Ranking the top 8 backcourts in the East Region who could carry their team to the second round

Have you ever heard this one before? A coach’s son from the Missouri Valley Conference is a lethal wing-scorer who could take the country by storm in March.

Well, Tucker DeVries isn’t quite on the level of Doug McBuckets and when McDermott won the National Player of the Year in 2014, Creighton had already moved to the Big East, but you get the gist. 

Darian DeVries has been the head coach at Drake since 2018, and last weekend beat Indiana State in the MVC final to get the Bulldogs to the NCAA Tournament for the second time in his tenure, the first with his son on the roster. Tucker, now a junior, wasn’t around when Joseph Yesefu starred for the Bulldogs in the 2021 tournament, and it's been three years since Drake won the MVC Tournament. In the meantime, Tucker won the conference Freshman of the Year award and has developed into the back-to-back MVC player of the year, joining McDermott as one of just six players in MVC history to accomplish that feat.

This year, DeVries averaged a career-high 21.8 points and the 6-foot-7 guard shot 44.8% on 16.2 field goal attempts a game. He’ll certainly be a handful for Washington State in the 7/10 matchup and could even give Iowa State issues if the Bulldogs advance. 

Atin Wright is Drake’s second-leading scorer but plays in the considerable shadow of DeVries. He’s an excellent running mate, but DeVries even leads the team in assists, so he’s really the gravitational center of everything the Bulldogs do on the offensive end of the floor. 

I can't wait to watch DeVries take on Washington State and I'll be rooting for Drake to hang around long enough for Drake, ya know... the rapper, to notice and ruin the whole thing by betting on them.