Darian DeVries and the IU basketball program allowed Jeff Goodman’s Field of 68 podcast to watch practice and interview the head coach and several players on Thursday. The podcast is available on YouTube (LIVE FROM INDIANA: Exclusive access with players, coaches and MORE! | FIELD OF 68) and is well worth your time. Jeff Goodman and Rob Dauster did an excellent job, Darian DeVries was engaging and fun to listen to and each of the players that were interviewed were thoughtful and gave interesting answers to questions.
Darian DeVries provided updates on a few players with lingering injuries or players that are recovering.
Darian DeVries Injury Updates
On Tucker DeVries’ Recovery:
“I think the biggest thing for him, probably the first time in three years he’s actually been healthy,” DeVries said. It’s been a long road for him, so I know he’s excited to hopefully stay that way and be able to complete a whole season and be able to perform with a healthy shoulder. So that’s the biggest thing for him, he was able to get everything right after the surgery again.
“For those that have been athletes and have been through multiple surgeries, you know how frustrating that can be and time consuming it is to try to do the rehab and start all over again. So we’re excited about where he’s at right now, and I know he’s excited to get back out there and play again.”
Nick Dorn’s Recovery:
“He’s getting closer and closer. We’re continuing to ramp him up a little bit, but it’s still going to be a little bit before we get him in those five-on-five type situations. He’s making progress so that’s a good thing. He’s looks great. You watch him running right now, he looks like a middle linebacker somewhere, he should be playing football on Saturday here this upcoming weekend.”
Jasai Miles and Jason Drake:
“They should both be back, Jasai sooner rather than later. Deuce (Jason Drake) will still be a little while yet, he’s got probably another month or so before he starts getting back into things.”
General Comments from DeVries
On taking the Indiana job and having the job: “The number one thing is that you look up in Assembly Hall, you see the banners. You understand the brand of Indiana. If you are a basketball person, you know what that means. It’s an incredible place and we are excited. Once you get the dream job, it becomes something you just want to do everything to the best of your ability to try to continue on the great history but also build a new history for us.”
On his coaching style: “The biggest thing is that I have two incredible guys to learn from and you take a lot from that and then you apply your personality to it. We try to keep it fun and upbeat. We won’t be out here for three hours but the time that we’re out here, we want it to be high-energy. We are very intentional, we want to teach, get to the point and move on.”
On his team: “We want to space it, we want to get threes up. We try to recruit to that and I like the depth that we have in the shooting department.”
On Reed Bailey: “He’s exciting. He is unique in his skillset. Myself and our staff, I’ve challenged them all to think outside of the box on different ways that we can utilize him. At 6’10/6’11”, he handles like a guard and moves like a guard so we will try to put him in situations to use those talents. We’re excited about ways we can use him.”
On the lack of a rim protector: “We don’t have an elite shot-blocker but to me, that just means you have to be more connected as a defensive unit to keep people out of the paint and not get put in those situations as often.”
On his biggest takeaway from the Puerto Rico trip: “We had a lot of guys contribute. We did not shoot it very well and despite that, we were able to compete and find a way to win games.”
Where Lamar Wilkerson stack up with guys like Kyle Korver and Doug McDermott: “He stacks up there. When you watch a shooting drill with Lamar, he’s up there. He works at it, like any great shooter, he puts in the time and the work.”
On realistic expectations for IU this season: “Our whole thing is to stay where you are at right now. If we get good at the things that we feel like we need to get good at as a group, the wins will come. If we get great at them, we’ll have a chance to achieve at a higher level. This group has been tremendous with everything that we’ve thrown at them so far.”
Reed Bailey
On adjusting to IU and a new environment: “I’ve loved it. It’s helped that everyone is doing it at the same time with me. It makes me feel more comfortable and doing it altogether has brought us together.”
On leaving Davidson: “I wanted to play at the highest level possible and to expand my game. As a kid, you dream of playing just one time at Assembly Hall, let alone getting to play every home game here. I needed to push myself to do this.”
Rod Dauster and Jeff Goodman both had high-praise for Reed Bailey. Goodman commented that Bailey was bigger and longer than he remembered him being and they both were effusive with his versatility and ability to handle and pass the ball. Dauster compared Bailey’s style to that of Nikola Jokic, which does seem like a significant oversell but Bailey did not seem particularly comfortable with it but the versatility as a big man is the main takeaway.
Tayton Conerway and Lamar Wilkerson
Lamar Wilkerson on his journey to IU: “For me, the sky is the limit. As long as you have a dream and you have tunnel vision to reach that dream, anything is possible. Everyone’s path is different. Some people came here straight from high school, we took the long route and it made us the dogs that we are today.”
Both Lamar Wilkerson and Tayton Conerway are prime examples of grinding away at the lower-levels of basketball and now reaching a high-major. They both had to fight to achieve at the junior college level and then the mid-major level.
Lamar Wilkerson made a six-figure donation to Sam Houston State. Jeff Goodman brought this up and it’s incredibly telling to me that Lamar didn’t give that money in a “look at me” way, he did it because he believed it was the right thing to do, not because he wanted people to know about it: “I did that out of love. I’ve been there for three years and it was a home for me. I gave back because I feel like I want to see their program get better. I was willing to help.”
Tayton Conerway on competing in Future Farmers of America (FFA): “I’ve always been outside. We’d ride horses, chase cows, we did everything. My uncle raised a lot of animals and I found out that in FFA every animal that you show, you get two weeks out of school. I’m going to the fair to show my cow and I get to ride rides and eat funnel cake. But, once you flip it to the learning side, you are raising this animal that you’ve had since a baby and you have to feed it right and take care of it and you end up taking pride in it. Not to mention, you can win a little bit of money.”
Rob Dauster and Jeff Goodman on IU
Goodman: “They’re going with experience and they’re going with age. Winning will be paramount for these guys and that could not have been said last year.”
Dauster: “There will not be any entitlement on this team.”
Goodman: “They’ll have to guard by committee. Can they be an above-average defensive team? To be a top five Big Ten team, they’ll have to be a top 50, top 75 defensive team.”
Goodman: “If I said to you that IU finished seventh in the Big Ten and goes to the NCAA Tournament and wins a tournament game, are you signing up for that?” Dauster answered, “Home run, absolutely. Getting to the tournament in your first year is the bar to clear.”
Goodman on the X-Factor for this team: “I think it’s Conerway. He has to be an elite point of attack defender. We’ve met him and I think he has that in him, he’s got that dawg in him. If Conerway is an all-league guard, Indiana is a lock to make the tournament. If he’s not even an honorable mention guy, IU is probably looking at the NIT.”
Conclusion
Again, Jeff Goodman and Rob Dauster did a fantastic job with this and I highly recommend watching it for yourself. This rebuilt IU basketball program has a lot of very likable individuals with really cool stories and it will be fun to get to know them. Hoosier Huddle will tip-off our preseason coverage soon but this was another enjoyable appetizer.