BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana basketball coach Darian DeVries met with the media on Monday, on the eve of his first game against bitter in-state rival Purdue. As always, it's a huge deal.

But what's also a big deal this week in Bloomington is everyone celebrating Indiana's first-ever football national championship. That includes DeVries, who called Curt Cignetti's 16-0 run to the title "incredible.'' He started out his press conference by doling out his congratulations.

"I want to start off by congratulating the football team on being national champs. What an incredible season that was,'' DeVries said. "It was so much fun to watch them compete all year and to finish it off the way they did was very fitting. Again, congratulations. What an awesome, awesome deal.''

Indiana has long been a basketball school, with football simply being a way to pass the time on fall Saturdays until the basketball season rolls around. That's all changed under Cignetti, with the national spotlight shining on Indiana and Bloomington all year now.

DeVries said the football team's success is a huge deal for the entire athletic department, and that incudes his basketball team as well.

"I think it's been awesome, not only for the football program but it's been awesome of all of athletics and our school and the exposure that it brings,'' DeVries said.

"Even throughout the fall, being able to bring recruits in and having that atmosphere at the football games that we have, it only adds to our ability to recruit and have good recruiting weekends. I think it's awesome all the way around, and I'm excited about what it does for our program as well.''

DeVries has only been here since last March, so this football stuff is all new to him. So is the rivalry with Purdue. The Boilermakers have been much more of a national contender lately, being ranked No. 1 at one point in four of the last five seasons and reaching the Final Four in 2024, where they lost to Connecticut in the national championship game.

DeVries fully understands the value of the rivalry. He's been in tune with it from the day he arrived in Bloomington. He's excited for the first game, starting at 9 p.m. on Tuesday night.

"I think it's something you understand from your first day on the job,'' he said. "When you're around college sports, you understand all the different rivalries across the country, and there are a lot of good ones. This is a pretty special rivalry and I'm really excited for my first opportunity — and our team's first opportunity — to be a part of it.

DeVries has had limited contact with Purdue coach Matt Painter through the years, but the respect level is very high. 

"When I was at Creighton as an assistant coach, he was the head coach at Southern Illinois for a little stint there and he had a really good team,'' DeVries said. "I've followed him for a long time and he does such a great job.

"They used to be all defense (at Purdue) and their offense maybe lacked. But now they are elite, elite on offense and they run so much stuff. It's been, from just a coach-to-coach standpoint, watching him continue to evolve on both ends of the floor. He does a terrific job with everything.''  

Purdue was preseason No. 1 this season and has been ranked in the top-6 all year until losing back-to-back games at UCLA and at home against Illinois on Saturday. They are ranked No. 12 in this week's Associated Press poll.

A few losses doesn't change DeVries' opinion of the Boilers. He's impressed, especially with standout point guard Braden Smith, who's a player of the year candidate.

"They've got really good players across the board and they all understand their roles,'' DeVries said. "It starts with Smith, and he's as good as I've seen out there. All of their parts really fit together. 

"It's incredibly difficult (to prepare for), and watching them, everybody else finds it pretty difficult too. (Smith) just has that unique knack for making that late decision-making pass and he really stretches your defense in every way possible.''

Indiana is 13-7 on the season, and 4-5 in the Big Ten. They've lost their last two homes game to Nebraska and Iowa after winning 10 straight at home to open the season. Purdue is 17-3 and 7-2 in the conference.

Here is the full video from Darian DeVries' press conference on Monday. Subscribe to our YouTube channel. It's all free.