Andy Katz: DePaul to Name Dave Leitao Head Coach

[stever20]

Definitely not a home run hire. However, I do feel he's good enough to get them out of the basement year in and year out. He put Depaul on the upper end of the old CUSA which was better at the top than every other non power 6 conference. I expect Depaul to be a challenger for NIT bids consistently and if that means that Leitao is fired in a few years with the new arena and replaced by an actually good hire then so be it.

1 thing, if you are a challenger for NIT bids- that means you are in the top 65 give or take. When you are like that- you win 1-2 more games, you get in the NCAA tourney.

[Hoyas]

He may have a reputation as a defensive coach, but it's not warranted based on the Data.

Here are his defensive rankings per kenpom:

At DePaul: 57th, 142nd, 121st. At UVA: 68, 72, 173, 68.

Offenses were generally better: 120th, 23rd, 41st; 124th, 42nd, 54th, 178th.

He did seem to have good rebounding teams on both ends of the floor, but they were nothing to write home about overall defensively at either DePaul or Virginia.

Dang it, never let facts get in the way of a good narrative!!!

Seriously, that actually surprises me, as it's not how I remember that era. My only response is have YOU ever tried to teach Quemont Greer and Delonte Holland to play defense?

To be fair compared to the defensive ratings of late, he's certainly an improvement.

Since Leitao: 136, 43, 232, 230, 124, 241, 252, 253, 218, 229.

So yeah. Miles ahead of what DePaul fans have become used to, so makes sense to think of him as a defensive coach lol.

I would say the 136 and 43 years with Wainwright were with mostly the kids that Leitao recruited. Wainwright with his own kids only had 1 year with a good defense(and in that year, the defense only improved when Wainwright got fired).

[Michael in Raleigh]

Naive question for everyone: What went wrong with Oliver Purnell?

I remember him doing really well at Clemson, getting them into the NCAA tournament a few times, which is saying a lot given Clemson's historical standards against a highly competitive ACC. Did he forget how to coach at DePaul, or how to recruit, or what?

[DudeAnon]

Naive question for everyone: What went wrong with Oliver Purnell?

I remember him doing really well at Clemson, getting them into the NCAA tournament a few times, which is saying a lot given Clemson's historical standards against a highly competitive ACC. Did he forget how to coach at DePaul, or how to recruit, or what?

I have only watched them play for 2 years but 3 things I noticed:

1) Underskilled. He simply didn't have the bodies to play in the NBE yet alone the OBE.
2) Poor defense. Even when their offense was humming (which it often did due to their bevy of 3 pt shooters) their defense let teams stay in the game.
3) Late game breakdowns. Simply put, they choked away a lot of games late.

[stever20]

Naive question for everyone: What went wrong with Oliver Purnell?

I remember him doing really well at Clemson, getting them into the NCAA tournament a few times, which is saying a lot given Clemson's historical standards against a highly competitive ACC. Did he forget how to coach at DePaul, or how to recruit, or what?

just looking at ken pom- defesne.
At Clemson his defense was ranked 22/75/18/28/30/28/45 in his 7 years.
At DePaul his defense was ranked 229/218/253/252/241.
big part of that- defensive turnover pct-
at Clemson- 9/15/27/18/9/14/242(his 1st year)
At DePaul- 191/119/84/93/57
while the ratings seem a bit close- look at the raw numbers
at Clemson last 5 years- 06- 26.1, 07- 24.8, 08- 24.3, 09- 24.0, 10- 24.7
At DePaul 5 years- 11- 22.2, 12- 21.7, 13- 21.5, 14- 19.1, 15- 18.8

I think a lot of his success was predicated on the press. When it wasn't as successful, really hurt him.

another thing that is big is rebounding
Offensive
At Clemson- #41/17/9/44/68/37/12.
At DePaul- #292/93/170/200/273
Defensive
At Clemson- #217/297/276/158/125/158/200
At DePaul- #332/213/314/339/339

[dmac80]

WTF??????

[GoldenWarrior11]

Purnell also lacked charisma and marketability. Part of being a great coach in the top basketball conferences is communication and television presence. I could probably count the number of sound bites that local Chicago stations put up on Purnell in the five years on one hand. This conference, as well as the B1G, ACC, SEC, and Big 12, all have charismatic and social coaches. You see them doing TV interviews, Twitter, radio shows, etc. Purnell definitely wasn't strong at that - as few older head coaches have the strengths to do so. It's ok to be boring when you're successful. When you're consistently losing, you need to be able to provide something other than simple one worded responses.

Jay Wright, Greg McDermott, Ed Cooley, Steve Wojciechowski, JTIII and Chris Mack are all coaches that can handle the media well. They are all professional and provide excellent interviews.

[dmac80]

Depaul really went out and Depauled this coaching search. Its sad that i thought they would actually make a decent hire.

Seriously that might become a new verb in the NBE. "DePauling"

[WaitingPatiently]

Naive question for everyone: What went wrong with Oliver Purnell?

I remember him doing really well at Clemson, getting them into the NCAA tournament a few times, which is saying a lot given Clemson's historical standards against a highly competitive ACC. Did he forget how to coach at DePaul, or how to recruit, or what?

I think he just hit an age where he has nothing left in the tank. But there's no reason to call it a career when some school is still willing to pay you millions. He took the millions and would ride it out as long as the reputation of fixing it trumped what the current results were. But the same energy/effort/care that he had at Clemson and Dayton just isn't in the tank. I remember one of the national writers tweeting from Hawaii that Purnell was more concerned about picking out the Hawaiian shirt he was wearing to the games and how much time he could get on the beach than he was with his team's play. And frankly the results make that appear to be accurate. The whole DePaul team took a vacation that was interrupted by playing 3 times.

[Bill Marsh]

Naive question for everyone: What went wrong with Oliver Purnell?

I remember him doing really well at Clemson, getting them into the NCAA tournament a few times, which is saying a lot given Clemson's historical standards against a highly competitive ACC. Did he forget how to coach at DePaul, or how to recruit, or what?

I think he just hit an age where he has nothing left in the tank. But there's no reason to call it a career when some school is still willing to pay you millions. He took the millions and would ride it out as long as the reputation of fixing it trumped what the current results were. But the same energy/effort/care that he had at Clemson and Dayton just isn't in the tank. I remember one of the national writers tweeting from Hawaii that Purnell was more concerned about picking out the Hawaiian shirt he was wearing to the games and how much time he could get on the beach than he was with his team's play. And frankly the results make that appear to be accurate. The whole DePaul team took a vacation that was interrupted by playing 3 times.

Strange then that they then go out and hire a guy at the same stage of his career.