The job executed so far in the 2024-2025 season by West Virginia's first-year men's basketball coach Darian DeVries is nothing short of extraordinary. After a historically poor season for the program last winter, DeVries was brought in the right the ship and assembled an entirely new roster from scratch in the transfer portal.
And despite that roster being undersized and plagued by injuries since before the season began, the Mountaineers sit at 12-4 overall and 3-2 in Big 12 play -- solidly in the top half of the conference -- with the regular season about halfway complete.
Plenty around the country have noticed the job DeVries is doing -- the Mountaineers were ranked in the AP Top 25 at one point, and currently sit at No. 25 in the Coaches Poll, No. 30 in the NCAA NET rankings, and No. 42 in the latest KenPom rankings -- but on Thursday it was announced by national outlet Collegeinsider.com that they have selected DeVries as their Jim Phelan Award National Mid-Season Coach of the Year.
"Coach DeVries has transformed West Virginia's program with a remarkable first-half performance, already surpassing last season's win total," said James Wilhelmi senior analyst for CollegeInsider.com and longtime NCAA coach. "His ability to instill confidence and execute a clear vision has energized the team. DeVries' leadership has been nothing short of impressive, setting a strong foundation for possible run in March."
The award is named after legendary former Mount Saint Mary's head coach Jim Phelan, who coached college basketball for 49 years, amassed 830 career wins, and led his program to 16 NCAA Division 2 tournament appearances, including 5 Final Four appearances and a Division 2 National Championship in 1962.
Collegeinsider awards a mid-season recipient each year as well as annually selecting a National Coach of the Year at the completion of each season -- the honoree is selected by a 10-member voting committee made up of current and former head coaches in addition to two senior staff members of Collegeinsider.com.