Wren Baker Details Darian DeVries' Departure, Upcoming Coaching Search

WVU athletic director discusses the change in the basketball program.

WVU Athletics Communication

Following the shocking news of West Virginia men's head basketball coach Darian DeVries opting to leave after one year for the head coaching job at Indiana, WVU athletic director Wren Baker met with the media to discuss the news and the upcoming coach search.

Darian DeVries leaving

“Was prepared to continue to invest into the program and am prepared to do that. We’re going to be competitive in rev share, competitive in NIL, competitive in budget. Coach DeVries and I had several conversations, and we were prepared to invest in him and his staff. We had been talking about that for several weeks and felt good about the plan. Ultimately, he made the decision to leave for another institution. I’m at peace in that we were aggressive in trying to retain him, and, ultimately, I realized it’s not my decision to make. He gets to make that. We wish him well.”

Being snubbed from the NCAA Tournament

“I’m extraordinarily disappointed that they did not get the opportunity to play in the NCAA Tournament. I’ve set in selection rooms, I’ve looked at team sheets. I’m probably deeper into KenPom and Torvik and Net ratings and stuff than your casual fan and probably much more than most athletic directors and I was very surprised for us to not be included in the field.”

Current roster

“I hope our underclassmen give our coach a chance to come in and give them a recruiting pitch. I can promise them we’ll be resourced competitively within the Big 12 and nationally. We’ll find a coach who’s committed to them and committed to this university and this state.”

If he was surprised that DeVries left

“When you’re having success, I don’t think it’s ever surprising that people are calling your coaches. I think most of our fans would be surprised how many times a year we have to ward off potential suitors for coaches and other employees. From a resource perspective, we’re prepared to stretch what we have, but there are certainly people in college athletics who have more money. I think you’re always thinking about competition. We sat down and I think I first talked to his agent early February that, hey, we want to make sure we reward his success and I sat down with him several times over the last few weeks to talk about his contract, his compensation, what we could do there. I think we had a really good shared vision of what we needed to do to continue to build on the program. I mean, pretty much every job that was open inquired to see if he would have interest in talking. To my knowledge, he only talked to one, so I don’t think it was a situation where he didn’t feel good about here.”

Indiana vs. West Virginia

“If you look at since 2000, we’ve been to one more NCAA Tournament them and three more Sweet Sixteens. So recent history, our program has been just as successful, if not more. But I do recognize that it’s one of the more historic, storied brands in college basketball. I just felt like we had a really special thing going here too.”

If Chester Frazier or anyone on staff will be considered

“We have a lot of guys on staff internally and you guys know, I never talk about candidates. But if somebody raises their hand and wants us to at least look at them, I think we probably would. You listen to all of your stakeholders appropriately but ultimately, my job is to find the best coach for the program over the long term and that’s what I’m out to do.”

If WVU had a chance to counter Indiana’s offer

“It was competitive, and I made it clear to him that we would like a chance to counter if there was an offer that came from Indiana. Just the way it unfolded, we didn’t get that chance.”

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