Drake Basketball: 3 reasons why Bulldogs can advance in 2023 NCAA Tournament

2. Quality player in Tucker DeVries

Tucker DeVries is the Missouri Valley Conference’s ‘most outstanding player’ and he is its most dangerous one. DeVries is a rare MVC performer that can simply take over games. While the 6’7 sophomore has always had an outstanding shooting touch he has turned into a lethal scorer.

He knows when to assert himself and when to let the game come to him. He has matured as a player and as a leader. This current version of Drake basketball doesn’t need him to score twenty-five points for it to win, but he can go get two dozen points on a moment’s notice.

When teams back off he can be back-breaking from deep (87 triples this season). If they guard him too closely, he rarely misses from the charity stripe (.838) and he can still score in traffic. During the three games of Arch Madness he rang up 27 points in the quarterfinals, twelve in the first half of the semifinals and then was content to prefer his teammates from then on. The younger DeVries then finished with 22 in the final. Sixteen times he reached the twenty-point plateau and produced back-to-back 32-point games in early February.

The Valley tournament brought out the best in Tucker DeVries. While being named the tournament MVP, he never took more than 14 shots in a game and made eight of 19 shots from deep. In just two seasons, the Waukee, Iowa native has accumulated 1,130 points, 350 rebounds, 162 triples and 198 made free throws.

Coming out of high school there were great expectations surrounding DeVries. He was a Top 100 recruit and was the State of Iowa’s ‘2021 Mr. Basketball’. He hasn’t disappointed and now is stepping on to the national stage for the first time.