Few things can derail a college sports program more quickly than constant turnover at the head coach position. Texas Tech basketball fans learned that the hard way a little over a decade ago, and now, one of the Red Raiders' Big 12 rivals is facing a similar situation.
It is being reported that West Virginia head coach Darian DeVries is expected to leave Morgantown to become the head coach at Indiana. He just wrapped up his first season as the Mountaineers' head coach leading the team to a 19-13 record.
Of course, the WVU basketball program has been in the news for all the wrong reasons in the past two days after being the first team left out of the NCAA Tournament despite having a far better resume than the last team to make the field, North Carolina. Now, West Virginia's nightmare week appears to be getting worse as the Mountaineers have to find their fourth different head coach in the past four years.
In 2023, the Mountaineers' long-time West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins resigned in June after a DUI incident capped off a turbulent run of off-court issues. Then, because the program had to scramble to find a replacement, Huggins' top assistant, Josh Eilert, was promoted to interim head coach.
Sources: West Virginia's Darian DeVries is expected to be Indiana's next head coach barring an unforeseen set of circumstances.
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) March 18, 2025
However, that move was ill-fated. With a number of key Mountaineers transferring out of the program after Huggins' departure, the Mountaineers went just 9-23 overall and 4-14 in Big 12 play in 2023-24 for Eilert.
Therefore, the program set out to find a permanent replacement last offseason. It appeared that they had found the right man in DeVries, who did one of the better head coaching jobs in the conference this season, especially considering that his second-best player, his son, Tucker, played only six games before suffering a season-ending injury.
Now, DeVries is apparently headed to Indiana leaving WVU with the prospect of having to enter next season under its fourth different head coach in the past four seasons. Texas Tech fans know the type of damage that level of coaching chaos can do to a program.
Texas Tech has been in West Virginia's shoes
Though no Texas Tech fan is going to shed a tear for West Virginia, Red Raider fans can empathize with this situation because from 2010-11 to 2013-14, Tech went through its own run of four different head coaches in four years.
In 2010-11, the disastrous Pat Knight era came to an end after a 13-19 overall record in Knight's third full season as head coach. However, things were not quick to improve.
The Red Raiders made the mistake of taking a chance on disgraced former Kentucky head coach Billy Gillespie as Knight's replacement. The Texas native would last only one season going 8-23 overall and 1-17 in Big 12 play in 2011-12. However, just weeks prior to the 2012-13 season, he resigned citing health reasons after allegations of player abuse had come to light.
Thus, the Red Raiders were left in a similar situation to the one West Virginia was in after Huggins resigned two years ago. Tech had no choice but to give the leadership of the program to assistant coach Chris Walker on an interim basis. In 2012-13, Walker guided Tech to a record of 11-20 overall and 3-15 in the conference.
After that season, former National Championship-winning head coach Tubby Smith arrived to finally settle things down. Though he went just 14-18 overall in his first season in Lubbock (2013-14), he would eventually turn the tide for the program by getting Tech to the NCAA Tournament in 2016, the first time Tech had been to the Big Dance since 2007.
That was a rocky time for the Texas Tech basketball program and no one would want to go back to those days in West Texas. That's what's going on in Morgantown now, though, as the Mountaineers have missed the tournament in each of the past two years after being an almost annual participant.
Texas Tech fans know just how much damage coaching chaos can do to a program. Of course, no one in West Texas hopes that the next Mountaineer coaching hire is the one to settle that program down and get it back on track because the conference is tough enough without West Virginia being a monster.