Quotes: Everything Darian DeVries said to the media at Huber’s Winery

• Alex Bozich

• 54m ago

 

BORDEN, Ind. – Darian DeVries addressed the media on Wednesday night at Huber’s Winery and addressed a variety of topics.

Here’s everything DeVries said to the media at the event:

On the key topics and conversations at the recent Big Ten coaches meetings:

“I think about every topic you could cover was covered in those few days. But I think everything just from some of the new proposals legislation-wise to where the conference is scheduling, all that stuff. So it was good productive days in some ways.

On whether he has strong opinions on changes that should be made in the sport:

“Yeah, I think it’s like everything. Our league certainly has a big voice in all the things that are happening. But it’s, from our standpoint as coaches, maybe you give your opinions on it. But at the end of the day, it’s, with the rules that get made, they put in front of you and that’s the rules you play by. So obviously there’s been a lot of changes over the last few years that you’ve had to adjust to. But, our job as coaches is to adjust with what they put in front of yo and go do it.”

On whether he favors a salary cap or if there’s anything he’s a strong proponent of:

“I just think there’s just a lot of moving parts with everything. So it’s like until they can wrap their arms around everything, it’s hard to have a real strong opinion one way or the other until you can see the entirety of it all.”

On Bryce Lindsay and Jaeden Mustaf:

“Yeah, I think the number one thing is they’re both uber competitive. That’s the thing that I think stood out the most when you get a chance to talk to them.  I think you’ll see it. And they’re very confident but humble in what they do. But they’ve both been very productive. They have high aspirations, for what they want to accomplish.

“And I know we’re really excited. And they’re both different players in what they do. But, I think they just give us some good firepower, really at both ends of the floor.”

On the upcoming trip to Peru in late July:

“Excited about the trip. Again, the extra time in the gym is very useful. I like the idea it’s a little bit sooner in the summer, July 18th to the 28th. So the guys will still get a break when they get back so it’s not just right into school. So there’s a little bit of a refreshing time for them. We get more games, too. So I think that’s going to be great.

“The disappointing part, I guess, for us is we don’t get to have our international guys participate in the games. They’ll get to make the trip. So we won’t maybe have our entire roster being able to perform during that trip.

“But I think it’s a great opportunity for us, again, with just the amount of new guys we have, just to go out there and compete and be able to get some stuff on tape and see how guys respond to different situations.”

On the international players not being able to play in Peru:

“Yeah, I mean, we would love to have them out there. When you commit to it, you’re not for sure what your roster is going to look like at the time. But they’ll still be on the trip and be a part of it. It’s like they have just an injury or something, they’re not able to perform. So other guys just get more opportunities and then we’ll make the most of that.”

On if the philosophy changes with a different style of roster:

“I don’t think the philosophy changes. I think you utilize maybe your components and try to play to their strengths. But we’re still going to spread the floor and do all those things. But we just have more versatility in what we’re maybe able to do and focus on.

“We’ll still be heavy on threes, but now we have more guys that can get paint touches, more guys that we can put in the post. So you can mix up the way you can attack defenses a lot more. It gives you maybe just a chance to not only rely on threes. A lot of nights that caught up to us at times last year. Just the versatility overall and the way that we can score is going to be something we’re excited about.”

On where things stand with the non-conference schedule:

“I’m not sure what’s all been officially released yet, but I know there’s a game or two we’re still working on. I think the non-conference schedule will have some high-quality opponents in there that will be great for us, some good early season tests, even some of the exhibition games or so. I think that’s going to get us ready.

“When you’ve got a 20-game Big Ten schedule, plenty of quality opponents in that. But I do think we’ve got some good early tests that will be great for us to kind of see where we’re at and challenge us early in those early November games.”

On the challenge of getting good home-and-homes and the shift towards more neutral court games in college basketball:

“I think it’s more challenging just because, as you mentioned, the neutral sites are kind of taking the place of a lot of the MTEs just because there are opportunities for NIL. So you’re seeing a lot of schools have to go to that and want to go to that to help support kind of the NIL piece of it and the component of it.

“So there are a lot more factors that go into just scheduling a game anymore and we’re involved with some things possibly moving forward, too, that we want to remain flexible on to make sure that we’re in the best position there that we can be as well. So, yeah, it’s certainly different scheduling non-conference than it used to be.”

On Samet Yigitoglu:

“What I like about him is, like I said before, he’s a big and he understands he’s big. He likes being a big. He likes the physicality. It’s a little bit of what attracted him to the Big Ten.

“The physicality of this league is something that he embraces and he’s looking forward to. I’m excited about that and I think he will certainly play his role, what we need him to be and do for us. That’s exciting for us, exciting for him, so it’s great.”

On whether it’s the most talented roster he’s had and what he likes about the roster:

“I think the number one thing about this roster, like I mentioned, is there’s just a lot of versatility to it. I think every night there can be a different way that we can attack you. I think we have the ability to get in the paint a little bit more, to get true to the ball so we can kick out spray. We have the ability to post mismatches a little bit more. We have some more size in the interior for rebounding at both ends of the floor. Again, on paper, I’m pretty excited about the way it all came together. We’ll find out on Monday as we get workouts started, as we get going.”

On if football’s success has created pressure for basketball:

“I think our goal is to win every game we play, so that’s what we want it to be, is every time we line up and go play for 40 minutes, we expect to win and we are going to do everything we can to put ourselves in that position. Like I’ve always said, at the end of the year, you hope those wins are what you want them to be. You hope you’re winning a national championship. Only one team gets to do that a year. That’s something that I think every school is striving to do and we’re no different.”

On the improved size up front and whether it will allow more aggressiveness on the perimeter with better protection at the rim:

“I think it allows us to certainly be much more of how we want to play on the defensive end, especially on the perimeter, being more physical, being more aggressive, being a little more handsy with deflections and that type of activity. I think we have some depth there, too, to be able to do that.

“Then when you have rim protection, it allows you to maybe be a little bit more aggressive so when you do get beat off the dribble, there’s somebody back there to protect a little bit more and we have multiple guys that can do that. I’m excited to see how on the defensive end will evolve throughout the summer, but certainly that was one of the areas that we weren’t great at last year was creating turnovers and we want to be much more assertive on that end of the floor.”

On the structure of the practices this summer:

“We have it pretty well mapped out. It would be working up in small groups and individual groups and then coming together with some team workouts. It allows us just so much more practice time, even film sessions and things where you can really take your time, be a little more detailed in everything you do because you’re not just up against the clock all the time. I’m excited about what that does for us here in the summer.”

On if there are goals in terms of how much of the offense and defense they want to get in this summer:

“I think when you have so many new guys, some of that’s just seeing how quickly they can pick things up. If they can pick stuff up really fast, you can put more stuff in. If it’s not, maybe you slow it down. But again, being able to have more time to be able to do that stuff is pretty exciting for us to get this summer in. Then you’ve got obviously the whole fall to finish up the rest of it.”

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