Okay, it's the time of year where we can address the elephant in the room a bit more clearly.
Last year, Darian DeVries made a good amount happen with limited resources as he took over the WVU basketball head coaching job after a historically bad season under interim Josh Eilert took the program even further away from the glory days of the Bob Huggins era.
Fans seemed pretty happy with DeVries and his efforts, and felt the future of the program was bright under his leadership. And then came an NCAA Tournament snub and the abrupt departure of DeVries to take the recently opened head coaching job at Indiana. A few weeks later, the Mountaineers hired their fourth coach in four years as Ross Hodge inherited the program.
Now, as the regular season is just two weeks away from its end, we can more accurately compare what Hodge has done in his first year with the Mountaineers compared to what DeVries has done in his first year with the Hoosiers, as well as with how the program fared in its first season under DeVries. And a recent Bracketology update from ESPN's Joe Lunardi sheds some further light onto that matter.
Is WVU basketball better or worse off under Ross Hodge compared to Darian DeVries? A look at both the Mountaineers and the Hoosiers
After a pair of losses over the past week, the Hoosiers have dropped to 17-10 overall and 8-8 in Big Ten play, and have drifted into the bubble discussion for the NCAA Tournament. They have appeared in the "Last Four Byes" section of Lunardi's last two Bracketology updates, and as of Monday morning the Hoosiers are among the last six teams projected to make it into the field.
— Joe Lunardi (@ESPNLunardi) February 23, 2026
Now, compare this with WVU, which has also lost its last two outings. The Mountaineers are currently 16-11 overall and 7-7 in league play (the Big Ten schedules 20 conference games as opposed to the Big 12's 18 games), and are currently sitting in the "Next Four Out" in Bracketology projections. They are currently considered the eighth team that would miss the tournament.
Now, make of this information what you will, but it can be used to objectively evaluate the two programs under the two coaches. And when you look at the numbers, the Hoosiers aren't that far ahead of the Mountaineers with both coaches in their first year with their respective programs.
The Bracketology projections put the two programs just 13 teams apart in terms of where they sit among the 360+ NCAA Division 1 programs, and both could still easily find themselves inside or outside of the tournament field depending on how the next few weeks play out.
And if the Hoosiers end up making the tournament and the Mountaineers don't, it clearly isn't a situation where DeVries had a squad that looked leaps and bounds ahead of where WVU was following his departure – in fact, WVU has six wins against Quad 1 and Quad 2 opponents this year as opposed to Indiana's four wins, meaning that WVU might actually fare better against tougher competition.
And if WVU isn't playing in the NCAA Tournament this season, it's worth remembering that DeVries didn't make it during his first year with the Mountaineers either, and is still on the bubble in his first season in Bloomington just like he was in Morgantown last year. DeVries led WVU to a 19-13 record in the regular season and Big 12 tournament, and the Mountaineers can still match or better that mark with a hot finish to the season.