Don DeVoe spent the 1990-91 season on the sidelines after serving 26 straight years as a college basketball coach.
DeVoe had enjoyed a highly successful 11-year run at Tennessee, which came to an end in 1989 when newly-hired athletic director Doug Dickey decided to go in a different direction. He served as interim coach at Florida for one season and was facing an uncertain future when Navy athletic director Jack Lengyel called.
Lengyel was close friends with legendary Indiana coach Bob Knight, who had played alongside DeVoe at Ohio State. Knight recommended DeVoe to Lengyel, who had just fired Pete Herrmann as head coach of the Midshipmen.
“My wife, Anna, convinced me that we could do something special at Navy that no one thought was possible,” DeVoe said. “With her influence and Jack being persistent in wanting to hire me, I finally said ‘Let’s go for it.’”
That decision to accept the Naval Academy job resurrected DeVoe’s career and is a big reason why he was inducted into the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame on Saturday night. DeVoe compiled an impressive 184-161 record in 12 seasons (1992-2004) at Navy. He led the Midshipmen to four 20-win campaigns and three Patriot League Tournament championships that earned automatic berths into the NCAA Tournament.
DeVoe directed Navy to its first Patriot League Tournament championship in just his second season at the helm.
Doug Wojcik, who was the starting point guard during most of the David Robinson era, was an assistant at Navy when DeVoe arrived in Annapolis.
“Coach DeVoe brought instant credibility to Navy basketball in 1992 and won immediately,” said Wojcik, currently an assistant at Michigan State under Tom Izzo. “I appreciate everything Don accomplished and will be forever grateful for the opportunity he provided me in the early stages of my coaching career.”
Wojcik and Emmett Davis had been Herrmann’s assistants and DeVoe recalled Lengyel encouraging him to clean house. DeVoe, a savvy veteran of the business, was not one to make rash decisions.
“Jack Lengyel wasn’t so sure I should retain Doug and Emmett. I told Jack that I wanted to watch their work habits for a full month before I made any decisions about staffing,” DeVoe said. “I was so impressed with them in terms of their organization and love for the Naval Academy. I’m glad I kept those two on because it was a great recruiting staff.”
Wojcik, Davis and two other DeVoe assistants, Jimmy Allen and Nathan Davis, all went on to become head coaches.
“We had a great staff throughout my time at Navy. I feel quite fortunate to have so many great assistants and I’m really so proud of each and every one of them,” DeVoe said.
Dominant era
Navy basketball reached the apex of the DeVoe era during the back-to-back seasons of 1996-97 and 1997-98. The Midshipmen compiled a 39-20 record with two regular season conference championships and two Patriot League Tournament titles.
Those two teams featured point guard Brian Walker, shooting guard Michael Heary and undersized power forward Hassan Booker.
“Don was a great teacher and one of his great strengths was sticking to what he believed in, which was man-to-man defense and rebounding,” said Davis, who served six seasons under DeVoe. “Don was a very demanding coach and held the players accountable. He stressed attention to detail and made sure players did what they were supposed to do.”
At the core of DeVoe’s philosophy was defense and rebounding. Navy excelled in the latter category as well throughout his tenure, leading the nation in two rebounding on two different occasions. Among the great rebounds during the DeVoe era were Booker, Wes Cooper and Sitapha Savane.
“We weren’t a particular big and rugged bunch of guys, but we did a fantastic job of controlling both the offensive and defensive boards,” DeVoe said.
Dave Smalley, who was head coach of Navy men’s basketball for a decade, was an assistant athletic director during DeVoe’s tenure. Smalley provided tremendous support for the program and encouraged DeVoe to use the Naval Academy Prep School and the junior varsity program to develop players.
“Without the prep school, we would not have had the athleticism and depth we did,” DeVoe said. “There was no question that when we started utilizing the prep school we had an edge over all the other schools in the Patriot League.”
Navy beat Army twice during DeVoe’s first season and that would portend a dominant period for Navy in the series. The Midshipmen went 26-3 against the Black Knights during DeVoe’s tenure.
“We were able to recruit some darn fine athletes and found an edge in which we were able to outman West Point. It was one heck of a great run for Navy and I was very proud of the sustained success we had against the archrival,” DeVoe said.
Road to the Hall of Fame
DeVoe was born in rural Greene County, Ohio, and played basketball at Liberty Local High. There were only 10 students in his high school graduating class and fortunately eight were boys — enough to field a basketball team.
DeVoe averaged 31 points per game as a senior and earned All-Ohio honorable mention honors. He received a surprising scholarship to Ohio State, primarily because he was good friends with Gary Bradds of rival Greeneview High, whom Ohio State coach Fred Taylor was trying to lure away from Kentucky.
“I was part of a package deal,” DeVoe said.
DeVoe, a 6-foot-5 forward, was a two-year starter and averaged 10 points per game as a senior. Ohio State posted a 62-14 record and captured Big Ten Conference championships in all three seasons DeVoe was on varsity.
DeVoe was greatly influenced by Taylor, whom he described as “such a dynamic coach and leader.” It was largely due to Taylor and some teammates that DeVoe decided to get into coaching and changed his major to health and physical education.
Knight, who played alongside DeVoe at Ohio State, was hired as head coach at Army at age 25 in 1965. Based largely on Taylor’s recommendation, Knight hired the 22-year-old DeVoe as an assistant.
“I really appreciated the opportunity to learn about overall team play from Bob Knight,” said DeVoe, recalling that Army led the nation in several defensive categories for three straight seasons. “Because of Bob, I became a really solid believer in how team defense could allow teams that didn’t have great talent and athleticism to win big games.”
DeVoe spent five seasons on the West Point bench with Knight and one of their best players during that successful period, which featured 104 wins and three appearances in the semifinals of the National Invitational Tournament, was guard Mike Krzyzewski.
DeVoe would remain close friends with both Knight and Krzyewski, who became a Hall of Fame head coach at Duke, throughout his coaching career. In fact, Krzyzewski used to call DeVoe during his Navy days to chide him for always beating Army.
“Don DeVoe was an outstanding college basketball coach. At West Point, I saw Don at an early stage in his coaching career. I was always impressed with his basketball knowledge and, more importantly, how well he related to players,” Krzyzewski said in a statement emailed to The Capital.
“Don took those attributes wherever he coached. I was even impressed with what he did at Navy. Honestly, I wish he wouldn’t have been as good as he was while in Annapolis. Army paid the price for that. In all seriousness, Don is truly deserving of being inducted into the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame. Simply put, he was a terrific coach.”
DeVoe became head coach at Virginia Tech at age 29. He led the Hokies to the 1973 NIT championship and an appearance in the NCAA Tournament in 1976. He compiled an 88-45 record in five seasons in Blacksburg at a time when the Hokies played as an independent.
DeVoe’s greatest success came at Tennessee, where he amassed a 204-137 record in 11 seasons. He led the Volunteers to the 1979 Southeastern Conference Tournament title and the 1982 regular season championship.
DeVoe guided Tennessee to six NCAA Tournament appearances, including five straight, and three NIT berths. He led the Volunteers into the Sweet 16 for the first time in program history.
In 31 seasons as a college basketball head coach, DeVoe led three different schools to the NCAA tournament and posted an overall career record of 512–389 (.568). After retiring, he spent a decade serving on the NIT Tournament selection committee.
DeVoe still resides in the Carriage Hills neighborhood of Annapolis along with wife, Ana. Daughter Analise Shea lives down the street, while son Elliott DeVoe, who played basketball at Annapolis High and as a walk-on at Tennessee, resides in Atlanta.
“I was very fortunate that the ball never stopped bouncing for me,” DeVoe said.