It remains to be seen who new IU basketball head coach Darian DeVries will bring along or hire to join him on his inaugural 2025-26 staff.
But if he brings any of his three top assistants from this past season’s West Virginia crew, they’ll be a name likely familiar to Indiana fans.
Kory Barnett capitalized on an opportunity out of high school to be a walk-on player at Indiana. He was hired by DeVries last May as an assistant coach after spending the five prior seasons at Nevada and six seasons at UCLA, working for former IU star Steve Alford at both places.
A native of Rochester, Ind., Barnett, played at Indiana from 2009-12. He was originally promised a spot at IU as a walk-on by Kelvin Sampson, and he was retained by Tom Crean during the 2008 upheaval. Barnett was a graduate assistant for IU on the 2012-13 Big Ten champion squad.
Tom Ostrom came to IU with Archie Miller from Dayton, much like he came to West Virginia with DeVries from Drake. Ostrom was the associate head coach at Indiana (2017-21), helping the Hoosiers gather the No. 7-ranked recruiting class nationally in 2018 and the No. 13 class in 2020. Ostrom has been with DeVries a total of three seasons. He’s a Minnesota native and could have a number of opportunities if he doesn’t come back to Bloomington.
Chester Frazier is infamous in IU basketball circles as the Illinois player who chest-bumped Eric Gordon in 2008. But Frazier has carved-out a strong coaching career and he has connections across the country. A native of Baltimore, Frazier joined DeVries’ WVU staff after serving as an assistant coach at Illinois for the three prior seasons. Prior to Illinois, Frazier was the associate head coach at Virginia Tech from 2019-21 and an assistant coach at Kansas State from 2012-19.
It isn’t uncommon for head coaches to make changes on their staff when they make moves. Ostrom was the only of the three above who carried over from DeVries’ final Drake staff to West Virginia. But two other Drake assistants, Nick Norton and Cavel Witter, did also move with DeVries to Morgantown.
Due to a rule change by the NCAA a couple years ago, basketball can have five full-time assistant coaches, although there remains a limit on how many can be on the road recruiting. DeVries did have five staff members with the assistant coach title last year.
Multiple members of Mike Woodson’s staff could be candidates for one of the assistant coaching positions under DeVries if changes are made. Brian Walsh and Jordan Hulls are two to keep an eye on, although everything is fluid at the moment.
We’ll have full coverage of DeVries’ staff additions as they happen in the days and weeks to come.
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