Fire purnell

[MUBasketball]

Anybody else watching this game vs. Oregon St? I'm embarrased for our league. Absolutely no fight, horrible (non-existent) defense. Lousy shot selection. Does nobody in administration give a damn? So poorly coached it isn't funny.

[kneelb4zerg]

Just wait until after Dec 31

[warriorfan4life]

Anybody else watching this game vs. Oregon St? I'm embarrased for our league. Absolutely no fight, horrible (non-existent) defense. Lousy shot selection. Does nobody in administration give a damn? So poorly coached it isn't funny.

I wonder if gagging that game away against Illinois State totally deflated their season. They had one pretty good win and one questionable loss before that, and looked at least like a .500ish overall team on the whole (and that is granting a 4-5 win type Big East season). They let this ISU game throw them into a tailspin and could be the road straight to 0-18 in league play.

Last year, you had eight teams at 8-10 or better in the Big 12, one at 6-12, at one at 0-18. That earned the league seven tourney bids, and a West Virginia near miss. I could easily envision a similar scenario unfolding with the Big East, and well that potential 0-18 team is located in Chicago. I had thought that Marquette may be the 6-12 team, but now wonder if we could be the West Virginia group that got better as the year went along and made a strong run for a tourney bid (and hope to find a way to win 1-2 games in the conference tourney that West Virginia never did to get in).

[TheSultan]

Wayne Tinkle can coach. Not sure if he is going to be able to recruit well enough at Oregon State but we will see.

[79warrior]

Anybody else watching this game vs. Oregon St? I'm embarrased for our league. Absolutely no fight, horrible (non-existent) defense. Lousy shot selection. Does nobody in administration give a damn? So poorly coached it isn't funny.

They need to start with the AD, who is arguably the worst in the BE. Amazing how long she has survived while the program has been abysmal.

[MUBasketball]

Kevin O'Neill was on the call last night, one point in the game was pretty humorous:

KO: "If I were coaching, I'd be dismembering people right now."
Play by play guy: "Your staff would be running things by this point."

[mufan2003]

They need to start with the AD, who is arguably the worst in the BE. Amazing how long she has survived while the program has been abysmal.

It is so bad, and has been for soooo long, that it would not be unreasonable to think the AD is an Illinois or Northwestern fan. I say that jokingly, but the coaching hires have been as lame as it gets. We have heard stories that people have given advice to hire a young, energetic, up-and-coming coach but DePaul has resisted.

[CaribouJim]

A couple months back when we were beating up on DePaul, myself included, Warrior O'Malley provided insight than it is not so much the AD and coach but more so the administration that deserves most, not all, of blame for the big picture problems in the men's program. Their focus, at least for now, seems elsewhere. If WOM is on the board maybe he can expound again.

[WarriorOMalley82]

I agree that is where she should put her time and effort into and be judged by, unless as is the case here her bosses do not provide the assets needed to do that job. The administration knows they are not allowing her to be successful in that area and for whatever reason they are ok with that decision. Depaul does not need basketball as a marketing tool, they are the largest Catholic university in the country, they are quite content being very well regarded and very well connected in the Chicago area. Where MU has always had an outsiders view from the Milwaukee powers and has been subjected to UW alums being in control of the city that is not the case for Depaul. U of I is just another university in Chicago not as well connected as Depaul alums or at best on equal terms, all this is to say that basketball is no where near as important to Depaul as it is to MU, and Depaul Administrations will not pay the dollars needed to be good and they know that and understand that they are sacrificing Jean to that extent.

[WarriorOMalley82]

The problems at Depaul go way above the AD the calls for her ouster are misguided she has done an excellent job with all the athletic teams minus men's bball. I know that is the top team at the university but it takes extraordinary funds to be successful and the administration will not provide them. Many have said that Depaul should hire an up and coming asst. coach, well they did that they hired Leito he was building a successful program he was approached and when Depaul had a chance to step up and pay him the administration said no to the price tag. Jean then went the way of hiring an older guy with Chicago ties from a mid level team to build and stay but that hasn't worked. Until the administration decides that they will get a young coach and pay to keep him there really is nothing that Jean will be able to do to build a successful program. She has proven she knows how to build successful programs as her other teams prove, but without the resources men's basketball won't be one of them.

[MUBasketball]

I agree that is where she should put her time and effort into and be judged by, unless as is the case here her bosses do not provide the assets needed to do that job. The administration knows they are not allowing her to be successful in that area and for whatever reason they are ok with that decision. Depaul does not need basketball as a marketing tool, they are the largest Catholic university in the country, they are quite content being very well regarded and very well connected in the Chicago area. Where MU has always had an outsiders view from the Milwaukee powers and has been subjected to UW alums being in control of the city that is not the case for Depaul. U of I is just another university in Chicago not as well connected as Depaul alums or at best on equal terms, all this is to say that basketball is no where near as important to Depaul as it is to MU, and Depaul Administrations will not pay the dollars needed to be good and they know that and understand that they are sacrificing Jean to that extent.

How are they not spending the money? They are paying Purnell about $2 million/year and are putting up $80+ million towards the new arena.

Do they not pay assistant's well? I saw a picture of them boarding a plane to George Washington a week or so ago and they were flying commercial, so that's definitely not ideal. Then again there was that article a year or so ago saying how UCLA - of all programs - flies commercial. So that shouldn't restrict them from not being awful.

Any other ways they are cheap?

[TheSultan]

I just read her bio, and didn't realize that she has been continuously associated with DePaul athletics as a student athlete, coach and administrator since 1974. Her husband played basketball under Ray Meyer. Two of her brothers work in the athletic department, one as director of facilities and the other as head softball coach.

On one hand, that is very admirable that she and her family are so dedicated to DePaul athletics. However it is daunting as a president trying to dislodge someone that powerful and that connected from her position. If he would even want to do so.

[Mark Miller]

Complete and utter train wreck.

[WarriorOMalley82]

Yes her older brother is the football coach at Mt. Carmel H.S. He has won more state championships than anyone in state history. One brother is the woman's softball coach, he was elected to the national softball hall of fame a few years ago. Another brother was drafted in baseball by the Red Sox. We had quite competitive sports teams and scuffles in the neighborhood. As far as how DePaul is cheap, they are not paying Purnell near 2 million I think his guarantee including camps is closer to 1.3 they have nowhere near the recruiting budget, asst. coaches salaries, trainers, tutors practice and workout facilities. Also remember they are just now starting to spend money, where the program went south was not paying to keep Leito. I do believe that they may start spending more, but they have to make up decades of not spending, and that is what I am talking.

[Gato78]

They have to ramp up their athletics advancement. They should be able to kill us with contributing alums. They should have gold plated crappers for their team.

[MUBasketball]

Another horrendous performance by DePaul. This is beyond embarrassing, fire that man now! Sadly, he'll probably return next year. They stink and to make matters worse they don't compete. That's when you know things aren't salvageable.

Hire a young, intense coach to start to turn it around. Drew Diener would be a really strong hire I think. Or Jim Engles from NJIT - they were terrible when he took over (winless year before his arrival I think?). Their transformation has been incredible.

Somebody save that program!!

[Gato78]

Wardle makes so much sense there-if he wants to take the career risk.

[unclejohn]

Lenti-Ponsetto's husband played on the DePaul FF team with David Corzine and Mark Aguirre. I believe there was also another NBA player in the line-up. The team was not deep. They played the same five players through the whole tournament. Ponsetto had played on the state championship team at Proviso East. DePaul was just starting to recruit big name players at the time. Corzine was the first. He was a senior. Aguirre was the best. He was a freshman. He and Isaiah Thomas had slugged it out in the state tournament a few years earlier. Joey Meyer was the guy who did most of the recruiting. Ponsetto was a typical good-but not great college player. He got little attention from the pros. I think he played in Italy for a few years. Joey of course took over after Ray retired, and had some pretty good teams. I do not know who the AD was when Ray was the coach, it might have been him, but the next AD was the guy who fired Joey. Joey ran into trouble trying to get kids into DePaul. He had one really good but not very bright player named Kenny Fields who did not get in, and ended up spending his career in the CBA. He also got a commitment from Tracy McGrady, who went to the NBA when DePaul did not take him. I do not know if he had a commitment from Kevin Garnett, but he was after him. The biggest blow came when Benji Wilson, perhaps the best local recruit DePaul ever had was tragically murdered just before he was going to begin school. So Joey's teams declined, and DePaul refused to spend much money on facilities.

When Joey retired, Ray broke off any contact with the school. They named the practice facility for him, and he declined to come to the dedication. The AD hired Fat Kennedy, and Kennedy immediately got permission to recruit kids Joey could not get into school. The best was a Chicago kid who many in the Marquette community were angry that Mike Deane did not recruit. He was a really good player in his two years, but I heard from his tutor that it was a good thing he left after two years, as he had hit the maximum of his academic ability. I am not at all sure Deane could have gotten him into Marquette. Ray complained that Kennedy was getting all the stuff Joey had asked for, but never got. When the AD left to go elsewhere, Lenti-Ponsetto was hired, and Ray immediately gave her a congratulatory phone call. He also appeared at a game for the first time in years.

I am not sure how much DePaul could garner in alumni donations. They were the talk of the city in the 70's and 80's when they were on top. Chicago, like most places, is a front-runner town, and Chicagoans loved the idea of the little school under the El tracks. After they lost prominence, everybody lost interest, including my relatives who had attended and who used to listen to all the games. I doubt they could get that kind of support back. Meanwhile, I have met several students who know nothing at all about the basketball team. DePaul has a huge alumni base, but not a particularly rich one. Forever, it has been the place where local kids, and more and more adults, went to get a pretty good education. It has never claimed to be the Harvard of Chicago. It has some really good programs, like music and drama, and it has always been a solid business school, but it is not going to crank out any Nobel prize winners or guys who found Nike or Microsoft. So I do not know how much potential there is to get additional donations out of the athletic program.

[IrwinFletcher]

it was Ronnie Fields, not Kenny Fields, but a very talented City player and would have had trouble getting in anywhere, let alone DePaul. That hurt DU to a certain degree as I am sure the staff had an idea he wasn't getting in.

I seem to recall Benji Wilson being an Illini lean as opposed to DePual as he hadn't signed yet (killed right before his senior season).

There is no reason this program can't rebound and be very competitive and join the ranks of MU, Butler, Creighton and XU. But if the Admin doesn't back the program it won't matter who the coach is. Without support from the top it just doesn't work. I mean, look at MU the last 18 months.

[CaribouJim]

UncleJohn, Ponsetto and Corzine were '78 grads and not on that FF team.

[unclejohn]

Forgot Fields' first name. Seems like he had pretty much a wasted career, mostly in the CBA. A shame. No, Benji Wilson was committed to DePaul. He was going to be a big splash for DePaul. He was described as "Magic Johnson with a jump shot." Who knows how long he would have been there, but surely he would have made an impact. And apparently a nice guy whose death was pretty much meaningless. What a tragedy.

[Mucrisco]

“He is the best basketball player that I ever saw play basketball … including Michael Jordan,” former Illini Ervin Small said. “And that’s the truth.”
At Simeon, Small played alongside Wilson. Future Illini superstar Nick Anderson was set to do the same, having transferred to Simeon from Chicago’s Prosser High to join his pal Benji for the 1984-85 season.
Many Chicago hoops observers believe that Wilson would also have joined Small and Anderson for college in Champaign. And if he had it would have been in large part due to his close relationship at the time with Illini assistant and lead recruiter Jimmy Collins.
According to the News-Gazette story, no coach spent more time around Wilson than Collins, who first met the youth while working as a hearing officer for the Cook County Probation Department in the early 1980s. It wasn’t trouble with the law, however, that brought Wilson and Collins together – rather, the two were introduced by Collins’ daughter, Erica, who was Benji’s love interest as a ninth grader.
“He used to come by the house and shoot in the yard,” Collins said. “I grew very close to him, very close to his parents.”
So close that after Wilson’s death a shaken Collins skipped Illinois’ trip to the Great Alaska Shootout so he could spend time with Wilson’s family.
Another member of the Flyin’ Illini – Lowell Hamilton of Chicago’s Providence-St. Mel – believed that Wilson was indeed bound for Champaign, based on what Benji told him in the Fall of ’84.
“After I signed at Illinois, Ben called me and said, ‘Well, I guess I gotta sign with Illinois now, too,’ ” Hamilton said. “Not long after that is when he passed.”
The News-Gazette story reported that even Joey Meyer, DePaul’s basketball coach during Wilson’s high school heyday, believed that Benji was planning to pick Illinois over the Blue Demons and Bob Knight’s Indiana program that coming spring.

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/10/25/wisch-what-if-ben-wilson-had-lived-and-become-a-flyin-illini/

[Nukem2]

Crisco, I was just about to post that link as well. Illinois was in my mind as long with Irwin Fletcher.

[unclejohn]

OK. I had heard that he was bound for DePaul, and that it was a huge blow to the program. In any case, a tragedy.