Joe Orr Road Rod wrote:
bigfan wrote:
They became famous the same way to Cubs did...WGN TV! Every game was on TV and back in the day, that was a HUGE deal!
And Al McGuire had just retired after his championship and he loved Meyer and DePaul and really promoted them when they were on the NBC game. I remember they first hit the radar nationally when NBC cut away from a blowout game to DePaul-Notre Dame and Gary Garland (Whitney Houston's brother) hit a shot to beat the Irish. That was the game where Ponsetto kicked the radio-controlled car.
First of all, moment of silence for Al McGuire please...Thank you. It was pretty cool once upon a time that DePaul basketball was actually a bigger deal than the Bulls. I'm old enough to remember when the Blue Demons' program was actually relevant, with the games on WGN Radio & TV, as well as nationally televised games on NBC with the late former Marquette basketball coach, a young Billy Packer & Dick Enberg calling the games with the late, great Ray Meyer on the sidelines.
I think once DePaul left WGN, I think in part when Ray's son Joey Meyer was unceremoniously dumped as head coach, the program seemed to go down with it. In fact, I think the last time the Blue Demons went dancin' in the NCAA Basketball Tournament, Dave Leitao was head coach and they got schooled by Connecticut if memory serves in Buffalo. Leitao's name came up on "SCORE Overnight" with Les Grobstein, and according to the Grobber, the onetime former UCONN Assistant used DePaul as leverage to bolt to the University of Virginia. Leitao lasted 4 years before he got fired, if memory serves in Charlottesville.
As for the current state of DePaul hoops, they have been competitive in a handful of games, but haven't been able to finish teams off such as St. John's in both meetings this season, nationally-ranked Louisville this past Saturday in OT, as well as at Notre Dame 2 weeks ago. These are baby steps right now for head coach Oliver Purnell's program. They still don't belong in the Big East.