ROSEMONT, Ill. – When Darian DeVries became Indiana’s head coach, his roster-building strategy was clear: Get shooters.

The Hoosiers had to replace all their scholarship players from 2024-25, which meant DeVries could choose who he wanted to wear cream and crimson in his first year in Bloomington. 

DeVries' first commitment out of the transfer portal came from his son, Tucker, who has made 37% of his 3s on high volume in four college seasons.

“Philosophically, we love to shoot 3s,” DeVries said at Big Ten Media Day on Thursday. “That’s what we believe in, that’s what we recruit to. So you’ll see that as we continue forward, too. This year’s team was put together with the idea that we want to have a lot of guys that can really shoot it.”

As a team, Indiana has five players who shot 3s at a percentage above the Division I average (33.8%) last year. All 10 of Indiana’s transfers shot 3s regularly at their past school, and DeVries said almost everyone on the team has a green light to shoot from deep this season.

After shooting above 38% as a team in Tom Crean’s last three seasons as coach (2014-17), Indiana has only been above the national average in percentage once in the past eight seasons. This program is historically known for shooting, but that has not been the case recently. DeVries is aiming to get the Hoosiers back to their old ways.

“I just believe if you can have a group that’s willing to play together and can all shoot it, it makes it really challenging to guard for a defense,” DeVries said. “We want to be the aggressors, we want to play in transition. That’s the way to get open 3s is against a broken floor, so you’ll see that from us throughout the year.” 

In DeVries’ seven years as a head coach at Drake and West Virginia, his teams shot above average from deep five times. (Last year’s West Virginia team was below average largely because Tucker DeVries missed most of the year with a left shoulder injury.) DeVries’ offense leads to open perimeter shots, which made Indiana a popular destination.

“A lot of our offense is made to create open 3s,” said Lamar Wilkerson, who shot 44.5% on 3s last year at Sam Houston. “We run in transition, we try to score early in the shot clock, stuff like that. He’s not one of those coaches that tells you, ‘Don’t take this shot, only take these shots.’ He’s gonna let you play freely and let you play within the game as long as you’re just taking good shots.”

There are several question marks for this Indiana team, but shooting isn’t one of them. The Hoosiers’ shooting should be able to offset their weaknesses in size and defensive consistency. There will be games when Indiana shoots so well that it won’t matter if it gets outplayed in other facets of the game. There will also be games when Indiana goes cold from beyond the arc and loses, but that’s a risk DeVries is willing to take.

DeVries understands that the Hoosiers need to have a healthy balance of shooting 3s and getting to the rim. Indiana should not just settle for 3s because it can shoot the ball well. Like any team, the Hoosiers need to find ways to get the ball inside.

“Those paint touches are still important because they’re what leads to 3-point shooting,” DeVries said. “You can’t just always shoot non-paint touch 3s, that’s not a high level of success. So we talk about shooting 3s, but we also talk about paint touches a lot, too, for the same reason.” 

DeVries said there have been times in practice when he’s made his team get a paint touch before shooting a 3. This is his way of ensuring Indiana shoots 3s that are quality looks.

Indiana doesn’t plan to get into the lane like many teams do these days. DeVries acknowledged that this roster isn’t filled with players who can create their own shot off the bounce. Instead, he wants his players to thrive as cutters off the ball to get in the paint and draw the attention of defenses. 

“There’s a lot of different ways that you can get in the paint and then be able to play out from there,” DeVries said. “… Those are very critical to our success as a 3-point shooting team, getting those paint touches.” 

Wilkerson called DeVries a “mastermind” at drawing up plays for shooters. With shooters like Wilkerson, Tucker DeVries, Jason Drake (39.6% last year) and Nick Dorn (35.1%), DeVries will have a chance to show off his playbook to create shots for quality shooters. Freshmen Trent Sisley and Aleksa Ristic project as solid shooters DeVries will also have at his disposal. 

Indiana fans have been displeased with the team’s shooting (or lack thereof) for several years now. While it’s unclear how successful DeVries’ first Indiana team will be, this is a team that should take and make a lot of deep shots.