By Hawk Fanatic

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Darian DeVries apparently doesn’t consider coaching the Iowa men’s basketball team to be his dream job.

Pete Thamel from ESPN posted on X that DeVries is not a candidate for the Iowa job, which became available when Fran McCaffery was fired as the Iowa head coach last Friday after 15 seasons.

Thamel would go on to report later on Tuesday that Indiana is expected to hire Darian DeVries as its next head coach.

DeVries, who just finished his first season as the West Virginia head coach, and current Drake head coach Ben McCollum, have been considered the frontrunners for the Iowa job, with some going as far as to say it’s DeVries’s dream job.

Darian DeVries grew in Aplington and is the older brother of former Iowa All-America defensive lineman Jared DeVries.

But Darian DeVries never has had in direct affiliation with Iowa Hawkeye athletics.

He played basketball for Northern Iowa and was assistant coach at Creighton for 17 years before being hired as the Drake head coach in 2018. He coached the Bulldogs for six seasons before taking over at West Virginia shortly after the 2023-24 season.

Iowa Athletic Director Beth Goetz wasted little time in firing Fran McCaffery as it was announced the day after Iowa lost to Illinois in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament.

The Darian DeVries to Iowa narrative started to gain momentum from the moment Fran McCaffery was let go.

That momentum has since faded.

Goetz has not spoken publicly since the search for Fran McCaffery’s replacement began.

McCollum is currently preparing his Drake squad to face Missouri in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday.

The Bulldogs are 30-3 in McCollum’s first season and they also won both the Missouri Valley regular season title and the conference tournament championship.

McCollum, who was born in Iowa City and grew up in Storm Lake, also won four Division II national titles as the head coach for Northwest Missouri State.