MORGANTOWN, West Virginia — The West Virginia Mountaineers were robbed of a trip to the NCAA Tournament last night and the whole state of West Virginia is upset. WVU director of athletics Wren Baker put out a statement about the snub: ¨Heartbroken for WVU hoops,” Baker said. ¨I can’t comprehend this team being left out. Our resume was better than several teams in the field and it’s a terrible travesty that we weren’t included. I have so much appreciation for Darian DeVries, our coaching staff and players. They deserved better than what the committee delivered today. Let’s rally around these young men and let them know how proud we are of them.¨
Head Coach Darian DeVries also put out a statement but it said nothing of his future with the program: ¨Obviously we are extremely shocked, saddened and disappointed with not being selected for the NCAA Tournament. We strongly believe that we have a resume that is worthy of an NCAA Tournament team. I am incredibly proud of this team and what they accomplished. They poured their hearts into this season and put all their collective efforts into making the NCAA Tournament, and I believe they did that.¨
Today, when the university announced that the Mountaineers were declining a trip to play in any postseason tournaments, DeVries again released a statement expresssing his disappointment, but still did not hint at all about whether he will be back at West Virginia next season or if he´s interested in the Iowa job.
¨I want to reiterate what I said on Sunday that I am incredibly proud of this team and what they accomplished this season. One of our team goals was making the NCAA Tournament and we had a resume worthy of an NCAA Tournament selection. Our guys poured their hearts into the season and all their collective efforts into making the NCAA Tournament. I would like to thank all of Mountaineer Nation for their unwavering support of our team this season.¨
While not a terrible statement by DeVries, it´s certainly interesting that he didn´t address the elephant in the room with rumors swirling about his future with the program. It would have been very easy for him to say that the team will be back and better than ever next season, or something similar, but instead the wording of the statements seemed to point towards his eventual exit to coach the Iowa Hawkeyes.
Iowa recently fired their head coach, Fran McCaffery, and DeVries is considered their top target. DeVries, 49, is an Iowa native and most supporters of the program believe he is just the right coach to take their program back to prominence.
The Voice of Morgantown has discussed this in depth for weeks now. There is a certain lure to going home that outweighs money or really anything else in the coaching profession. We saw Bob Huggins leave Kansas State after one year to return home to coach the Mountaineers, and it´s starting to feel like DeVries will do the same.
Darian DeVries has reportedly had an extension and raise on the table from West Virginia University for weeks, but has not yet signed it. This, combined with everything that has happened over the last 24 hours, I believe there is a very good chance DeVries will inevitably end up as the head coach of the Iowa Hawkeyes next season.
https://twitter.com/voicemorgantown/status/1901651047048765661
