©Ben Queen - Imagn Images
A week ago, West Virginia was considered a lock to make the NCAA Tournament and had a bright future ahead of them with first-year head coach Darian DeVries leading the program and his star son, Tucker, set to return next year after taking a medical redshirt this year. After a disappointing football season, things were looking up for Mountaineer fans.
A lot has changed in a week, to say the least. The Mountaineers lost a game to lowly Colorado to kick off the Big 12 Tournament, missed the NCAA Tournament, and now, DeVries has left West Virginia for Indiana, meaning the program is essentially starting over.
West Virginia hired DeVries, who was the head coach at Drake, last offseason after Josh Eilert served as interim coach for a year following the unceremonious firing of legend Bob Huggins for off-court issues. The Mountaineers battled injuries all year, but still were 19-12 heading into the Big 12 Tournament with a resume that had them considered a lock by most bracketologists. Even after a loss to lowly Colorado in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament, every single predicted bracket by the experts had them in the field. But, they were the first team out, with North Carolina getting the edge over them. That decision prompted West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey to hold a press conference claiming that the state would be investigating the decision.
DeVries leaving this offseason was always a possibility. Many thought that if it left it would be for his home-state team Iowa, who recently parted ways wit longtime coach Fran McCaffery. But, instead, he’s off to Indiana to replace Mike Woodson and will look to return that program back to glory. Indiana was also one of the first teams out of the field.
Now, West Virginia is going to be completely starting over. Their roster is gutted, they don’t have a coach, and the vibes are low. This will be their third full coaching search in the two major sports in 12 months, as they fired Neal Brown and replaced him with program legend Rich Rodriguez in December.