National Insider Offers Darian DeVries Insight, Feels WVU Will Be ‘Fine’

Darian DeVries is an attractive commodity in the college basketball coaching world, promoting ESPN’s Pete Thamel to appear on the Pat McAfee Show to shed insight about West Virginia’s coach on Tuesday afternoon.

First off, Thamel said WVU is trying to do everything in their power to keep DeVries. But while he wasn’t able to calm any nerves of WVU fans, he did provide some reason for optimism if the Mountaineers are forced to embark on another coaching search.

“So I think West Virginia basketball is going to be fine. They just ran a coaching search last year. Those pools are there. Wren Baker, the athletic director, has a background in basketball, which is pretty rare in modern college athletics. Most of these guys come through business or football,” Thamel said to McAfee.

“I think they’d be able to go and go pretty fast quite frankly.” Thamel then added he wouldn’t expect it to take West Virginia much time to find another coach and that losing someone to a blue blood job like Indiana wouldn’t be any indictment of WVU basketball, but just a job DeVries couldn’t refuse.

"West Virginia has certainly been aggressive in trying to keep Darian DeVries..

We'll see in the near future where Indiana turns"@PeteThamel #PMSLive https://t.co/FEO9QVwioW pic.twitter.com/QYrQHdPNUJ

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) March 18, 2025

Thamel also hinted at DeVries saying no to Iowa as well when asked why he’s not a true candidate with the Hawkeyes.

West Virginia HC Darian DeVries Not a Candidate for Iowa Job

DeVries led the Mountaineers to a surprising 19-win season with marquee wins over three top-10 opponents, but WVU was controversially left out of the NCAA Tournament.

Poaching DeVreis from the Mountaineers would take a large financial commitment from Iowa. USA Today reports that Iowa will owe McCaffery a buyout of $4.2 million.

WVU signed DeVries to a five-year, $15 million contract last offseason. DeVries’s contract includes a buyout clause should he leave for another job before April 30, 2028. The clause stipulates that DeVries would owe WVU 37.5% of his remaining contract. The buyout amount for DeVries to leave this offseason would be approximately $4.575 million.

The cost for any school to pay both McCaffery’s and DeVries’s buyouts would be upwards of $8 million, in addition to the new contract it would need to give DeVries.