason AP poll, will rely heavily on their six seniors. Five started the Marian game as Tucker DeVries was joined by point guard Tayton Conerway (14.2 points, 4.8 assists, 2.9 steals per game at Troy), shooting guard Lamar Wilkerson (20.5 ppg, 44.5% 3-point shooting at Sam Houston State), guard Conor Enright (6.2 apg at DePaul) and stretch five Reed Bailey (18.8 ppg, 41.5% 3-point shooting at Davidson).
The Hoosiers, who also boast Florida senior transfer Sam Alexis as the first big off the bench, will be even stronger once juniors Jason Drake and Nick Dorn are healthy enough to play.
Alabama A&M, meanwhile, didn’t quite do as large of a renovation as Indiana, but it was close. The Bulldogs hired head coach Donte’ Jackson away from SWAC rival Grambling, and the three-time SWAC Coach of the Year brought seven players with him along with the entire coaching staff.
Senior guard Kintavious Dozier, a first-team all-SWAC performer for Grambling two seasons ago, was named to this year’s preseason all-league team. He delivered a game-high 21 points, seven rebounds and four assists when Alabama A&M edged Samford, 74-73, in exhibition play.
“The DNA of being successful doesn’t change,” Jackson told Blue Ribbon. “I think it’ll look like all my teams I’ve had in the past.”
