DeVries assembling his first coaching staff at WVU

Various national media outlets have also reported that Nelson Hernandez is expected to join DeVries’ staff, and his hiring will likely be announced soon.

Norton comes to West Virginia after spending the last three seasons on DeVries’ staff at Drake.

“Nick is a hard worker who brings great enthusiasm and tremendous energy to our basketball program,” DeVries said. “He always has a great rapport with our players and has a strong basketball IQ. Nick fits our basketball staff and our program extremely well.”

Norton joined the Drake staff before the 2021-22 season as assistant director of operations and was elevated to director of operations for the 2022-23 season. Last year, he was promoted to assistant coach/director of player development, and that’s the same title he will hold at West Virginia.

Norton began his college playing career at UAB (2014-18), making 97 starts for the Blazers. He was named All-Conference USA Third Team as a sophomore after averaging 8.9 points per game and leading the league in assist-to-turnover ratio. Norton was named the Conference USA Men’s Basketball Scholar-Athlete of the Year. As a freshman, he was one of 21 Kyle Macy National Freshman of the Year Award finalists and was named to the Conference USA all-freshman team.

He transferred to Drake in 2018 and averaged 14.0 points, 5.9 assists and 4.1 rebounds per game before an injury ended his collegiate career. Norton set Drake’s single-game assists record (17) against North Dakota State, a record that stood until the 2022-23 season. He scored a career-high 31 points against San Diego and recorded the second triple-double in team history with 18 points, 17 assists and 13 rebounds against North Dakota State.

In 2019, Norton signed with the South Bay Lakers of the NBA G League, appearing in two games before stepping away due to injuries.

His father, Randy, is the head women’s basketball coach at UAB. Nick and his wife, Caraline, have one son — Campton.

Frazier will be in a similar role to that he held at Illinois for the past three years.

A 2009 graduate of the University of Illinois, Frazer was a point guard for the Fighting Illini (2006-09). A native of Baltimore, Maryland, Frazier led the Big Ten with an average of 5.3 assists and owned a 2.4:1 assist-to-turnover ratio in his senior season.

Frazier played professionally in Germany after college, helping lead Goettingen to the 2010 EuroChallenge title. He was a graduate assistant/video coordinator at Illinois in 2011 before returning to Germany for one last season as a player with Oliver Wuerzburg in 2012.

Frazier’s first full-time college coaching opportunity came at Kansas State, serving as an assistant for seven seasons with the Wildcats. He then spent two years at Virginia Tech before moving back to his alma mater where he was an assistant coach under head coach Brad Underwood for the past three seasons before reportedly deciding to accept DeVries’ offer to join the Mountaineer staff.

“Chester Frazier is one of the brightest young stars in the coaching profession,” Underwood said in Frazier’s UI bio. “His love for his alma mater has stayed with him throughout his brilliant rise in the coaching ranks. This place means a great deal to him, having sweat equity in our program. Chester is a leader, a competitor, and a winner. He’s achieved great success, as a player here and as a coach at both Kansas State and Virginia Tech. His work ethic on the court and on the recruiting trail, combined with the strong relationships he builds with players, make him a tremendous fit for the Fighting Illini.”

Frazier and his wife Sarah have two children — daughter, Chandler and son, Cameron.

A native of Brooklyn, New York, Hernandez is expected to be the general manager for DeVries’ basketball program at West Virginia.

A 2013 graduate of Utah State, where he was the Aggies’ video coordinator from 2010-14, Hernandez also worked as the video coordinator at Clemson (2014-15) and the director of player development at Wright State (2015-16), as well as the director of basketball operations for both VCU (2016-17) and LSU (2017-22). He was an assistant coach at Fresno State in 2022-23 before becoming the director of player development at Oklahoma State last season.

Now he’ll reportedly be the general manager at West Virginia, where it’s expected he’ll deal with all manner of recruiting and roster management.

Besides his work with numerous college basketball programs over the last 15 years, Hernandez also produced an award-winning basketball documentary about Louisville women’s basketball guards Shoni and Jude Schimmel called “Off the Rez,” which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City and later aired on cable network TLC.

DeVries is still interviewing others to fill additional job openings on his WVU staff.

While he’s finalizing his coaching staff, DeVries also is assembling a playing roster through transfer, junior college and high school recruitment.