Drake University head coach Darian DeVries was named the Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year at a State Farm MVC Tournament luncheon on Thursday. After spending more than two decades on the staff at Creighton, DeVries took the reins of a Drake program that was slated to return just two letterwinners from a season ago with no incoming recruits. Faced with the challenge of assembling a roster in mere weeks, DeVries and his staff quickly put together one of the best teams in Drake history. After being picked ninth in the league’s pre-season poll, Drake shared this year’s regular-season title with Loyola — it is the program’s eighth Valley title, its first since 2008 and second since 1971.
2019 Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year Voting
(Maximum 45 votes received, only top three vote-getters are listed.)
| Coach, School | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | TOTAL |
| Darian DeVries, Drake | 44 | 1 | 0 | 134 |
| Dana Ford, Missouri State | 3 | 29 | 6 | 73 |
| Porter Moser, Loyola | 2 | 12 | 21 | 51 |
The Bulldogs’ 23 wins are the third-most in program history, and the team’s 12 Valley wins are the fourth-most by a Drake team. His debut season is the second most successful by a first-year head coach at Drake behind only Keno Davis’ 28 wins in 2008. His 23 wins are also the most by a rookie head coach in the nation this year.
DeVries joins 20 other coaches to a win an MVC men’s basketball title in their first years in the league. He’s the 13th rookie coach to win the league’s Coach of the Year award, which was first presented in 1949. Fellow Bulldog rookie coaches Gary Garner (1982) and Keno Davis (2008) also accomplished the feat. He joins Davis (2008), Garner (1982), Rudy Washington (1993) and Maury John (1964, 1968, 1969 and 1970) as Drake coaches to earn the league’s top honor. Notably, only seven previous rookie coaches have won the MVC Tournament in the event’s 42-year history. Greg Lansing of Indiana State was the last to accomplish it, doing so in 2011.
