MORGANTOWN, West Virginia — Every time we post about the Darian and Tucker DeVries exit from WVU on our X accounts or here at VOM, I see a consistent amount of pushback from our fanbase about how we should “let it go, move on”. Why the hell should or would we do that? Am I the only one that thinks people from all levels of college athletics need to be looking very closely at how things went down here? Why is this not a bigger national topic covered by the likes of ESPN and other prominent outlets? I understand this story might not have garnered national attention at first, but given what’s come out from numerous sources about how Darian exited (as reported by VOM/Brad Smith on 4/15 & 4/16– “Coach DeVries said on a phone call with the team that he did not want to coach in the NIT or The Crown Tournament. The players also did not want to play because we had our hearts set on the NCAA Tournament. DeVries had lunch with all of the seniors an hour before the news of him going to Indiana came out and he didn’t say anything about leaving.” Add to that several claims that Tuckers injury was faked by 2 players who have chosen to remain anonymous, again reported by Brad Smith/VOM on 4/15 & 4/16 “It was fake. I can’t say 100%, but everything added up and it all makes sense now. Player #2 – Fake ass surgery.” Why is not being discussed more on the national level?
For quite some time now, many of us in the media have voiced our concerns about how the NIL is already out of control. Let’s look at this if this was any other P4 program in the country – you have a coach that was clearly corrupted by the end of the season based off of how he finished the year and exited, combined with his superstar son who took a significant amount of NIL money, only to be questionably shut down after the tournament in the Bahamas where the conversation of Darian to Indiana clearly began. Can we all agree that having Tucker as part of the package made the deal more appealing for Indiana? Can we agree that the way a man who was thought to be, a well-respected coach, left the program is very suspicious? Who leaves a program without even having a conversation with the young men you were supposed to be leading, the men that trusted you had their best interest at heart, that battled for you day in and day out? What does that say about your character not only as a coach but as a human being to leave them high and dry the way you did? This isn’t only about West Virginia University, this is also about the fine young men representing the gold and blue, and how that affected them. Can you honestly tell me it might not have hurt their college careers, or in Javon Small’s case, his chances for a higher draft spot in the NBA? I don’t think anyone can say that and money aside, that alone demands accountability.
Now I have to say, I’m all in with Coach Hodge and can’t wait to see what he does with WVU basketball moving forward, but at what point do we as a university realize that over $1 million was stolen from our program due to Tuckers NIL deal and hold him accountable if he cheated? Do we just let him get away with it because we’re ready to move on? If all the allegations prove true, why wouldn’t we want to explore this further and hold them accountable for essentially ripping us off and manipulating college athletics as a whole? How hard is it for the NCAA to formally open in investigation into tampering/manipulation/ fraud by Darren and Tucker DeVries to hold them accountable? It can’t be that complicated to subpoena the surgeon that performed Tuckers surgery to validate whether it was a true injury. I guarantee you if you put him under oath and risk him perjuring himself with jail time, he’ll sing like a canary and the truth will come out.
I want to be clear here -this is not about holding a grudge because they left after 1 year and went to a different program, this is about totally manipulating the NIL, stealing money from our university, and committing fraud – which as far as I’m concerned is a crime and should be investigated accordingly. At the end of the day, if we wanted to get to the bottom of this situation, there’s no reason we can’t. The question is, does the NCAA want to get to the bottom of this and possibly taint their image even further than it’s already been tainted in era of the NIL. Either way, WVU is in no position to let someone walk away with a million dollars of money that was possibly stolen from the program – I’d encourage WVU and the NCAA to begin to look into these allegations more seriously and handle it accordingly.
