McCollum and DeVries were considered candidates for one another’s jobs. How will that look in the years to come?
Indiana is no stranger to hiring a coach at the same time as its conference rivals.
The 2017 coaching carousel featured openings at three of the Big Ten’s premier programs in Ohio State, Illinois and Indiana.
Butler’s Chris Holtmann, widely seen as a candidate in Bloomington after spending years just up the road in Indianapolis, ended up with the Buckeyes. Oklahoma State’s Brad Underwood, a long-term riser in the profession, joined the Fighting Illini. Dayton’s Archie Miller, seen as one of the top high-major candidates after multiple runs with the flyers, became the latest in the list of names who’ve set out to restore the Hoosiers to glory.
You know how that last part ended.
It was pretty easy to measure the three against one another and Indiana, which saw zero NCAA Tournament appearances under Miller and cut ties with him after just four seasons, came out the worst of the bunch.
A similar situation occurred during this past season’s carousel.
West Virginia’s Darian DeVries, an Iowa native and former Drake head coach who’d led the Bulldogs to their best stretch in decades, was widely seen as a candidate to replace the likely outgoing Fran McCaffery at Iowa. The Hawkeye State was home for DeVries and the Big Ten offered a more stable and lucrative situation than the Big 12.
At the same time, his former program had been handed off to another Iowa native in Ben McCollum, a longtime darling at the Division-II level with Northwest Missouri State. With four DII titles under his belt and as much job security as one could possibly ask for, McCollum could afford to be picky about which jobs came calling. He supercharged an already healthy program, winning over 30 games and beating Missouri in the first round of March Madness.
When the Indiana job came open, McCollum was seen as a potential candidate thanks to his lengthy list of achievements. A proven winner, he’d be a high-risk, high-reward move going from D-II to one of the most widely followed jobs in the sport in just one year.
Then Indiana made its move… for DeVries.
With much of the smoke around the job revolving around McCollum and Clemson’s Brad Brownell, DeVries was something of a left-field candidate at Indiana. Still, he ended up being the program’s pick and left nobody between Iowa and McCollum.
DeVries and McCollum, already tied together as Drake coaches, are now both Big Ten newcomers in 2025-26.
One way or another, the carousel spawned a fascinating what-if scenario to look back on in the years to come. What if Indiana preferred McCollum and DeVries landed at Iowa instead? Will Indiana find itself regretting taking what seemed to be a safer option in a few years? Will McCollum not translate to the Big Ten level? What will the head-to-head results look like?
Time will tell.