The Indiana men’s basketball team faces a tough task this season under first year head coach Darian DeVries. It’s an entirely new group in Bloomington, with most members of the roster never playing live college basketball together until they suited up in Puerto Rico months ago.
In this collection of talent, perhaps no player will be more important than redshirt senior forward Tucker DeVries, Darian’s son and the lone member of the roster who has spent the entirety of his collegiate career with him.
The younger DeVries previously followed his father to Morgantown when the latter took the West Virginia job in 2024 and quickly did the same with Bloomington this past offseason. Before that, DeVries spent three years at Drake and won the Missouri Valley Conference’s Player of the Year award twice.
If you watch DeVries’ highlight reel the first thing you’ll probably notice is the pure shotmaking. He has excellent range from beyond the arc and is more than willing to pull if he’s given the space to do so. He’s only shot over 40% from deep once, during the eight games he played with West Virginia last season (47.3%), but he’s always been a high volume shooter who attracts plenty of attention.
Which helps make him such a versatile talent. He’s a lot more than just a 3-point specialist with range.
As a scorer, his strong frame suits him well when he’s able to get the ball in the interior. He has enough power to drive the ball to the rim or he can post up and back his man down to get off a turnaround jumper in the midrange. That power helps him as a rebounder as well, he’s been great at getting after the ball throughout his career.
He’s also a capable and willing facilitator. He’s never averaged under 1.8 assists on the season and dished out 3.7 per game as a junior at Drake.
Given his versatility, overall experience and time spent with his father, DeVries will be key to Indiana’s success on and off the court this season. The Hoosiers have a pretty experienced roster overall and the starting lineup to this point has been made up of upperclassmen, but nobody has as much experience with the system as he does, with fellow former Bulldog Conor Enright being a plus as well.
In situations where the Hoosiers just need a bucket, be it to stave off an opposing run or in late game or clock situations, I’d expect DeVries to have the ball in his hands. He’s capable of generating a look off the dribble from long range or getting into scoring position in the high post. You’d rather the latter than the former, but DeVries is no stranger to contested shots. If he draws enough attention in the process he can find an open man for an even better look.
He’s not afraid of the moment and has played in plenty of games that came down to the wire or were win-or-go-home. Indiana’s going to need that energy in year one.
Defensively, DeVries just has his father’s system down. He’ll know where he and others have to be on the court and be vocal about it if he needs to be. It takes time, and some live play, for any roster to fully get a defense down and DeVries will be there to help his teammates out.
In those high leverage situations, DeVries is going to have to step up. He’s shown he can, and he’ll make this team better for it.
