Drake University head men's basketball coach
Darian DeVries has been named a semifinalist for the 2021 Werner Ladder Naismith Coach of the Year, the Atlanta Tipoff Club announced Friday, March 5.
DeVries is one 10 semifinalists for the award.
The inclusion on the semifinalist list comes one day after DeVries was named the Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year for the second time in three seasons.
DeVries has guided the Bulldogs to 24 wins in his third season to tie for the third most wins in program history along with his 2018-19 team. The 24 wins marked the Bulldogs' third-straight 20-win season, a feat that has only occurred once before in program history and not in the last 50 years. In conference play, his squad tied the school record for league wins with 15 in finishing second in the league standings while navigating unforeseen injuries late in the conference season in a condensed schedule that saw his team play 14 games in 32 days. Prior to that, the Bulldogs opened the season with a school-record 18-straight wins and were just one of three unbeaten teams in the nation before dropping their first contest of the season.
In his three-year tenure, he has accounted for three of the program's eight 20-win seasons while boasting a record of 68-27 (.716) to rank seventh in career victories at Drake after just three seasons. His 68 wins are the second most in any three-year period in program history. This year, the Bulldogs led the league in scoring, were second in scoring defense to own one of the top-15 average scoring margins in the nation. He is the first Drake head coach since Maury John in 1970 to win multiple MVC Coach of the Year honors.
DeVries leads the No. 2 seed Bulldogs into postseason play Friday at the MVC Tournament. The Bulldogs play UNI Friday at 5 p.m.
2021 Werner Ladder Naismith Coach of the Year Semifinalists
Darian DeVries, Drake
Scott Drew, Baylor
Mark Few, Gonzaga
Leonard Hamilton, Florida State
Chris Holtmann, Ohio State
Juwan Howard, Michigan
Bob Huggins, West Virginia
Porter Moser, Loyola-Chicago
Eric Musselman, Arkansas
Nate Oats, Alabama
