Darian DeVries explains how Tayton Conerway will impact IU basketball on both ends

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The 2024-25 Sun Belt player of the year, Troy transfer Tayton Conerway was one of the top mid-major guards in college basketball a season ago.

The 6-foot-3 native of Burleson, Texas, filled the stat sheet for the Trojans, averaging 14.2 points, 4.8 assists, 4.6 rebounds and 2.9 steals in 30.3 minutes per game.

Troy won 23 games, the Sun Belt tournament title and reached the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2017.

Conerway shot 57.9 percent on 2s, ranked 20th nationally in assist rate, according to KenPom.com, and was third in the country with 98 steals.

His ability to impact the game on both ends was a major reason first-year IU coach Darian DeVries prioritized Conerway in the transfer portal when building his 2025-26 roster.

Defensively, Conerway is disruptive both on the ball and in passing lanes.

“He has a really good gift and a knack for understanding that from a coaching standpoint, ‘hey, we want you sitting in this gap and being in position,’” DeVries told Inside the Hall. “He’s one of those guys where you give him maybe a little bit more of that freedom and just go and trust your instincts because he is so good at when somebody turns their back, he’ll just leave and go attack.”

DeVries said Conerway reminds him of Chucky Hepburn, who played three seasons at Wisconsin before transferring to Louisville for his final season. Hepburn grew up in Omaha and played against Tucker DeVries in AAU before college.

“(Conerway is) very good at just like, ‘where’d he come from?’ Because he just understands how to go make a play,” DeVries explained. “And there are times it can put you in a bad spot. So it’s finding that balance a little bit of when to go, take that chance, be aggressive, to go get a steal, when you need to actually stay and be in the right spot, so that’s a challenge as you go through June, July, but you also want to give them that freedom to be good at what he’s good at.”

On the offensive end, the strength of Conerway’s game is getting the ball into the paint and finishing plays or finding teammates on the perimeter for open looks.

When given just a sliver of space in the paint, Conerway will try to use his sturdy frame to get to the rim and finish. If an opening doesn’t exist, however, he’ll look to get others involved. And he isn’t afraid to thread difficult passes.

“He’s very creative with the ball,” DeVries said. “So there’s some things he does from a passing standpoint, that you gotta let it go, because that’s part of who he is. That’s part of what makes him good and that creativity with the basketball and then just finding that middle ground a little bit.”

Conerway is just a 29.2 percent career 3-point shooter at the Division I level, but likely won’t need to take as many 3s in Bloomington.

That’s because the Hoosiers will surround Conerway with a stable of shooters capable of knocking down attempts at a high percentage. That wasn’t the case last season at Troy where the Trojans shot just 30.1 percent from distance, good for just 341st nationally.

On film, one of the biggest strengths Conerway exhibited was generating paint touches. In Bloomington, DeVries is hopeful those opportunities will lead to layups or open looks for Indiana’s shooters.

“That’s what I loved about him as you’re putting the roster together and you’re trying to make it all fit together,” DeVries said. “I think he can be really, really good and creative in getting into the paint. He can finish, he’s a lot bouncier than maybe people realize. And then his ability to, when you get in there, his ability to spray and have some of those guys ready to knock it down.”

(Photo credit: IU Athletics)

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