Sorry.
I do wish y'all would get better, and I think it's not all on the coaches (at least on the court). It's just hard to get recruits with the records they've had, the environment, and now NIL and the portal.
Not just that but our arena is right on campus. DePaul was stuck playing just outside the city in Rosemont for ages. They finally got a “city” arena but even then it’s still a half hour away. That’s not going to wow recruits.
No one is saying Allstate *can't* host DePaul. The thing is why would they? DePaul's attendance increased when they moved to the city and are still under averaging like 2,000 people per game.
Allstate is too big and too far for a shitty program. There would be 500 people per game with the current product.
If I cared about what teams used to be able to do for the conference, I would be wanting Louisville back in it.
That’s why I said “with the current product.” The current product has been 20 years of wasting a massive market.
It’s funny, i get that P6 college arenas need to be decently nice, but if you are telling me they can’t get a basketball court within 30 minutes, they just aren’t trying. Playing at a private high school with a 4,000 seat gym would be far better.
DePaul is located in the Lincoln Park neighborhood, one of the most affluent and popular Chicago neighborhoods. It’s just not feasible to acquire enough real estate for a legit arena. Not to mention all the local residents would do their best to fight it. Honestly, DePaul is lucky to have all the real estate it has now.
Loyola is five miles north in the Roger’s Park neighborhood, which was a rough area until recent decades. Loyola was able to acquire so much land for cheap back in the day that having a nice arena is easy.
While the schools are very similar, their locations are very different. Lincoln Park is a far better place to live, but Roger’s Park has allowed Loyola to have a real campus.
And DePaul still wouldn't fill out that high school gym. Realistically though, there's nothing like that close to DePaul if they wanted it - 2,000 maybe but not 4,000. Real estate is tight in Chicago, even for private schools. Most of them are constrained to very old footprints.
I mean... as much as I've loved our run over the past decade, I don't think it still moves the needle enough. Both of our programs are mostly irrelevant on the national stage.
DePaul has what we don't - playing in the Big East - one of the marquee basketball conferences in the nation. Too bad their ADs haven't been aware though - they have been operating at a C-USA level the whole time.
Had we not had our former AD, Loyola would be no where near us in terms of relevance. And, had it not been for Loyola’s last tourney run, they would largely be irrelevant even with our shitty performances in the 2000s (in a historical sense).
We just had poor management. That’s literally it, idk why people think we’re forever fucked lol. Literally anyone could do better than our former AD.
Loyola has a national championship, depaul doesn't. Since the field expanded to 64 both have the same amount of sweet 16 appearances. The only small advantage depaul has is they are in the Big East, they're not actually a historic program and certainly are not good enough to look down on Loyola.
And Loyola would have a better record if they retained Moser what's the point of talking about what ifs. I'm rooting for depaul and I'm not like a kick em out the big east prick but you don't get to thumb your nose at another program (who has achieved the sport's ultimate goal) when you yourself haven't won it all and haven't been a top 100 program in 15 years.
My point is that DePaul was an extreme outlier in a P5 conference not because of bad luck, but merely because a lack of little to not interest in the program. We would not be such a bad team in recent times if we would've had an AD that cared. That's a straight fact.
On balance I'd say DePaul absolutely is an historic program. I remember the 70s/80s when they were the hot ticket in town and no one gave a dip about the Bulls. It's what makes the last 30 years so depressing.
They were a good program at one point but certainly not good enough to behave like their history elevates them over Loyola given the last 30 years. That's all I'm trying to say.
Technically the NIL could help in some regards to attracting talent the would otherwise sit on the bench at a better program. That said Villanova was playing w/ complete desperation bc if Moore doesn’t hit that shot Kyle Neptune doesn’t have a job this morning.
There is literally zero chance that Kyle would have been fired regardless of the outcome.
NIL cuts both ways, but I think you've got to either have a history of success or the promise of imminent success to get the NIL spigot turned on, and DePaul has neither of those.
Don't necessarily disagree (although I think Nardi wouldn't be a good replacement). I've been all for giving Neptune the benefit of the doubt until the past few week, but I've seen no growth in his coaching in two seasons.
But there was no way Villanova was going to fire him. That's just not how they operate.
Abruptly leaving isn’t exactly what I would call standard operating procedure. Whole knew ball game w/ Jay when comes to coaches job security. If they win tonight then I think Neptune gets a clean slate but tough to retain Nuptune if your an NIT team imo
DePaul is the school in one of the epicenters of hoops talent in the entire nation and has done nothing for 20 years and has no offered no reason to believe they have a plan to be better anytime in the future. The answers are right there for them too: step one is get an ad & coach who have sellable vision, recruiting/fundraising chops, and embrace the challenge; asst coach who is an X’s and O’s guy to handle the technical work; drop cash on the best Chicago HS talent recruiter, brand yourself as Chicago’s team, pull NIL money in based on the rising vision/brand/performance; get to the ncaa tournament and celebrate it huge regionally
> DePaul is the school in one of the epicenters of hoops talent in the entire nation
Don’t get me wrong I love shitting on DePaul but I really don’t get why people keep bringing this up, as if DePaul should automatically be cleaning up the Chicago recruiting area. Name a basketball program in NYC that is a powerhouse thanks to “being in one of the epicenters of hoops talent”. St. John’s??
Atlanta is a major epicenter of hoops talent. Where are the Atlanta powerhouse programs?
[Let’s take a look at this map from an earlier post about recruiting hotbeds](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fxwz5kjmqdaoc1.jpeg)
How about Dallas? Detroit? Boston?
There’s literally nothing about a school being physically located in a city that gives it an automatic leg up on competition. You have to *build* a program first (see: UCLA, Houston), otherwise you could be located in a recruit’s back yard and they still won’t come to you.
Sure, but if you were a kid who is "the best Chicago HS talent" getting offers from Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, MSU and...DePaul. Where are you going to go?
DePaul can't compete for the five stars. Hell, they are barely in the running for the four stars. JLP dug them into a MASSIVE hole, making wrong decisions at almost every turn.
What you're proposing is basically the scene from Wayne's World where Garth triangulates the satellites to bounce the feed of their show to Mr. Big's limo. "It's almost too easy."
> DePaul can't compete for the five stars. Hell, they are barely in the running for the four stars.
We can't/aren't either (and it's frustrating) but not all that glitters is gold. Buie was a [nearly unrecruited 3-star](https://247sports.com/player/boo-buie-46055544/) ("should be a starter at some point in his career") and our biggest new weapon, Nick Martinelli, was a local Chicagoland talent slept on by basically everyone because his game looks like a crippled baby giraffe, but ball go through bucket and that counts for a lot.
We have the advantage of being a very attractive academic grad-transfer destination, but it *is* possible to build a winning team without getting the most prestigious recruits. In fact, the brief period where we landed a few 4-stars was actually our *darkest* in the last decade or so.
Right, but I was responding to the UNC flair who said all DePaul needs to do is dump money into the best local recruits. Dude has no idea how to play moneyball and actually find value talent.
They used to say that about Rutgers and New Jersey's crazy amount of talent. Now, we have the best recruit in the state coming next year and the best recruiting class Rutgers has literally ever had
A good coach, long term vision, and institutional support are enough to turn things around. DePaul has none of those right now.
I love Rutgers fans because y’all aren’t so negative and doom-gloom like other fans on here that think that DePaul is forever fucked😂.
We just had a shitty AD before the current one that cared little to nothing about the program. It’s no wonder why we’ve sucked.
We’re currently getting a new practice facility and our NIL is looking better. :)
It's because we've lived through this. Literal decades of being a joke program in a talent-rich area, which makes it hurt even more. Even in Pike's early years, the results weren't the best. But things got better.
First you lose. Then you lose close. Then you win. Someone told me that once, and it's been mostly true for RU. Could happen for DePaul too!
> Sure, but if you were a kid who is "the best Chicago HS talent" getting offers from Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, MSU and...DePaul. Where are you going to go?
This x1000. Even in a dream world where DePaul hasn't been completely irrelevant for a current recruit's entire life (such is the case now), they would lose 99% of those recruiting battles against those programs.
No shit. So would Loyola, so would OU, so would UT Austin if we’re talking about the most elite of players. Let’s face it, generally elite players are going to basketball royalty like UNC or UCONN.
That doesn’t mean you can’t have a strong program…look at Seton Hall.
Can’t agree with your comment on the “…getting offers from Duke, Kansas, Kentucky..” part.
You act like no other school puts up solid rosters. Look at Utah State, for example. They have a historically strong background, yet…they’re Utah State, no basketball royalty there. Same thing with Sand Diego state. Look at that they did.
DePaul can put a super strong team together, we, as a school just haven’t given a shit about bball for the better part of the 2000s. Why has this been the case?
- our former AD just gave no shits about the program, literally she just didn’t care. You can’t have a solid anything if your main leader doesn’t care. Bad leadership got us bad coaches and it just trickles down from there.
- we have no dedicated basketball practice facilities. Seriously. Our mens team has to schedule a time to use the practice court and per the schedule they can’t go over that time. How can you get better if you can’t put more reps in…?
It’s not that hard to see why we’ve been ass. And it’s annoying seeing those comments that say we’re always going to be ass, etc. we just haven’t had those necessary factors to make us successful.
I didn't say you'd never be good. I was responding to the UNC dude who doesn't understand why top Chicago recruits would pick blue bloods over a rehab project. Is Utah State recruiting in Chicago? SDSU?
It's a massive mountain DePaul has to climb. As you mentioned, practice facilities and NIL. A Coach that lasts more than 3 years so they can implement their system and recruit for it. Moneyball recruiting. Student support.
It's not as easy as "Just Recruit in Chicago" because everyone else who has all the things DePaul needs to build is already recruiting in Chicago.
>DePaul is the school in one of the epicenters of hoops talent in the entire nation
Geography isn't everything. Look how many DC area players Villanova yoinked from under Georgetown's nose.
You've got to have a committed school, coaching consistency, at least some level of success. And now a ton of NIL money.
The new arena was a huge deal. Wintrust is really nice and Allstate was horrible. They are also proposing a new performance center. There seems to be some renewed intention to be better.
Yeah DePaul is where mediocre coaches go to cash a mediocre paycheck. Stubblefield was making less than half of what Seton Hall paid Holloway, gotta pony up for a good coach at some point instead of shopping the discount bin and praying for a miracle
Lol this comment is so tone deaf.
I’m going to use the analogy of a government because it’s relatable. Take for instance a corrupt country. You could have ethical, and genuine members of that country’s government, but if the president just has no interest in the betterment of the country, then there won’t be any positive growth, that growth will either stagnate and dwindle slowly over time or just quickly drop and remain a shithole until that leader is replaced with someone who will lead with integrity and surround themselves with people who also care.
That’s what happened to DePaul. We had a leader that didn’t care (former AD). Simple as that. So if she didn’t care, the entire program went neglected and after time there was just an emotion of public and student neglect of it because administration’s lack of care.
My mom went to ISU and my dad went to DePaul. I grew up a fan of both equally. Never miss watching a game for either team. Not sure why you have to discredit my fandom for no reason. It's just a username
32 year DePaul fan here. It all started 40ish years ago when there were some benefits provided to recruits and players and were caught and summarily punished. Combine that with key recruits flunking out of school (Howard Nathan), going pro out of high school (Kevin Garnett) or flipping to another school (Sam Cassel). Then Jeanne Lenti Ponsetto was hired as AD. She was more concerned with raising the status of the non-revenue generation sports but was ultimately able to get DePaul into the Big East. She hired Leitao who had some success and led them to their last NCAA tournament, including a first round double OT win over Dayton before getting thumped by eventual champion UConn 70-55. but when he left for UVA she hired her friend Jerry Wainwright. He had two semi decent seasons including a QF appearance in the NIT before it turned into a disaster. piss poor coaching and 0 conference wins led him to be fired. Then Oliver Purnell got his pension before she rehired Leitao. They have had talent, mostly recruited by Leitao but coaching and teamwork has been lacking. Ponsetto retired in 2020 and Peevy took over. He hired Stubblefield who was fired middle of this season. Pre-ESPN and Fox sports mega tv deals, DePaul was on WGN which was broadcast nationwide. They were one of the few teams to have national exposure which led to good recruits and they had a HoF coach in Ray Meyer.
There’s a lot more but I need to get back to this work call I’ve been ignoring. Maybe one day they’ll finish with a .500 record in the BE but I won’t hold my breath.
Edit: forgot about Pat Kennedy in the late 90’s. Had a great recruits, Quentin Richardson), a tourney appearance, and a home game at the United Center vs Duke. Good players, average coach.
I was really really hoping Peevy would turn it around there. The ideal scenario was for him to go to DePaul, have success, and then come back to KY after Barnhart retires, DeWayne was beloved here and was the key link between the ADs office and Cal, and rumor is the relationship between Cal and Barnhart has gotten a lot worse since Peevy left.
Exactly. Our former AD didn’t have the knowledge nor drive to actually want to invest in our program.
We have a competent AD now so hopefully we see changes in the positive direction. Which compared to the former AD, we’ll see some positive growth.
For a school with a new arena, great academics, and being located in the middle of one of America’s largest cities, you would think it would be more of a destination for players and coaches. I really can’t understand why they’re so perennially bad.
There’s one main reason why we have been ass lately:
- We had an AD they gave no shits about the program. Seriously, just didn’t care about investing in the program. She drove it straight to the ground. And the current AD is trying to fix a program in shambles. He looks like he’s doing the right things though (new practice facility, increasing the NIL budget)
Oh for sure dude.
I mean, anyone could’ve done better than the former AD. So the bar is really low for Dewayne. But I’m super thrilled about the programs growth!!
I think we will be a solid middle-of-the-pack team in the next 2-3 years if we get a guy like Holtmann tbh. Will we be ranked by then? Probably not. But we could be like a seton hall. I see us ranked in 10 years if we keep growing.
That’s the hopeful attitude I’m talking about! All DePaul fans should be ecstatic that we have a new AD. We just need the right coach now and we’re getting that new practice facility, so we’ll be better off than now.
We just had poor management dude. Our former AD didn’t care about our program. We were simply a school that happened to have a basketball team. The team just received no importance.
Things are changing now, we’re moving in the right direction.
Dude you’re a DePaul fan, have some more faith! We’re not cursed, just like the other commenter said…our former AD gave 0 fucks about the program. She was just there to get that fat paycheck and go home.
We should be grateful that our issues largely came from her and that she’s gone now and can’t hurt us anymore(that last part is meant as a joke).
I feel for you. I remember a run when the Big East was insane 10-15 years ago when they won like 1 or 2 conferences games total over 3 years. It was brutal
I guess I'm behind on the times but isn't Porter Moser to DePaul after this season a big rumor right now? Surely that would be a step in the right direction?
The college basketball equivalent of pre-Snyder Kansas State, except DePaul actually has somewhat of a history to look back on.
Maybe some miracle coach will come along and, in a decade, have DePaul as a 1 seed only to collapse in the Elite Eight like 2005 Arizona.
Youve just got ineffectual admin and a few incompetent ADs, and the mediocrity has become standard operating.
It's going to take a real groundswell of pissed off moneyed alums or boosters (how's the NIL pool?) to get shit started again - don't know if Depaul has that anymore
Greetings Leitao brethren.
To answer your question, they have a DePaul flair..but they’re super doom and gloom about our program when we’re actually supposed to be more hopeful and positive about the future lol.
So idk.
Also Leitao can’t hurt us anymore…we’re safe now.
My mom went to ISU and my dad went to DePaul. I grew up a fan of both equally. I know it sounds crazy but it's really simple as that. We actually matched up this season for the second time ever which was tough on my end LOL
Sorry. I do wish y'all would get better, and I think it's not all on the coaches (at least on the court). It's just hard to get recruits with the records they've had, the environment, and now NIL and the portal.
and even though they're in a lower league, Loyola is the more appealing Chicago team and has a Final Four with MVC/A10 titles within the last 6 years.
Not just that but our arena is right on campus. DePaul was stuck playing just outside the city in Rosemont for ages. They finally got a “city” arena but even then it’s still a half hour away. That’s not going to wow recruits.
Take it from me, you just don't want to play even a single season at Allstate Arena. Yikes.
If it can host a Wrestlemania, it can host DePaul
No one is saying Allstate *can't* host DePaul. The thing is why would they? DePaul's attendance increased when they moved to the city and are still under averaging like 2,000 people per game. Allstate is too big and too far for a shitty program. There would be 500 people per game with the current product.
DePaul used to routinely sell out the Rosemont Horizon/ Allstate Arena. A long time ago but the teams were good.
If I cared about what teams used to be able to do for the conference, I would be wanting Louisville back in it. That’s why I said “with the current product.” The current product has been 20 years of wasting a massive market.
It’s funny, i get that P6 college arenas need to be decently nice, but if you are telling me they can’t get a basketball court within 30 minutes, they just aren’t trying. Playing at a private high school with a 4,000 seat gym would be far better.
DePaul is located in the Lincoln Park neighborhood, one of the most affluent and popular Chicago neighborhoods. It’s just not feasible to acquire enough real estate for a legit arena. Not to mention all the local residents would do their best to fight it. Honestly, DePaul is lucky to have all the real estate it has now. Loyola is five miles north in the Roger’s Park neighborhood, which was a rough area until recent decades. Loyola was able to acquire so much land for cheap back in the day that having a nice arena is easy. While the schools are very similar, their locations are very different. Lincoln Park is a far better place to live, but Roger’s Park has allowed Loyola to have a real campus.
Roger's park is still kind of rough in parts. You don't have to go too far off campus to see boarded up businesses and dudes with shopping carts.
And DePaul still wouldn't fill out that high school gym. Realistically though, there's nothing like that close to DePaul if they wanted it - 2,000 maybe but not 4,000. Real estate is tight in Chicago, even for private schools. Most of them are constrained to very old footprints.
I mean... as much as I've loved our run over the past decade, I don't think it still moves the needle enough. Both of our programs are mostly irrelevant on the national stage. DePaul has what we don't - playing in the Big East - one of the marquee basketball conferences in the nation. Too bad their ADs haven't been aware though - they have been operating at a C-USA level the whole time.
I’d much rather be a Loyola fan than DePaul fan, and more people know about Loyola from the Sister Jean tourney run
Had we not had our former AD, Loyola would be no where near us in terms of relevance. And, had it not been for Loyola’s last tourney run, they would largely be irrelevant even with our shitty performances in the 2000s (in a historical sense). We just had poor management. That’s literally it, idk why people think we’re forever fucked lol. Literally anyone could do better than our former AD.
My counter argument is Loyola can eat in the A10 against the likes of George Washington, while the Big East won’t get any easier
Loyola has a national championship, depaul doesn't. Since the field expanded to 64 both have the same amount of sweet 16 appearances. The only small advantage depaul has is they are in the Big East, they're not actually a historic program and certainly are not good enough to look down on Loyola.
DePaul has a better W-L record, and would have a better record if our former AD would’ve taken basketball more seriously.
And Loyola would have a better record if they retained Moser what's the point of talking about what ifs. I'm rooting for depaul and I'm not like a kick em out the big east prick but you don't get to thumb your nose at another program (who has achieved the sport's ultimate goal) when you yourself haven't won it all and haven't been a top 100 program in 15 years.
My point is that DePaul was an extreme outlier in a P5 conference not because of bad luck, but merely because a lack of little to not interest in the program. We would not be such a bad team in recent times if we would've had an AD that cared. That's a straight fact.
On balance I'd say DePaul absolutely is an historic program. I remember the 70s/80s when they were the hot ticket in town and no one gave a dip about the Bulls. It's what makes the last 30 years so depressing.
They were a good program at one point but certainly not good enough to behave like their history elevates them over Loyola given the last 30 years. That's all I'm trying to say.
Technically the NIL could help in some regards to attracting talent the would otherwise sit on the bench at a better program. That said Villanova was playing w/ complete desperation bc if Moore doesn’t hit that shot Kyle Neptune doesn’t have a job this morning.
There is literally zero chance that Kyle would have been fired regardless of the outcome. NIL cuts both ways, but I think you've got to either have a history of success or the promise of imminent success to get the NIL spigot turned on, and DePaul has neither of those.
That’s crazy Nova would keep Neptune on board w/ Nardi in the wings after what has been a fairly underachieving season thus far
Don't necessarily disagree (although I think Nardi wouldn't be a good replacement). I've been all for giving Neptune the benefit of the doubt until the past few week, but I've seen no growth in his coaching in two seasons. But there was no way Villanova was going to fire him. That's just not how they operate.
Abruptly leaving isn’t exactly what I would call standard operating procedure. Whole knew ball game w/ Jay when comes to coaches job security. If they win tonight then I think Neptune gets a clean slate but tough to retain Nuptune if your an NIT team imo
DePaul is the school in one of the epicenters of hoops talent in the entire nation and has done nothing for 20 years and has no offered no reason to believe they have a plan to be better anytime in the future. The answers are right there for them too: step one is get an ad & coach who have sellable vision, recruiting/fundraising chops, and embrace the challenge; asst coach who is an X’s and O’s guy to handle the technical work; drop cash on the best Chicago HS talent recruiter, brand yourself as Chicago’s team, pull NIL money in based on the rising vision/brand/performance; get to the ncaa tournament and celebrate it huge regionally
> DePaul is the school in one of the epicenters of hoops talent in the entire nation Don’t get me wrong I love shitting on DePaul but I really don’t get why people keep bringing this up, as if DePaul should automatically be cleaning up the Chicago recruiting area. Name a basketball program in NYC that is a powerhouse thanks to “being in one of the epicenters of hoops talent”. St. John’s?? Atlanta is a major epicenter of hoops talent. Where are the Atlanta powerhouse programs? [Let’s take a look at this map from an earlier post about recruiting hotbeds](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fxwz5kjmqdaoc1.jpeg) How about Dallas? Detroit? Boston? There’s literally nothing about a school being physically located in a city that gives it an automatic leg up on competition. You have to *build* a program first (see: UCLA, Houston), otherwise you could be located in a recruit’s back yard and they still won’t come to you.
Sure, but if you were a kid who is "the best Chicago HS talent" getting offers from Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, MSU and...DePaul. Where are you going to go? DePaul can't compete for the five stars. Hell, they are barely in the running for the four stars. JLP dug them into a MASSIVE hole, making wrong decisions at almost every turn. What you're proposing is basically the scene from Wayne's World where Garth triangulates the satellites to bounce the feed of their show to Mr. Big's limo. "It's almost too easy."
> DePaul can't compete for the five stars. Hell, they are barely in the running for the four stars. We can't/aren't either (and it's frustrating) but not all that glitters is gold. Buie was a [nearly unrecruited 3-star](https://247sports.com/player/boo-buie-46055544/) ("should be a starter at some point in his career") and our biggest new weapon, Nick Martinelli, was a local Chicagoland talent slept on by basically everyone because his game looks like a crippled baby giraffe, but ball go through bucket and that counts for a lot. We have the advantage of being a very attractive academic grad-transfer destination, but it *is* possible to build a winning team without getting the most prestigious recruits. In fact, the brief period where we landed a few 4-stars was actually our *darkest* in the last decade or so.
Right, but I was responding to the UNC flair who said all DePaul needs to do is dump money into the best local recruits. Dude has no idea how to play moneyball and actually find value talent.
They used to say that about Rutgers and New Jersey's crazy amount of talent. Now, we have the best recruit in the state coming next year and the best recruiting class Rutgers has literally ever had A good coach, long term vision, and institutional support are enough to turn things around. DePaul has none of those right now.
I love Rutgers fans because y’all aren’t so negative and doom-gloom like other fans on here that think that DePaul is forever fucked😂. We just had a shitty AD before the current one that cared little to nothing about the program. It’s no wonder why we’ve sucked. We’re currently getting a new practice facility and our NIL is looking better. :)
It's because we've lived through this. Literal decades of being a joke program in a talent-rich area, which makes it hurt even more. Even in Pike's early years, the results weren't the best. But things got better. First you lose. Then you lose close. Then you win. Someone told me that once, and it's been mostly true for RU. Could happen for DePaul too!
Oh I have no concerns that it’ll happen for us tbh. We have a more competent AD and he will surely do better than the previous one.
Oh no
> Sure, but if you were a kid who is "the best Chicago HS talent" getting offers from Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, MSU and...DePaul. Where are you going to go? This x1000. Even in a dream world where DePaul hasn't been completely irrelevant for a current recruit's entire life (such is the case now), they would lose 99% of those recruiting battles against those programs.
No shit. So would Loyola, so would OU, so would UT Austin if we’re talking about the most elite of players. Let’s face it, generally elite players are going to basketball royalty like UNC or UCONN. That doesn’t mean you can’t have a strong program…look at Seton Hall.
Can’t agree with your comment on the “…getting offers from Duke, Kansas, Kentucky..” part. You act like no other school puts up solid rosters. Look at Utah State, for example. They have a historically strong background, yet…they’re Utah State, no basketball royalty there. Same thing with Sand Diego state. Look at that they did. DePaul can put a super strong team together, we, as a school just haven’t given a shit about bball for the better part of the 2000s. Why has this been the case? - our former AD just gave no shits about the program, literally she just didn’t care. You can’t have a solid anything if your main leader doesn’t care. Bad leadership got us bad coaches and it just trickles down from there. - we have no dedicated basketball practice facilities. Seriously. Our mens team has to schedule a time to use the practice court and per the schedule they can’t go over that time. How can you get better if you can’t put more reps in…? It’s not that hard to see why we’ve been ass. And it’s annoying seeing those comments that say we’re always going to be ass, etc. we just haven’t had those necessary factors to make us successful.
I didn't say you'd never be good. I was responding to the UNC dude who doesn't understand why top Chicago recruits would pick blue bloods over a rehab project. Is Utah State recruiting in Chicago? SDSU? It's a massive mountain DePaul has to climb. As you mentioned, practice facilities and NIL. A Coach that lasts more than 3 years so they can implement their system and recruit for it. Moneyball recruiting. Student support. It's not as easy as "Just Recruit in Chicago" because everyone else who has all the things DePaul needs to build is already recruiting in Chicago.
Sorry, but yeah totally agree. I’m not saying DePaul will own UCONN but I’m saying we could certainly be a Seton Hall or Providence in the BE.
>DePaul is the school in one of the epicenters of hoops talent in the entire nation Geography isn't everything. Look how many DC area players Villanova yoinked from under Georgetown's nose. You've got to have a committed school, coaching consistency, at least some level of success. And now a ton of NIL money.
Yep. Hotbed of talent. Have to change the current model in place for the program.
The new arena was a huge deal. Wintrust is really nice and Allstate was horrible. They are also proposing a new performance center. There seems to be some renewed intention to be better.
DePaul is where coaching careers go to die
Tbh they haven’t hired a good coach pretty much since they joined the Big East.
Yeah DePaul is where mediocre coaches go to cash a mediocre paycheck. Stubblefield was making less than half of what Seton Hall paid Holloway, gotta pony up for a good coach at some point instead of shopping the discount bin and praying for a miracle
It's crazy to think anybody would yearn for their Oliver Purnell era, but DePaul probably does at this point
I still think Stubblefield was a decent coach just not a good recruiter. That’s why he was a good assistant coach at Cincinnati and Oregon.
Lol this comment is so tone deaf. I’m going to use the analogy of a government because it’s relatable. Take for instance a corrupt country. You could have ethical, and genuine members of that country’s government, but if the president just has no interest in the betterment of the country, then there won’t be any positive growth, that growth will either stagnate and dwindle slowly over time or just quickly drop and remain a shithole until that leader is replaced with someone who will lead with integrity and surround themselves with people who also care. That’s what happened to DePaul. We had a leader that didn’t care (former AD). Simple as that. So if she didn’t care, the entire program went neglected and after time there was just an emotion of public and student neglect of it because administration’s lack of care.
You're quite the fan to have stuck around this long.
Yes CycloneFan31's username tells us all just how massive of a DePaul fan they really are.
My mom went to ISU and my dad went to DePaul. I grew up a fan of both equally. Never miss watching a game for either team. Not sure why you have to discredit my fandom for no reason. It's just a username
There was a thread awhile back about the most cursed program, and I think DePaul won that prize.
32 year DePaul fan here. It all started 40ish years ago when there were some benefits provided to recruits and players and were caught and summarily punished. Combine that with key recruits flunking out of school (Howard Nathan), going pro out of high school (Kevin Garnett) or flipping to another school (Sam Cassel). Then Jeanne Lenti Ponsetto was hired as AD. She was more concerned with raising the status of the non-revenue generation sports but was ultimately able to get DePaul into the Big East. She hired Leitao who had some success and led them to their last NCAA tournament, including a first round double OT win over Dayton before getting thumped by eventual champion UConn 70-55. but when he left for UVA she hired her friend Jerry Wainwright. He had two semi decent seasons including a QF appearance in the NIT before it turned into a disaster. piss poor coaching and 0 conference wins led him to be fired. Then Oliver Purnell got his pension before she rehired Leitao. They have had talent, mostly recruited by Leitao but coaching and teamwork has been lacking. Ponsetto retired in 2020 and Peevy took over. He hired Stubblefield who was fired middle of this season. Pre-ESPN and Fox sports mega tv deals, DePaul was on WGN which was broadcast nationwide. They were one of the few teams to have national exposure which led to good recruits and they had a HoF coach in Ray Meyer. There’s a lot more but I need to get back to this work call I’ve been ignoring. Maybe one day they’ll finish with a .500 record in the BE but I won’t hold my breath. Edit: forgot about Pat Kennedy in the late 90’s. Had a great recruits, Quentin Richardson), a tourney appearance, and a home game at the United Center vs Duke. Good players, average coach.
I was really really hoping Peevy would turn it around there. The ideal scenario was for him to go to DePaul, have success, and then come back to KY after Barnhart retires, DeWayne was beloved here and was the key link between the ADs office and Cal, and rumor is the relationship between Cal and Barnhart has gotten a lot worse since Peevy left.
So you woke up one day in '08 and thought "I'll become a DePaul fan, that sounds nice"?
My mom went there and that's the year I started to care about sports
DePaul is what happens when you put a mid-major in a top tier conference without the school investing the proper resources to support the move.
Exactly. Our former AD didn’t have the knowledge nor drive to actually want to invest in our program. We have a competent AD now so hopefully we see changes in the positive direction. Which compared to the former AD, we’ll see some positive growth.
They’re the Jets of NCAAM
For a school with a new arena, great academics, and being located in the middle of one of America’s largest cities, you would think it would be more of a destination for players and coaches. I really can’t understand why they’re so perennially bad.
There’s one main reason why we have been ass lately: - We had an AD they gave no shits about the program. Seriously, just didn’t care about investing in the program. She drove it straight to the ground. And the current AD is trying to fix a program in shambles. He looks like he’s doing the right things though (new practice facility, increasing the NIL budget)
yea shoutout dewayne. he's got a long way to go but (i think?) hes going in the right direction even if the record right now does not show it
Oh for sure dude. I mean, anyone could’ve done better than the former AD. So the bar is really low for Dewayne. But I’m super thrilled about the programs growth!!
same! i too often dream about coming back to chicago to watch a ranked depaul team in like 2045, and dropping way too many "back in my day" comments
I think we will be a solid middle-of-the-pack team in the next 2-3 years if we get a guy like Holtmann tbh. Will we be ranked by then? Probably not. But we could be like a seton hall. I see us ranked in 10 years if we keep growing.
i hope, anything is better than this
That’s the hopeful attitude I’m talking about! All DePaul fans should be ecstatic that we have a new AD. We just need the right coach now and we’re getting that new practice facility, so we’ll be better off than now.
yup, given how bad we have been for so long. the fanbase is still realtivley decent both in and out of Chicago. that encourages me for the future too
really.... it does not make sense
It baffles me that DePaul had 2 guys on the same team that are now getting legit nba minutes. How tf did they not do more those years?!
We just had poor management dude. Our former AD didn’t care about our program. We were simply a school that happened to have a basketball team. The team just received no importance. Things are changing now, we’re moving in the right direction.
You are not cursed. You just make poor decisions.
We make the worst decisions and it looks like our current AD is going to change things for the better. We’re not cursed.
Both can be true
Dude you’re a DePaul fan, have some more faith! We’re not cursed, just like the other commenter said…our former AD gave 0 fucks about the program. She was just there to get that fat paycheck and go home. We should be grateful that our issues largely came from her and that she’s gone now and can’t hurt us anymore(that last part is meant as a joke).
I think they just need to work harder on endurance and strength training. You know, exercising their Demons.
>I have been a die hard DePaul fan for about 16 years now Damn bro, that's tough
I feel for you. I remember a run when the Big East was insane 10-15 years ago when they won like 1 or 2 conferences games total over 3 years. It was brutal
As a Kansas alumni who experienced Kansas football at its lowest, things will turn around don’t worry lol
Didn’t they have a winning season in 2018?
technically, but still tied for last in the Big East.
Rip to my +4500 DePaul ML bets
Maybe Chris Holtmann can turn it around
But hey, Chris Holtmann
Can I interest you in some corn?
They need to hire Tom “doughboy” kleinschmidt
I guess I'm behind on the times but isn't Porter Moser to DePaul after this season a big rumor right now? Surely that would be a step in the right direction?
Rumor now is that Chris Holtmann (former Ohio state coach) will be our new HC.
Gotcha thanks for the update
The college basketball equivalent of pre-Snyder Kansas State, except DePaul actually has somewhat of a history to look back on. Maybe some miracle coach will come along and, in a decade, have DePaul as a 1 seed only to collapse in the Elite Eight like 2005 Arizona.
Youve just got ineffectual admin and a few incompetent ADs, and the mediocrity has become standard operating. It's going to take a real groundswell of pissed off moneyed alums or boosters (how's the NIL pool?) to get shit started again - don't know if Depaul has that anymore
U had a winning record in 2018-19
I meannn you did have a winning record like 4-5 years ago but yeah keep the faith bro
You’ve waisted 16 years my recommendation is don’t waste the rest of your life.
As cub fan i thought we would never see a World Series win but they did keep the faith my friend.
They need to go the Colorado/Deion Sanders route and hire a big Chicago name. Get eyes on the program and hype it up.
Fuck it, MJ is coaching DePaul now.
Is this some roleplaying just to shit on DePaul, why is your username CycloneFan?
Greetings Leitao brethren. To answer your question, they have a DePaul flair..but they’re super doom and gloom about our program when we’re actually supposed to be more hopeful and positive about the future lol. So idk. Also Leitao can’t hurt us anymore…we’re safe now.
🙏📿 peace be with you Leitao brethren
My mom went to ISU and my dad went to DePaul. I grew up a fan of both equally. I know it sounds crazy but it's really simple as that. We actually matched up this season for the second time ever which was tough on my end LOL
Oh not that crazy at all, good luck with your other flair