MBB Coaching Carousel 2021

[Blue KevIL]

Dave Leitao fired at DePaul

https://depauliaonline.com/53080/spo...osing-seasons/

Richard Pitino fired at Minnesota

https://www.si.com/college/2021/03/1...-eight-seasons

[JasonEvans]

Dave Leitao fired at DePaul

https://depauliaonline.com/53080/spo...osing-seasons/

Three years ago they went 7-11 in the Big East to finish 7th in the league. That was Leitao's best season in his recent 6-year run at DePaul. That program is barely a shadow of what it once was. Really tough job.

Richard Pitino fired at Minnesota

https://www.si.com/college/2021/03/1...-eight-seasons

The Big Ten is just brutal. Still, Minnesota has produced some quality basketball talent lately and none of it has ended up going to his school. If Pitino had found a way to keep the Jones brothers, Matt Hurt, Zeke Nnaji, Tyrell Terry, Jalen Suggs, Dawson Garcia, or even Kerwin Walton in state he would probably still be coaching. When you coach at a big state school, you gotta keep some of the in-state talent or you are probably not long for the job.

[tommy]

Three years ago they went 7-11 in the Big East to finish 7th in the league. That was Leitao's best season in his recent 6-year run at DePaul. That program is barely a shadow of what it once was. Really tough job.

Let's not be surprised if Chicago-area native Jon Scheyer is contacted about this job.

[Blue KevIL]

Three years ago they went 7-11 in the Big East to finish 7th in the league. That was Leitao's best season in his recent 6-year run at DePaul. That program is barely a shadow of what it once was. Really tough job.

DePaul has been a mess. It briefly looked like Leitao got it figured out late in 2019 making the finals of the CBI and then getting off to a hot start in 2019-20 before Big East play started and they regressed to their norm.


This firing is not surprising in the least. Both for the above stated failures & the fact that DePaul has a new Athletic Director.

Long-time AD Jean Lenti-Ponsetto retired last summer, but not before she extended Leitao's contract four years.
The linked article says no guaranteed money or buyout was included in his reworked contract.

Expect DePaul to take a serious run at Porter Moser from Loyola-Chicago.

[Steven43]

You don't become a virtual god at a blue blood just by getting the job. You become a virtual god by winning at a record setting level. Bob Knight was a virtual god in Bloomington. Tom Crean, Mike Davis, Archie Miller didn't manage to get to virtual god status. You do not want to be the guy that succeeds one of these virtual gods. You want to be the guy that follows the virtual god's successor.

As you are undoubtedly aware, chris, it takes a virtual god to know a virtual god. 😉

[PDDuke85]

https://twitter.com/jeff_fromthepc/s...208676873?s=21

Could be a great hire for B.C.

Charismatic young man. His teams played hard. Curious to see if he recruits B.C. into a respectable ACC team.

Source confirms that College of Charleston's Earl Grant has been hired as new basketball coach at Boston College, first reported by @JonRothstein

[MartyClark]

Let's not be surprised if Chicago-area native Jon Scheyer is contacted about this job.

Jon would be the right guy for the job but I think he can do better.

I had DePaul season tickets in the late 1970's and early 1980's. They were really good for a few years and had a decent following. They played out by O'Hare Airport at the Rosemont Horizon ( not sure what it is called now). It wasn't a very good arena and it was a long way from the campus.

I'd like to see their new 10,000 seat arena that, I think, is down by the lakefront by McCormick place. It is supposed to be nice although quite a distance from the campus. Pandemic permitting I'd love to see a game there next season when I travel to visit family in Illinois.

[throatybeard]

Speaking of Pitinos, here's my mad scientist take for the day.

I think Indiana should consider courting Rick Pitino. I'm taking the contra case as a given and assuming you can make it all in your heads by the time you finish reading this paragraph. Stay with me here for the pro case, for the sake of argument.

Setting: Indiana is down. A little bit worse than down, because they've now squandered their last high water mark, the three S16s in four years with Crean, with a hire that completely didn't work out. As we've discussed, they're running on the fumes of their legacy. It's still a good job, but not a great one. OSU and MSU stay good, but now Michigan, Illinois, and Iowa, who were down, are up, way up in Michigan's case, and you've added Maryland too. The conference is tougher. Many of the factors that make Bloomington one of the most desirable college towns in the country to aging nerds like me probably aren't high on the list or attractions to 18yo who probably regard the place as kinda middle of nowhere.

Another limitation the school has in the current marketplace for talent is this old school "wholesome farm boy" value which--let's not go into this but at least quickly glance at its relevance for recruiting purposes--is not without a racial vector. There's been a culture there of AfAm players being cool and all as long as they know their place and seem like the right sort, or something like that. Past ethics, this also makes it harder to recruit the coasts/Chicago/Detroit than it needs to be. Enough said, I hope that's within the rules.

So at IU, you are attempting to rebuild from a lower floor than the before the last successful period. Demographic tides are moving away from you. Keeping up with the B1G Joneses is harder. You owe the fired coach a stack of bills. You need to get nationally relevant again, and most anybody who's already nationally relevant won't want to risk their reputation for what is nowadays a second tier job. You need a splash.

Pitino comes with obvious negatives, but could solve a number of problems.

1) Long history of successful rebuilds, salvaging Kentucky from the mess left by Sutton and Louisville from tailing off during late Crum. He's already done what you're asking him to do at plus basketball schools, twice. And he has Iona back in NCAAT for first time in 40y.

2) Older but not prohibitively so (68). A successful 7y contract would get him to retirement and have you building from a much higher floor, if it works out.

3) Instant recruiting chops, which helps you with three four five stars from the coasts, including NYC. You've got the kid from Wabash thing covered. You need help convincing top talent from big cities to pick you over Duke/UNC/UM/MSU/OSU/&c.

4) His damaged-goods status is exactly why you can get him. And pay him well, but less than you'd have had to a few years ago.

5) His performance probably has a high floor. While you have to pay him, that gives you a minute to get out from under the Miller contract, because you won't have to fire another experiment, in year three.

6) Mouse Sports suddenly won't shut up about you. Duke made more news for a next-next-four out season that you did for firing your coach. Pitino shows up and they'll be yakkityyakking about you as much or more than MSU/Izzo and UM/Howard.

7) The man already knows the Ohio River Valley, which, by the way,

8) Stick a sfork right in Kentucky's eye.

What's in it for Pitino:

1) Salvage reputation hit from UL on the national stage rather than at Iona.

2) Get paid B1G salary, not Iona salary.

3) Coach third legendary program in HOF career, take sixth program to NCAAT. Who's done that?

4) The bar for success isn't quite as suffocating as if, say, he'd followed RMK at IU in 2000/2001 when he started at UL. Getting them back to several NCAATs would be an improvement on now, a few S16s better than that, and even just one FF would make him a savior. That's different from where Mike Davis was post-2002.

You make it clear to him that the leash for funny business is incredibly short; he's less likely to test it because this is his posterity tour.

Drawbacks I haven't mentioned. Mrs Pitino supposedly hates places smaller than NYC metro.
Not a long term solution, though that's kind of the point. He could act up and get you in trouble, obviously, but you're already in a deep hole.

At least talk to him. It's so crazy it just might work.

[sagegrouse]

https://twitter.com/jeff_fromthepc/s...208676873?s=21

Could be a great hire for B.C.

Charismatic young man. His teams played hard. Curious to see if he recruits B.C. into a respectable ACC team.

Tweet says that Boston College is hiring Earl Grant from the College of Charleston.

[scottdude8]

Have to imagine Jon Beilein would be atop the list of both Indiana and Minnesota given his success at Michigan. It will be fascinating to see whether he'd take a job that is arguably a step down from Michigan (obviously not historically in Indiana's case, but certainly in terms of recent success), not to mention in a conference where he'd have to compete against the school where he's still beloved and with whom he still has (by all accounts) a great relationship with. I'd be surprised if he took either job, but also expect to see his name at the top of any media speculation.

[CrazyNotCrazie]

https://twitter.com/jeff_fromthepc/s...208676873?s=21

Could be a great hire for B.C.

Charismatic young man. His teams played hard. Curious to see if he recruits B.C. into a respectable ACC team.

I wish him the best of luck. Looks like he is coaching his home town team and is taking a big chance taking on the BC job - I assume it is a big pay raise.

Just below that is another tweet saying that Micah Shrewsberry, who is an assistant at Purdue, is taking the Penn State job. Looks like he was at Butler (from 08-11, so for the glory years), then Purdue, the met back up with Stevens with the Celtics, then is back at Purdue, so that is a pretty impressive pedigree. But he is also stepping into a very tough situation.

[Natty_B]

Depaul has fired ACC legend Dave Leitao. Could Scheyer be in play?

[MChambers]

Depaul has fired ACC legend Dave Leitao. Could Scheyer be in play?

I hope Scheyer is aiming higher than Depaul. Very hard place to build a program.

[JasonEvans]

Speaking of Pitinos, here's my mad scientist take for the day.

I think Indiana should consider courting Rick Pitino. I'm taking the contra case as a given and assuming you can make it all in your heads by the time you finish reading this paragraph. Stay with me here for the pro case, for the sake of argument.

I think this is a smart take and there is a lot of merit to it. Indiana, a program with great history that doesn't have the reputation it once did gets a coach with a great history who doesn't have the reputation he once did. It really could work pretty nicely and it does seem like it gives IU more relevance than they have had in a couple years.

[Blue KevIL]

Jon would be the right guy for the job but I think he can do better.

I had DePaul season tickets in the late 1970's and early 1980's. They were really good for a few years and had a decent following. They played out by O'Hare Airport at the Rosemont Horizon ( not sure what it is called now). It wasn't a very good arena and it was a long way from the campus.

I'd like to see their new 10,000 seat arena that, I think, is down by the lakefront by McCormick place. It is supposed to be nice although quite a distance from the campus. Pandemic permitting I'd love to see a game there next season when I travel to visit family in Illinois.

Rosemont Horizon is now All-State Arena. It went through a significant renovation 10 or 15 years ago so that it no longer looked a glorified airport hangar.

DePaul's new arena is called Wintrust Arena. It is a really nice, moderately sized arena for basketball.
I saw the inaugural game there in Nov 2017 against the hated Domers.
Tickets were not hard to come by.
Parking, on the other hand, was quite pricey due to the location and few other options.

[TKG]

Speaking of Pitinos, here's my mad scientist take for the day.

I think Indiana should consider courting Rick Pitino. I'm taking the contra case as a given and assuming you can make it all in your heads by the time you finish reading this paragraph. Stay with me here for the pro case, for the sake of argument.

Setting: Indiana is down. A little bit worse than down, because they've now squandered their last high water mark, the three S16s in four years with Crean, with a hire that completely didn't work out. As we've discussed, they're running on the fumes of their legacy. It's still a good job, but not a great one. OSU and MSU stay good, but now Michigan, Illinois, and Iowa, who were down, are up, way up in Michigan's case, and you've added Maryland too. The conference is tougher. Many of the factors that make Bloomington one of the most desirable college towns in the country to aging nerds like me probably aren't high on the list or attractions to 18yo who probably regard the place as kinda middle of nowhere.

Another limitation the school has in the current marketplace for talent is this old school "wholesome farm boy" value which--let's not go into this but at least quickly glance at its relevance for recruiting purposes--is not without a racial vector. There's been a culture there of AfAm players being cool and all as long as they know their place and seem like the right sort, or something like that. Past ethics, this also makes it harder to recruit the coasts/Chicago/Detroit than it needs to be. Enough said, I hope that's within the rules.

So at IU, you are attempting to rebuild from a lower floor than the before the last successful period. Demographic tides are moving away from you. Keeping up with the B1G Joneses is harder. You owe the fired coach a stack of bills. You need to get nationally relevant again, and most anybody who's already nationally relevant won't want to risk their reputation for what is nowadays a second tier job. You need a splash.

Pitino comes with obvious negatives, but could solve a number of problems.

1) Long history of successful rebuilds, salvaging Kentucky from the mess left by Sutton and Louisville from tailing off during late Crum. He's already done what you're asking him to do at plus basketball schools, twice. And he has Iona back in NCAAT for first time in 40y.

2) Older but not prohibitively so (68). A successful 7y contract would get him to retirement and have you building from a much higher floor, if it works out.

3) Instant recruiting chops, which helps you with three four five stars from the coasts, including NYC. You've got the kid from Wabash thing covered. You need help convincing top talent from big cities to pick you over Duke/UNC/UM/MSU/OSU/&c.

4) His damaged-goods status is exactly why you can get him. And pay him well, but less than you'd have had to a few years ago.

5) His performance probably has a high floor. While you have to pay him, that gives you a minute to get out from under the Miller contract, because you won't have to fire another experiment, in year three.

6) Mouse Sports suddenly won't shut up about you. Duke made more news for a next-next-four out season that you did for firing your coach. Pitino shows up and they'll be yakkityyakking about you as much or more than MSU/Izzo and UM/Howard.

7) The man already knows the Ohio River Valley, which, by the way,

8) Stick a sfork right in Kentucky's eye.

What's in it for Pitino:

1) Salvage reputation hit from UL on the national stage rather than at Iona.

2) Get paid B1G salary, not Iona salary.

3) Coach third legendary program in HOF career, take sixth program to NCAAT. Who's done that?

4) The bar for success isn't quite as suffocating as if, say, he'd followed RMK at IU in 2000/2001 when he started at UL. Getting them back to several NCAATs would be an improvement on now, a few S16s better than that, and even just one FF would make him a savior. That's different from where Mike Davis was post-2002.

You make it clear to him that the leash for funny business is incredibly short; he's less likely to test it because this is his posterity tour.

Drawbacks I haven't mentioned. Mrs Pitino supposedly hates places smaller than NYC metro.
Not a long term solution, though that's kind of the point. He could act up and get you in trouble, obviously, but you're already in a deep hole.

At least talk to him. It's so crazy it just might work.

And, it would drive Knight nuts to know that a guy with Pitino’s history at L’ville is now running the program that Knight built.

[JasonEvans]

Albany is hiring Wojo's associate head coach at Marquette, Dwayne Killings.

With an opening on his staff, will be interesting to see if Wojo goes after someone from the Duke family. His current staff does not have any Dukies on it: https://gomarquette.com/sports/mens-...roster-coaches

[Bull City Proud]

Speaking of Pitinos, here's my mad scientist take for the day.

I think Indiana should consider courting Rick Pitino. I'm taking the contra case as a given and assuming you can make it all in your heads by the time you finish reading this paragraph. Stay with me here for the pro case, for the sake of argument.

Setting: Indiana is down. A little bit worse than down, because they've now squandered their last high water mark, the three S16s in four years with Crean, with a hire that completely didn't work out. As we've discussed, they're running on the fumes of their legacy. It's still a good job, but not a great one. OSU and MSU stay good, but now Michigan, Illinois, and Iowa, who were down, are up, way up in Michigan's case, and you've added Maryland too. The conference is tougher. Many of the factors that make Bloomington one of the most desirable college towns in the country to aging nerds like me probably aren't high on the list or attractions to 18yo who probably regard the place as kinda middle of nowhere.

Another limitation the school has in the current marketplace for talent is this old school "wholesome farm boy" value which--let's not go into this but at least quickly glance at its relevance for recruiting purposes--is not without a racial vector. There's been a culture there of AfAm players being cool and all as long as they know their place and seem like the right sort, or something like that. Past ethics, this also makes it harder to recruit the coasts/Chicago/Detroit than it needs to be. Enough said, I hope that's within the rules.

So at IU, you are attempting to rebuild from a lower floor than the before the last successful period. Demographic tides are moving away from you. Keeping up with the B1G Joneses is harder. You owe the fired coach a stack of bills. You need to get nationally relevant again, and most anybody who's already nationally relevant won't want to risk their reputation for what is nowadays a second tier job. You need a splash.

Pitino comes with obvious negatives, but could solve a number of problems.

1) Long history of successful rebuilds, salvaging Kentucky from the mess left by Sutton and Louisville from tailing off during late Crum. He's already done what you're asking him to do at plus basketball schools, twice. And he has Iona back in NCAAT for first time in 40y.

2) Older but not prohibitively so (68). A successful 7y contract would get him to retirement and have you building from a much higher floor, if it works out.

3) Instant recruiting chops, which helps you with three four five stars from the coasts, including NYC. You've got the kid from Wabash thing covered. You need help convincing top talent from big cities to pick you over Duke/UNC/UM/MSU/OSU/&c.

4) His damaged-goods status is exactly why you can get him. And pay him well, but less than you'd have had to a few years ago.

5) His performance probably has a high floor. While you have to pay him, that gives you a minute to get out from under the Miller contract, because you won't have to fire another experiment, in year three.

6) Mouse Sports suddenly won't shut up about you. Duke made more news for a next-next-four out season that you did for firing your coach. Pitino shows up and they'll be yakkityyakking about you as much or more than MSU/Izzo and UM/Howard.

7) The man already knows the Ohio River Valley, which, by the way,

8) Stick a sfork right in Kentucky's eye.

What's in it for Pitino:

1) Salvage reputation hit from UL on the national stage rather than at Iona.

2) Get paid B1G salary, not Iona salary.

3) Coach third legendary program in HOF career, take sixth program to NCAAT. Who's done that?

4) The bar for success isn't quite as suffocating as if, say, he'd followed RMK at IU in 2000/2001 when he started at UL. Getting them back to several NCAATs would be an improvement on now, a few S16s better than that, and even just one FF would make him a savior. That's different from where Mike Davis was post-2002.

You make it clear to him that the leash for funny business is incredibly short; he's less likely to test it because this is his posterity tour.

Drawbacks I haven't mentioned. Mrs Pitino supposedly hates places smaller than NYC metro.
Not a long term solution, though that's kind of the point. He could act up and get you in trouble, obviously, but you're already in a deep hole.

At least talk to him. It's so crazy it just might work.

I agree , be a great hire

[rasputin]

Speaking of Pitinos, here's my mad scientist take for the day.

I think Indiana should consider courting Rick Pitino. I'm taking the contra case as a given and assuming you can make it all in your heads by the time you finish reading this paragraph. Stay with me here for the pro case, for the sake of argument.

Setting: Indiana is down. A little bit worse than down, because they've now squandered their last high water mark, the three S16s in four years with Crean, with a hire that completely didn't work out. As we've discussed, they're running on the fumes of their legacy. It's still a good job, but not a great one. OSU and MSU stay good, but now Michigan, Illinois, and Iowa, who were down, are up, way up in Michigan's case, and you've added Maryland too. The conference is tougher. Many of the factors that make Bloomington one of the most desirable college towns in the country to aging nerds like me probably aren't high on the list or attractions to 18yo who probably regard the place as kinda middle of nowhere.

Another limitation the school has in the current marketplace for talent is this old school "wholesome farm boy" value which--let's not go into this but at least quickly glance at its relevance for recruiting purposes--is not without a racial vector. There's been a culture there of AfAm players being cool and all as long as they know their place and seem like the right sort, or something like that. Past ethics, this also makes it harder to recruit the coasts/Chicago/Detroit than it needs to be. Enough said, I hope that's within the rules.

So at IU, you are attempting to rebuild from a lower floor than the before the last successful period. Demographic tides are moving away from you. Keeping up with the B1G Joneses is harder. You owe the fired coach a stack of bills. You need to get nationally relevant again, and most anybody who's already nationally relevant won't want to risk their reputation for what is nowadays a second tier job. You need a splash.

Pitino comes with obvious negatives, but could solve a number of problems.

1) Long history of successful rebuilds, salvaging Kentucky from the mess left by Sutton and Louisville from tailing off during late Crum. He's already done what you're asking him to do at plus basketball schools, twice. And he has Iona back in NCAAT for first time in 40y.

2) Older but not prohibitively so (68). A successful 7y contract would get him to retirement and have you building from a much higher floor, if it works out.

3) Instant recruiting chops, which helps you with three four five stars from the coasts, including NYC. You've got the kid from Wabash thing covered. You need help convincing top talent from big cities to pick you over Duke/UNC/UM/MSU/OSU/&c.

4) His damaged-goods status is exactly why you can get him. And pay him well, but less than you'd have had to a few years ago.

5) His performance probably has a high floor. While you have to pay him, that gives you a minute to get out from under the Miller contract, because you won't have to fire another experiment, in year three.

6) Mouse Sports suddenly won't shut up about you. Duke made more news for a next-next-four out season that you did for firing your coach. Pitino shows up and they'll be yakkityyakking about you as much or more than MSU/Izzo and UM/Howard.

7) The man already knows the Ohio River Valley, which, by the way,

8) Stick a sfork right in Kentucky's eye.

What's in it for Pitino:

1) Salvage reputation hit from UL on the national stage rather than at Iona.

2) Get paid B1G salary, not Iona salary.

3) Coach third legendary program in HOF career, take sixth program to NCAAT. Who's done that?

4) The bar for success isn't quite as suffocating as if, say, he'd followed RMK at IU in 2000/2001 when he started at UL. Getting them back to several NCAATs would be an improvement on now, a few S16s better than that, and even just one FF would make him a savior. That's different from where Mike Davis was post-2002.

You make it clear to him that the leash for funny business is incredibly short; he's less likely to test it because this is his posterity tour.

Drawbacks I haven't mentioned. Mrs Pitino supposedly hates places smaller than NYC metro.
Not a long term solution, though that's kind of the point. He could act up and get you in trouble, obviously, but you're already in a deep hole.

At least talk to him. It's so crazy it just might work.

Throaty, you have outdone yourself. Holy crap. It is actually possible to make that happen, warts and sins and all. It makes me throw up, but it could happen.

[freshmanjs]

1) Long history of successful rebuilds, salvaging Kentucky from the mess left by Sutton and Louisville from tailing off during late Crum. He's already done what you're asking him to do at plus basketball schools, twice. And he has Iona back in NCAAT for first time in 40y.

Iona has been in the NCAA tournament a lot - 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2013, 2012 and that's just the ones in the last decade. Duke played Iona in the tournament just 3 years ago. So, while Pitino had a good conference tournament, he has not broken a 40 year drought.