SEATTLE — Dana Altman’s coaching tree now extends within the Big Ten.
New Indiana coach Darian DeVries spent 12 seasons as an assistant for Altman while at Creighton and last served as the head coach at Drake for six seasons and West Virginia this season.
Altman is happy to see one of his proteges within the conference.
“He’s a really good basketball coach, really energetic, great basketball mind,” Altman said. “He’ll do a tremendous job for Indiana. Our league just got a little better, because he’s really good. And Mike (Woodson) 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 is 168-69 as a head coach, including 19-13 this season at WVU. He takes over an Indiana team that went 19-13 overall as all and was also among the first four left out of the NCAA Tournament.
Another former Altman assistant, Chris Crutchfield, led Omaha to the NCAA Tournament.