MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Before explaining what might have gone wrong in his team’s first Big 12 Conference loss of the season, Iowa State men’s basketball coach TJ Otzelberger, wanted to offer some praise.
Otzelberger’s second-ranked Cyclones were coming off a 64-57 loss to No. 25 West Virginia at the WVU Coliseum on Saturday night. Instead of immediately dissecting what went wrong, he began his postgame press conference by applauding the work of Mountaineers coach and Iowa native Darian DeVries.
“Coach DeVries is doing a fantastic job,” Otzelberger said. “How hard these guys and his team play for him, it’s a credit to him and his coaching staff.” What a great job he did in his first year.
DeVries, an Aplington native, earned one of the biggest wins of his coaching career by defeating the Cyclones. It ended a 12-game winning streak for Iowa State and lifted West Virginia to 13-4 on the season and 4-2 in Big 12 Conference play. This all happens in DeVries’ first season at West Virginia after spending six seasons in Des Moines at Drake.
“All credit goes to their team, Coach DeVries, their staff and their players,” Otzelberger said. “They were great. And they deserve all the credit.
This isn’t a big surprise given DeVries’ already known success. The former Northern Iowa basketball player and longtime Creighton assistant compiled a 150-55 record at Drake. He led the Bulldogs to six straight 20-plus win seasons and four straight 25-win seasons for the first time in program history.
Under his leadership, Drake made the NCAA Tournament three times and earned his first NCAA Tournament victory since 1971. This success earned him a chance to coach at a higher level, in the Big 12 Conference in West Virginia. DeVries brought in his son Tucker, a star for the Bulldogs, who was expected to play a giant role for the Mountaineers in his father’s first season.
But Tucker DeVries has only played in eight games this season and was recently out with an upper-body injury. That hasn’t slowed down his father or the Mountaineers, who have already posted several marquee victories this season. West Virginia knocked off No. 3 Gonzaga in overtime on Nov. 27 and beat No. 24 Arizona in overtime on Nov. 29.
Next, West Virginia traveled to Kansas and posted a 62-61 victory over the seventh-ranked Jayhawks.
“We talked about it with our team from day one, don’t limit yourself to anything, like we’re going to come, we’re going to compete and these are the things we think we need to be good at to win and try to do that “I’ve never been one to say, ‘Hey, we need to win this many games to be successful.’
“It’s more about how can we maximize this group and if you can do that, your goal is for those wins to follow.”
They certainly did for DeVries. Without Tucker, DeVries was able to turn his team into one of the best defensive teams in the country. The Mountaineers showcased that elite defense in a dominant performance against the Cyclones, who poured in a season-low 57 points on Saturday.
“They had to completely readjust their team,” Otzelberger said. “A lot of respect and credit goes to them. »
This success led to renewed enthusiasm for the West Virginia program. An announced crowd of 14,444 fans packed the arena Saturday to watch the Mountaineers take on the Cyclones. A ton of them stormed the field after the game to celebrate perhaps the biggest victory of DeVries’ short tenure at the school.
“I’m thrilled with our fan base,” DeVries said.
This article was originally published on Des Moines Register: Iowa native Darian DeVries coaches West Virginia to win over Iowa State
