The Ducks’ head coach worked with DeVries when the latter was an assistant at Creighton.
Oregon men’s basketball head coach Dana Altman was asked about Indiana hiring Darian DeVries for the same position during a press conference ahead of the Ducks’ matchup against Arizona.
“Well, first of all, I’m really happy for he and his family,” Altman said, “D-Rock came to work for me, he was just getting married to Ashley and they started their family, he was with me for 12 years at Creighton. So he’s a really good basketball coach, really energetic, great basketball mind. He’ll do a tremendous job for Indiana. Our league just got a little better, because he’s really good. And Mike was really good, I don’t mean it in that regard. I just, I know that Darian’s really good. And when somebody works with you for 12 years, you really get a good feel for how they pick things up, how they relate to people, how they relate to the players. And in my opinion, for whatever that’s worth, I just think he’s really good. I think he’s really talented. I think he works really hard. He’s got a wonderful family. I think he’ll represent Indiana and the Big Ten really well.”
DeVries began his coaching career as a graduate assistant under Altman when the latter was the head coach at Creighton. Altman promoted him to a full-time assistant coaching role in 2001, with DeVries remaining in Omaha when Greg McDermott took over the program in 2010.