Year 1 of the Darian DeVries era in Bloomington was full of missed opportunities for the Indiana basketball program. Indiana had plenty of chances to show that is was a team worthy of an NCAA Tournament bid, and for a while, things looked alright.
The Hoosiers were 17-8 with an 8-6 mark in Big Ten play on February 9, and looked like a lock to qualify for the big dance. But a 1-6 record down the stretch doomed IU's March Madness dreams, and in a year when the tournament bubble was among the worst the sport has seen in recent memory, the Hoosiers have only themselves to blame for missing out on the NCAA Tournament .
Indiana fans absolutely loved watching Mark Pope melt down in real time vs Iowa State
Indiana has now missed out on March Madness for three years in a row and in eight of the last ten seasons. Simply put, that is unacceptable for such a storied program.
Hoosier fans have every right to be frustrated, and their grades for DeVries' first season in Bloomington reflect that frustration.
Hoosier fans give Darian DeVries harsh grades for his Year 1 performance
In a recent fan survey by SBNation, Hoosier fans didn't hold back in their Year 1 grades for DeVries. In fact, just 10% of Indiana fans surveyed gave DeVries a grade resembling any sort of success with grades of A or B.
Conversely, 45% of participants gave DeVries grades of D or F, overwhelmingly tipping the negative side of the grading scale. Given those results, it's clear that Hoosier fans aren't pleased with how things turned out this season.
Plenty of fans surveyed view DeVries first season as "average," with 45% of participants giving DeVries a C grade. But with just 10% of fans surveyed giving him an A or B, the negatives far outweigh the positives when it comes to IU fans grading DeVries' performance in Year 1.
Full results of SBNation fan poll grading Darian DeVries' first season at IU:
- A - 1%
- B - 9%
- C - 45%
- D - 32%
- F - 13%
DeVries took over with hopes of creating a high-flying Hoosier offense that played with pace and knocked down shots from the outside.
However, the Hoosiers were often playing with a slow pace in the half court and finished 11th in the Big Ten with a three-point shooting percentage of 34.7%. Lamar Wilkerson was simply asked to do too much offensively, and the lack of scoring depth severely hindered IU's ceiling this season.
Facing another roster rebuild with nearly 78% of the minutes played and 84% of the scoring gone from this past season, DeVries needs to put together a significantly better season in Year 2 in order to get in the good graces of Indiana basketball fans.