Darian DeVries wants Indiana basketball to be 'big part of the community'. After missing that for quite some time, it's a priority.

There was always a certain level of separation between the Indiana basketball program and the fan base over the past few years — even dating back to the end of the Tom Crean era, nearly a decade ago. Whether it was with the lack of visibility or social presence by players and coaches, or the outward verbiage that put a bigger divide between the team and the community, there was a lack of togetherness.

In the first six months at Indiana for Darian DeVries, it’s been anything but separation. Everything he’s done is to eliminate the divide and create a feeling of ‘one’ between the program and the fans.

Part of that goes into his goals and expectations for year one in Bloomington — going beyond just wins and losses.

“I just think we’re at a place where basketball is incredibly important, Indiana basketball is a important to a lot of people, so I want them to be able to have access to something they really find valuable and important to them,” DeVries said on Tuesday to reporters during an informal media day. “That’s what we want. We want people to feel like they’re not watching from afar. We want them to feel like they’re right on the inside and they’re stride by stride with us as we go through it because from a fan standpoint, they have a huge impact on us winning and losing a lot of times.”

Indiana basketball has always been attached to one of the biggest fan bases in the country. Whether that means home court advantage inside of Assembly Hall, the ‘biggest student section in the nation’, or the amount of alumni in every city around the country helping bring a more home-like environment to away games.

After numerous years without preseason events outside of Hoosier Hysteria — an event that began to lose any sort of significance — DeVries and his coaching staff have now brought back an old event, Haunted Hall of Hoops, which is an event catered to children and families. Then, a new event called Hoosier Hoops on Kirkwood. Outdoor basketball courts on Indiana’s famous Kirkwood Ave which will include skills competitions, meet-and-greet opportunities and more fan engagement opportunities. Add in a Cream and Crimson scrimmage as well, and Indiana is making sure the community is getting to know this team beyond a player-fan relationship — and ensuring the two ends meet together and make Indiana basketball a true community again.

“Yeah, I think some of it — we brought in a new one, we brought an old event back. I think from our standpoint, it was just, we want to make sure that we’re a big part of the community, big part of the campus,” DeVries continued. We want to give as many chances as we can to have those interactions because I think we have a group that’s fun to be around. They’re a good group of guys, and we want people to be able to see them on a different level besides just on the basketball floor.

“We’ve tried to get involved in as many community activities as we could, whether it be with youth or adults or whatever it might be so that they get as many chances to see them on a more personal level.”

With 13 new players and three freshmen, two of which are from Europe, the IU fanbase hasn’t had a chance to get to know the team they will be rooting for in one month’s time. Being able to go behind the scenes is critical in alleviating the stress and discontent a lot of the fanbase felt towards the program in the final days of the Mike Woodson era.

Woodson started his tenure by emphasizing the importance to ‘bridge the gap’ between the old fanbase and the new generation. One of his final memories to the fans will likely be his speech during the 2023-24 season’s Senior Day.

“And most of all, our true fans. True fans. I’ll say that again, our true fans.” — The first time in quite some time, at least in recent history, an Indiana head coach created a true divide. The lack of criticism he felt he could take pushed legitimate concern from legitimate fans about the path of the program into an entirely new level of dismay.

So when DeVries took the Indiana job, he made it know just like every other IU coach in the past 25 years, that you can’t win in Bloomington without fan support and without creating a true community around the program — one that works both ways.

“That type of support doesn’t happen everywhere. We have it here. We have a night where every time we toss that ball up, this building and our fan base impacts helping us win, and that’s critical,” DeVries said. “So we want them to be a part of it. We want all of you to be a part of it. It’s something that I’m sure I love covering, and I’m sure there’s times you’ll even have advice, but that’s okay.

“People love this game. They love this game here at Indiana, and we do, too, and we want everyone to feel a part of that.”

That ‘love’, generosity and most important, togetherness, is creating a community that is going into a season — albeit filled with questions and cautiousness — all working on the same goal.

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