There is not a reason in the world De Paul cannot be as good as Xavier, Creighton or Marquette. All Midwest, urban, catholic schools playing in the same conference.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

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Let's hope DeWayne Peevy has a better understanding of college basketball than Jean Lenti-Ponsetto did.

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Maybe LoHo should volunteer to mentor Mr. Peevy on how basketball works.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

cross him off then!

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

I've been following them closely since the late 90's. During that period of time, they have never had good coaching and good players at the same time. In the late 90's they had great players (Quentin Richardson, Bobby Simmons, Lance Williams, Paul McPherson, etc.), but a coach who couldn't coach his way out of a paper bag (Pat Kennedy). I actually think Leitao is a decent x's and o' guy, he just can't recruit. If you gave him Quentin Richardson level talent, I think he would have done a lot more with it than Kennedy did.

Was there any truth to the rumors that Kennedy may have violated some rules during his time there? I remember hearing from a few people that it was the reason they pushed him to resign and have stuck to hiring "safe" coaches over the past 15-20 years.

Maybe the new AD will be willing to do what it takes to get a successful coach. I have to imagine they are getting screwed by the Wintrust arena, especially now. Being able to take on a few one-and-dones to at least make the program relevant again would be a nice start.

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I think he had to have violated some rules. They came out of nowhere to land, if memory serves me correctly, the top class for 1997. However, if you're going to cheat you should at least have the decency to win some games. Kennedy's team did that, the current roster (which is actually under NCAA probation), hasn't.

DePaul is using a recruiting firm to conduct its coaching search. That doesn't sound good.

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How is it acceptable for these executives across any number of sports these days to need to hire outside consultants to perform a task that is a very big part of their job descriptions?

The athletic director should have a short list of coaches he's interested in at all times, even if he is satisfied with his current coach.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

It does get them a way out of any diversity and equity allegations regarding the hiring process. "Hey, it wasn't us, we used a recruiting firm who takes care of all of that..."

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

Everybody wants to be a middleman, dolphin. What they don't realize is that there is an entire set of middleman skills that most people do not have.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Including the ability to launder money to get who/what you need.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

DePaul has exactly one (1) ostensible revenue-generating sport: men's basketball.

Virtually the entire interview process for AD candidates should have consisted of a single question: Who are your top 3 choices to replace Dave Leitao?

If the answer is "I'd begin by relying on a search firm to make sure that all qualified candidates are considered," you probably don't want to hire that candidate.

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Do you mean in terms of background checks?

I would assume that almost most universities would include at least one minority candidate in its list of finalists for a basketball head coaching position regardless of whether or not a search firm is coordinating the hiring process.

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It really probably should be the other way around. Figure out who you want as coach and let him hire the AD.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Good point. My assumption was that Peevy was linked to some guy from Kentucky--I can't remember his name--who's now coaching for the Knicks. Maybe that's true and the search firm stuff is just there to make sure the diversity and equity bases are covered, as Chet suggested.

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I saw that Kenny Payne was the targeted guy.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Yeah, that's the guy.

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I disagree whole heartedly that Leitao is a good Xs and O's guy. I've seen more than enough second half collapses in the past few years to contradict that ridiculous notion.

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yea, Kennedy was as dirty as they come. We all knew that. When he was fired I was very happy. In retrospect, I'd kill to have a guy like Kennedy back running the team. At least he could buy good players.

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The DePaul we came to love from Aguirre to Richardson is never to be again. Quite honestly there aren’t that many Chicago kids that are cream NBA talent anymore are there? And if so they go to one and done schools.

The argument the last couple years that they had two NBA players is misleading.

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Elections have consequences.

So very true.

Who had better skills, you, or your former partner?

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

They've had four coaches since Joey Meyer: Kennedy, Leitao, Wainwright, and Purnell. They've had more than their fair share of second half collapses under all of those guys. Therefore, I don't think it's fair to single out Leitao on that basis. Also, I think Leitao is easily a better x's and o's guy than Kennedy. When Kennedy coached that team they didn't appear to be running anything that a reasonable observer would call an offense. I don't know how many times I saw them fail to get a shot off in clutch situations or when the shot clock was running down. I'll entertain an argument that Wainwright and Purnell were better than Leitao, but definitely not Kennedy.

Recruiting and coaching is biggest reason DePaul is no longer relevant, no doubt. That said, there's a lot of secondary challenges.

I was going there right when Joey Meyer was let go and I never felt like the student base gave a shit about basketball. Games were mostly attended by alumni. The school is mostly made up of commuters who don't want to drive to games and the people on campus aren't craving a better program, nor was it easy for them to get to Rosemont for all of those years.

I had heard from some administrators that a bid was put on land near Cabrini Green for a stadium in the late 90's. It obviously never went anywhere. I guess Wintrust is nice, but it still way off campus. Had they been able to build something close and given the area around Lincoln Park, they probably could have made a lot of money for the program.

Finally, in this day and age, what big college basketball recruit wants to spend the winter in Chicago? If I'm playing, its in a warmer climate or at least New York where there's nightlife.

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Villanova has won two out of the last four national championships. They're a tiny Catholic school located in a cold-weather town that is smaller and less interesting than Chicago. If they can do it, maybe DePaul can, too.

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TM, I'm just saying that they are secondary challenges. I have no idea what Villanova does or is doing to stay more relevant DePaul outside of the fact that they win and go to the tournament consistently. Its very possible they just need the right AD and coach and they can become relevant.

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everyone one of those coaches including Joey was fucking terrible. Leitao isn't better than any of those guys including Kennedy.

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Yeah, it's been rough for Chicago ever since winter was invented in the late '90s.

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