MORGANTOWN — Darian DeVries will walk into enemy territory for the first time on Friday, but it won’t exactly be a foreign experience.
“I don’t think it takes much for our guys to know it’s an important game for both fan bases,” the WVU men’s basketball coach said Wednesday, as the Mountaineers were getting prepared to face rival Pitt at 8 p.m. Friday. “I think that’s something that makes college sports what it is. It’s these types of games the players enjoy, the coaches enjoy and the fans enjoy.”
In terms of rivalry games, DeVries’ exposure has been at all points in the spectrum, whether they were considered somewhat friendly or big brother-little brother feuding.
His 17 years as an assistant at Creighton — in Omaha, Neb. — put DeVries in the Creighton-Nebraska rivalry, which dates back to 1923.
Since 1977, the two schools have played at least once every season — not a claim that can be made by several rivals, including Pitt and WVU — but it was unique in that it was truly just a hoops rivalry.
Creighton doesn’t sponsor a football team, leaving most of the Bluejays fan base to root for the Cornhuskers in the fall.
“There were probably a few fans who went back and forth,” DeVries said. “I’d say the majority were one way or the other, but you certainly had a little bit of both in that one.
“During basketball season, you were either a Creighton fan or a Nebraska fan. That’s the way it was approached.”
During his six seasons as head coach at Drake (Des Moines, Iowa), DeVries got in at the tail end of the state of Iowa’s big-school, little-school feuding that created a sour topic of discussion.
Dating back to 1979, both Iowa and Iowa State would play Drake and Northern Iowa, with homes games rotating among the four campus sites on a yearly basis.
That changed in 2012, when finances, politics and quite possibly pure embarrassment of the bigger schools losing to the little guys began to come into play.
Iowa and Iowa State no longer wanted to play road games at Drake and Northern Iowa, so the games were played at a neutral site in Des Moines, called the Hy-Vee Classic.
The revenues were split equally among the four schools, but as college athletics began to become big business, there was no keeping the bigger state schools happy.
Iowa pulled out of the Classic in 2018, citing an expanded Big Ten schedule. Iowa State soon followed and made it clear the only way it would play the smaller in-state schools is if those schools traveled to Ames.
“We would certainly welcome continuing to play games against UNI or Drake in the future,” Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard said in a statement in 2018. “Our ability to do that will most likely depend on each of their institution’s willingness to play games in Hilton Coliseum.”
Iowa State’s final season playing in the Classic was DeVries’ first season at Drake. Iowa State beat the Bulldogs 77-68, and neither Iowa or Iowa State has played the smaller in-state schools since.
Which sets up DeVries’ first run in the Backyard Brawl, a rivalry fueled by hatred between the two fan bases more than anything else.
“I think it’s a great game,” DeVries said. “We’re an hour apart. It’s a great challenge for both teams early in the year. It’s a great atmosphere and environment. It’s certainly a series that I would love to see us continue for as long as possible.”
Friday’s game is the first of a four-game extension of the rivalry that will run through the 2027-28 season, with next season’s game scheduled in Morgantown.
“It’s certainly a big test, and on top of that, our first road game,” DeVries said. “We’re going to figure a lot of things out in those 40 minutes on Friday. I think our guys are excited about it. They’re ready for the challenge.”
