Fire Leitao and/or DePaul Athletic Director??

[NovaBall]

It does't matter if the talent is good or not, DL needs HIS jimmies and joes..

I guess I missed the memo that stated that anytime a team hires a new coach they are supposed to lose to a bunch of bad teams out of the gate.

Oh wait, that's not true.

Jay Wright won 19 games his first season at nova. McDermott won 23 his first season at creighton. jT3 won 19 in his first yr at Georgetown. Holtman won 23 last year. Buzz Williams won 25 his first yr at Marquette. When pitino took over providence he made a deep nit run. Steve lavin won 21 in his first yr in queens. Brad Stevens won 30 in his first year. Steve fisher took over Michigan the week before the 1989 tourney and won the whole thing. Pete Gillen won 25 games in his first season at Xavier and 17 his first yr in providence. Chris Mack won 26 his first year at Xavier.

Chris mullin has a completely bare cupboard and his kids are competing.

A coach should be able to coach, no matter who brought the kids to campus. And DePaul has more than enough talent to compete right now.

[cujaysfan]

it's shocking to me that Jay Wright wasn't fired after year two at Nova

shocking!

[NovaBall]

Why would jay wright have been fired after year 2?

In yr 1 he won 19 games and went to the nit with less talent than Leitao has at DePaul right now (in a more competitive big east with fewer games). Beat Syracuse a couple of times, won the big 5, gave saint Joseph's one of their biggest losses ever, beat ucla,
In yr 2 he finished .500 in the best conference in the country and again went to the nit and brought in one of the top recruiting classes in the nation.
In yr 3 he won 18 games, made a good nit run, and by yr 4 he had a powerhouse team and hasn't looked back.

Also, jay was coming of a successful career at Hofstra.


Leitao is coming off a very suspect coaching history. He has more talent than jay had when jay went to nova, but can you see DePaul winning 19 games this yr?

[DemonLS]

Nova,

Grow up! You need another hobby besides your extreme hatred of DePaul basketball and Dave Leitao.

I know DePaul's talent way more than you do. It is very average.....very.

Nova should make it to the ELite 8 this year with that talent. Worry bout your own program.

[NovaBall]

I don't hate DePaul. I root for DePaul to win these games. I want DePaul to do well. I want their fans to enjoy a winning program. I want their home court to be a rowdy and enjoyable environment of fans rooting hard for their team. I want DePaul to be on the top fold of sports pages in Chicago after weeknight wins in January and February. Nothing about me hates DePaul. Frustration with DePaul is the better choice of words.

I'm also not making any personal insults or calling people who disagree idiots or morons or whatever. This is a legitimate topic and is a major concern for the conference.

You can ether have an open dialogue on the topic and explain why we are wrong, or you can make personal insults, brag about how much basketball you have watched in your life, and just tell people to grow up if they disagree.

This was a questionable hire from the start, and now that we have seen the product in the floor it is even more questionable. That's a concern for those of us who want the big east to continue to thrive.

And nova has been to the elite 8 with jay, more than once (games I attended). Nova has a good thing going on and helps the league's national brand, he,ps the conference rpi, makes the national news, and brings respect to the league. The tournament is a single elimination event, and sometimes you go to the second weekend as a 12 seed, or the final 4 as a 3 seed, and sometimes you get upset. You can't get too upset over the upset losses while at the same time celebrate when you win the national championship as an 8 seed. I would think someone who has watched as much basketball as you would know that.

[OmahaGuy]

Like I said earlier, South Carolina is #41 and Florida State is #39. So are those great teams? No. But they are good and not at all "bad losses" or "bad teams" as of now (I say that bc it's still early). Also, I trust DemonLS's opinion bc he's the actual DePaul fan on this board instead of a Nova fan. Although, I am with you NovaBall. I want DePaul to win too very bad. I want this conference to reach its full potential and it would be HUGE if we had a relevant team in Chicago.

[MackNova]

DePaul has been consistently terrible for nearly a decade now. Not sure why that would change 2 weeks into a new coach's tenure.

[DemonLS]

To most DePaul fans, our program has been down since 1993. So a little more than a decade. DePaul had one good year under Leitao and one under Pat Kennedy with Quentin Richardson and Bobby Simmons.

But a new, expensive stadium brings lots more pressure to succeed.

[RedStormHoops]

I don't hate DePaul. I root for DePaul to win these games. I want DePaul to do well. I want their fans to enjoy a winning program. I want their home court to be a rowdy and enjoyable environment of fans rooting hard for their team. I want DePaul to be on the top fold of sports pages in Chicago after weeknight wins in January and February. Nothing about me hates DePaul. Frustration with DePaul is the better choice of words.

I'm also not making any personal insults or calling people who disagree idiots or morons or whatever. This is a legitimate topic and is a major concern for the conference.

You can ether have an open dialogue on the topic and explain why we are wrong, or you can make personal insults, brag about how much basketball you have watched in your life, and just tell people to grow up if they disagree.

This was a questionable hire from the start, and now that we have seen the product in the floor it is even more questionable. That's a concern for those of us who want the big east to continue to thrive.

And nova has been to the elite 8 with jay, more than once (games I attended). Nova has a good thing going on and helps the league's national brand, he,ps the conference rpi, makes the national news, and brings respect to the league. The tournament is a single elimination event, and sometimes you go to the second weekend as a 12 seed, or the final 4 as a 3 seed, and sometimes you get upset. You can't get too upset over the upset losses while at the same time celebrate when you win the national championship as an 8 seed. I would think someone who has watched as much basketball as you would know that.

DemonLS isn't "bragging" about watching basketball longer than you, he is just saying he knows more about DePauls roster and knows they aren't as talented as you think. You'd probably say you know more about nova than me, just like I'd say I know more about St John's. So that isn't bragging at all.

The point is, this team and roster would struggle no matter what coach came in. The roster just isn't that good. That's why fans want to give Dave a chance to recruit some guys first. You're paying the guy to win games, at least give him a punchers chance to do so. Maybe he doesn't have a good history of turning programs around, but DePaul needs stability, and firing a guy before giving him his proper chance to try and right the ship isn't gonna provide stability.

Also, it's funny how in this thread you cite losses to Florida state and South Carolina as bad losses. When they are way better than what Wake Forest and Alabama were last year. Yet, in another thread you cited Wake and Bama as some of the signature wins for Xavier since they joined the big east. How does that work? It doesn't work. You know why? Cause you are saying these things to help your argument when they aren't true. I'm not saying DePaul is playing great right now, but you are blowing everything out of proportion, making it sound like they've lost to a bunch of terrible teams when it isn't true. Yea they lost to a weak penn state team. But Seton Hall lost to Long Beach State. Georgetown lost to Radford. Marquette lost to Belmont. Where's the fire Willard thread? Where's the fire JT3 thread? Where's the fire Wojciechowski thread? They are nowhere to be found, because firing a coach because of one bad loss is premature. And you know that. That's why you tried to paint South Carolina and Florida State as bad teams when that's not the case.

Look, DePaul fans have been suffering for years not winning games. As a St. John's fan, I can empathize with them as we have struggled over the past 15 years as well. You nova fans have had it good. So if DePaul fans are willing to stick it out longer with Letaio, I respect their opinion more than a nova fan who's trying to police the league because their team is so good. DePaul has a new stadium in construction that was very expensive, it's clear they are committed to making their basketball program relevant again. Maybe Leitao is the answer maybe he isn't. But firing him after a few losses to start the year is not the way for us to find out. Go DePaul! Go Leitao!

[SJHooper]

DePaul is just a weird situation. They have some solid players but it doesn't seem to matter. They just can't seem to shake the losing culture. I think they need a major hire at coach. A big brand. Despite Lavin's utter failure to give us a consistent top 25 squad or any postseason success as was expected, he got us the #2 recruiting class. That came after SJU was mostly irrelevant for the better part of the decade. They need a spark. This is why it was so surprising to me to see an underwhelming hire as coach. If DePaul had hired one of the Hurley brothers, I truly think they would have gotten a top 25 recruiting class. You need a coach with notoriety and reach. Yes, Mullin has not proven anything yet, but so far he has looked pretty solid. People asked if he could recruit...that has been answered. Lavin is gone and the 4 star players keep coming. We are still a finalist for a 5 star (Alkins) and were with Diallo as well. My point is that players are excited about Mullin. You can't just hire some retread no name and expect different results.

Chicago is right after NYC in terms of big stages, but putting no names on the big stage is setting yourself up for failure.