It’s been a week since DeVries’ hiring and the program has yet to announce any other staff moves.
It’s been just over a week since Darian DeVries was introduced as the 31st head men’s basketball coach at Indiana.
The time since has contained a great deal of… well, nothing. Nothing official at least and minimal whispers, rumors or reports coming through the usual channels.
There’s a few things worth noting here. For one, DeVries has been maybe the busiest man in all of Bloomington for the past week between meeting members of the former staff and players currently on the roster. Another thing that’s going on is a certain basketball tournament that’s absolutely loaded with coaches whether they’re competing or not.
It’s fair to expect something, even names to watch, a week out from a hire, but it’s always worth keeping in mind that patience is a virtue.
DeVries isn’t building a one year staff. He’s trying to put together a group that puts the program in the best position to succeed for the foreseeable future. Some of those people just are not available right now for one reason or another.
He’s been around college basketball enough and worked alongside and under enough coaches to be well-connected in the sport. He absolutely has names in mind and guys he wants to talk to or look at but that just can’t happen yet.
The Final Four, maybe the biggest networking opportunity for those around the sport, is just a week away. Between now and then a few more teams will be knocked out of tournament play with assistants and other staffers being significantly more available to hear out an Indiana offer than they are right now.
If DeVries was impatient or just wanted warm bodies in roles he could absolutely do that and put together a staff relatively quickly. It’s just that said staff probably wouldn’t be all that good.
Then there’s the consideration that these are, well, jobs. Like every job, any new hire has to go through the usual onboarding and hiring process that takes a bit of time. Why announce one by one when you can wait for the paperwork to be in for each hire and do one big official announcement.
This isn’t unlike DeVries’ hire itself. It was a pretty long process between Mike Woodson announcing he’d step down and DeVries getting the job, but at the end of the day a coach was hired and there was plenty to feel good about.
The same basic principles apply here. Good things come to those who wait.