Dave Leitao

[DemonLS]

$1M per year. Not sure on contract length.

[MUBoxer]

Except those schools try to get out of those holes.

They interviewed Bobby Hurley, and they interviewed Bryce Drew. It didn't work out. Leitao wouldn't have been my first choice, but people weren't exactly beating down a path to Lincoln Park to interview, either. What were they supposed to do? There isn't a school in the country that would give final approval on their hires to other schools in their conference.

Should've gone after an assistant. Marquette's had unreal success with that route Kevin O'neil was an assistant to Lute Olsen, Tom Crean was an assistant to Tom Izzo, Buzz Williams was an assistant to a bunch of people but same concept.

[Demon22]

Except those schools try to get out of those holes.

They interviewed Bobby Hurley, and they interviewed Bryce Drew. It didn't work out. Leitao wouldn't have been my first choice, but people weren't exactly beating down a path to Lincoln Park to interview, either. What were they supposed to do? There isn't a school in the country that would give final approval on their hires to other schools in their conference.

Should've gone after an assistant. Marquette's had unreal success with that route Kevin O'neil was an assistant to Lute Olsen, Tom Crean was an assistant to Tom Izzo, Buzz Williams was an assistant to a bunch of people but same concept.

You mean maybe hire a guy that used to be an assistant under Jim Calhoun when he won at UConn?

[NovaBall]

You mean they hired a guy who was an assistant under Calhoun at northeastern and took over when Calhoun left and then went in to lose 2 dozen games in a season, and then was mediocre at DePaul and sucked at Virginia?

[MUBoxer]

They interviewed Bobby Hurley, and they interviewed Bryce Drew. It didn't work out. Leitao wouldn't have been my first choice, but people weren't exactly beating down a path to Lincoln Park to interview, either. What were they supposed to do? There isn't a school in the country that would give final approval on their hires to other schools in their conference.

Umm yes the first time not so much a decade of mediocrity later

[Jet915]

Except those schools try to get out of those holes.

You mean, like, by spending crap loads of money on new facilities? Did that.

When he was hired, Oliver Purnell was one of the Top 10 highest paid coaches in all of College Basketball. The guy was making better than $2 million/year.

They interviewed Bobby Hurley, and they interviewed Bryce Drew. It didn't work out. Leitao wouldn't have been my first choice, but people weren't exactly beating down a path to Lincoln Park to interview, either. What were they supposed to do? There isn't a school in the country that would give final approval on their hires to other schools in their conference.

I've seen Dave Leitao coach for a while. He's a decent coach. But with the lack of talent on the roster, the margin for error is very small. DePaul's not a team that can afford to have too many things go wrong, and they'll look really, really poor on an "off" night. It is what it is. And it'll be that way until he can figure out a way to attract some better players.

It didnt work out cause the AD insisted on keeping Billy Garrett Sr.

[Demon22]

You mean they hired a guy who was an assistant under Calhoun at northeastern and took over when Calhoun left and then went in to lose 2 dozen games in a season, and then was mediocre at DePaul and sucked at Virginia?

Not quite.

The point was made that DePaul should have hired a successful assistant. Well, what assistant was out there that had a better resume than Dave Leitao? He was Calhoun's top assistant on two different occasions at UConn, including during the '99 National Championship. He's recruited big-time players as both an assistant and a Head Coach.

I didn't agree with the hire - but I understood it. In his first stint at DePaul, he did a pretty good job, all things considered. And until he left, he was a pretty popular guy. He knew the recruiting landscape in Chicago and had a positive relationship with many of the city's influential coaches. To the school, it didn't matter what happened at Virginia, because it worked here before. They thought they were making a low-risk hire. And I still think it's a low-risk hire because I think there's little chance he'll leave the program in worse shape than he found it. I just don't think Leitao's ceiling is that high.

[MUBoxer]

You mean they hired a guy who was an assistant under Calhoun at northeastern and took over when Calhoun left and then went in to lose 2 dozen games in a season, and then was mediocre at DePaul and sucked at Virginia?

Not quite.

The point was made that DePaul should have hired a successful assistant. Well, what assistant was out there that had a better resume than Dave Leitao? He was Calhoun's top assistant on two different occasions at UConn, including during the '99 National Championship. He's recruited big-time players as both an assistant and a Head Coach.

Dwayne stephens, kenny payne, kurtis townsend.

[Hoya Hoya Hoya]

I don't care about a new arena. That won't mean shit if they still have the same AD. Fire EVERYONE.

[GoldenWarrior11]

When DePaul fired Oliver Purnell, they hired a search firm for hiring their next head coach. That search firm pointed them to both Bobby Hurley and Scott Drew, both of whom wanted nothing to do with the restrictions put on them in retaining Billy Garrett Sr. as a coach. Instead, they went to a former head coach that left them for a better job, and that hasn't been a head coach at the D1 level in six years. What led them to the hire was the fact that two former players emailed JLP and said he was a good coach while there, he had "Big East experience" as an assistant under Jim Calhoun close to 15 years ago, and "defeated the likes of Tom Crean, John Calipari, Rick Pitino and Bob Huggins while in Conference-USA."

Why hire a younger, energetic young coach? In JLP's eyes, youth and innovation is overrated. "To me it was about the energy of the coach — all four guys in the Final Four are over 60,'' Lenti Ponsetto said. "(And) Coach Ray at 70 had more energy than players." Yes, JLP just compared DePaul to the likes of Michigan State, Kentucky, Duke and Wisconsin.