Sooo, gotta be Hurley right?
Roy Schmidt:
And there you go--Bryce Drew will return to Valpo. No surprise there. Things playing out at DePaul exactly as I expected.
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Sooo, gotta be Hurley right?
Roy Schmidt:
And there you go--Bryce Drew will return to Valpo. No surprise there. Things playing out at DePaul exactly as I expected.
I can see Hurley taking the job. Buffalo isn't going to pay well and Hurley probably needs the cash. He lost his horse farm to foreclosure a few years ago. So, he probably blew his NBA earnings already. But, Hurley has used the Iowa State formula to turn around Buffalo, albeit, not to the same extent. Hence, if DePaul does go in that direction, I think its a signal that they want a quick turnaround, no matter the perception.
Hurley was an assistant coach for his brother for one year at Wagner, and another at URI, and has been head coach at Buffalo for two years. I didn't realize his resume was that thin.
His brother was a high school head coach for ten years, head coach for two years at Wagner, and three at URI. That seems to be a better background.
Definitely a thin resume but this is an instance where it's worth the risk in my opinion. When you factor in his accomplishments as a player for Coach K, father's continued success as a high school coaching legend in the NE, brother's success turning around two programs (Wagner & Rhode Island), as well as Bobby's success at Buffalo in two years - I think this is a safe bet.
I'm sure Hurley has a ton of east coast connections, still has name recognition / played in the League, etc.
You take the east coast connections, go to Chicago at Depaul and can tell east coast kids you will be playing in the Big East. At The Garden every year.
Add that to the talent in Chicago and the lure of a new facility. I think Hurley could do very well at DePaul.
Sound from reading about Buffalo his team did well. Grab an older assistant or a guy with Illinois ties and he could do very well.
I understand the thin resume, but lack of coaching hasn't seemed to hurt Steve Kerr with the Warriors.
Hurley has a player coming to Buffalo next year from suburban Chicago (Geneva) so he obviously is not void of recruiting ties to Chicago. He might even get this kid to flip to DePaul, though he is likely better suited to the MAC as opposed to the BE.
I still wonder if Michael White from Louisiana Tech is someone they want to contact. Tech is still in the NIT. White's father, Kevin, is a long time AD with one of the stops being Notre Dame. One of Michael White's brother is AD at the University of Buffalo.
If Hurley goes to DePaul I imagine one time Marquette target Maurice O'Field might join him there.
Have seen Bobby Hurley's name connected with the Fordham opening. Not sure which job is a bigger coaching graveyard Fordham or DePaul. That said if you were to achieve success, at either location (and success is relative since they are both in putrid condition), it would open doors for far larger positions. That said he could easily project from Buffalo as well so he might just want to stay there. It's interesting that Bobby didn't follow the Dawkins-Collins-Wojo-Capel path of assisting under Coach K and has pretty much struck out on his own (albeit with an assist from his brother for whom he served as an assistant). As for Danny Hurley, my guess is that he's keeping his eye on what happens at Seton Hall as IIRC it's his alma mater.
DePaul looks very fixable. New arena coming, fertile recruiting ground, major conference. The only problem is whether you have enough institutional support (which is significant). Worth the risk if you believe the administration will give you the tools to succeed.
Hurley might do better at Fordham with his local connections. He could probably get a steady pipeline of NJ and NYC talent to stick around and be successfully at that level. I'm guessing he didn't have to go the Coach K assistant route because he had plenty of connections through his family. However, DePaul could eventually be a final destination job if he's successful, while Fordham probably is not.
http://zagsblog.com/articles/sources...ohns-in-doubt/
IF Lavin is given the boot, perhaps that hinders DePaul's ability to lock up Hurley (if he's their top candidate)? I would think DePaul can't wait if Hurley wants to see what happens with St. John's first. If the Schmidt brothers are right and Drew is staying at Valpo, suddenly DePaul is whiffing on some of their top targets.
Will be interesting to see how this all shakes out.
If given a choice between staying at Buffalo, or going to Fordham, he's going to stay at Buffalo.
Fordham is a complete disaster of a program. They have had something like one winning season since joining the A10, despite having hired a former NBA coach (Bob Hill) and two up and coming mid major coaches (Dereck Whittenberg and Tom Pecora).
What an f'ing joke (if true):
Evan Daniels @EvanDaniels 43m43 minutes ago
Mississippi State moves quickly. DePaul doesn't. Been told by multiple sources that they haven't conducted any interviews yet.
I saw 2 tweets tonight...1 said "sources" say Drew is top candidate......the 2nd said Hurley is the top candidate....
a third name I've heard is Steve Masiello along with Hurley and Drew.
Hurley gets extension at Buffalo per Andy Katz. What is DePaul doing?
They did hire the Parker Search Firm, so they'll be OK. This was sarcasm.
I still am not sold on Hurley so they may have dodged a bullet here.
FWIW, this was posted 2 pages ago...
"Roy Schmidt:
And there you go--Bryce Drew will return to Valpo. No surprise there. Things playing out at DePaul exactly as I expected."
Maybe DePaul is waiting to see if Jerry W. will come out of retirement
I take the opposite view, that Hurley wants to make sure that DePaul will no longer be a clown show operation if he commits to them. He has a nice fall back plan in place at Buffalo, and can afford to not jump on the first opportunity. I would not blame Hurley for wanting to expedite the process, as you want to either get started with the process at DePaul or continuing build the program he is currently working for.
If Hurley agreed to an extension with Buffalo, but has that signed that agreement to leverage a DePaul offer, I would not find him to be a coach interested in the long term development of the DePaul program and I would want nothing to do with him.
There are plenty of one-hit-wonder coaches along the side of the road. (Keno Davis...Stan Heath...) IMO for as much of a clusterf*ck as DePaul is, Hurley needs them more than vice versa. It's not as though he is a guaranteed, no brainer hire.
Hurley returns the core of a really good team at Buffalo and has a couple of nice additions coming in. A year from now, he could have far betters offers then DePaul.
BTW, Keno Davis is at Central Michigan and they lost in the MAC title game to Buffalo. Even with the unmitigated disaster that was his Providence run, he still landed on his feet at a MAC program.
And if I were DePaul, I would tell him to enjoy his next season there. If Buffalo made an offer, and he merely took it under consideration, that's one thing. But if Hurley "verbally agreed" to an offer, but didn't sign it to force DePaul's hand, he isn't trustworthy. No thanks.
Keno Davis has turned Central Michigan around after leaving PC, so he has gone two out of three. Haith, while not a star, did get USF in the NCAAs, which a major accomplishment. He also got Arkansas into the tourney, two years in a row right before being fired. Add that to his run at Kent State, and I think he has had a decent, albeit not great, career.
Not everyone fits every job. Altman was pretty much a bust at Kansas State, but won at Creighton and now, Oregon. Granted, some guys win can every stop, Pitino and Callipari for example, but others need to fit the position. I think most coaches bust as some schools for two reasons, they are not equipped to get the top talent needed to step up (McDermott at ISU) or down a level, or the lack of institutional support handcuffs the coach (Purnell at DePaul). Very few bad coaches end up heading D-1 programs.
To me, Hurley is a bad fit for DePaul. DePaul seems to want to win, but they want the coach to recruit four year, student-athletes. They don't seem to want to take path Fat Pat took them on (questionable academic kids, one and dones, etc). However, that is what Hurley has been at Buffalo, a kind of ISU light. I am not saying Hurley's approach won't turn DePaul around. I think it could/will. But, I think Hurley's approach is going to generate disputes within the university about the direction of the bball program, just like Buzz and Willliams/Pilarz. If it happens, I don't see this marriage having a happy ending.
Zagsblog indicates Hurley is scheduled for an interview.
http://zagsblog.com/articles/bobby-h...or-depaul-job/
Interesting. There doesn't seem to be a consensus about who DePaul's top target is.
I try not to jump to conclusions since there's always stuff going on behind the scenes that us regular joe's don't know about, but why in the hell has Ponsetto not interviewed Drew and/or Hurley yet? Especially Drew, he's right down the road from Chicago.
I hope DePaul does get both Hurley and Drew in, but am I the only one that found it hilarious that "Ben Howland, who this week took the Mississippi State job, wasn’t interested in the Big East school." Again, Howland trying to put out PR spin to make it look like he was the best candidate for every job ever and that any job that didn't hire him was apparently beneath him. If DPU had been interested, Howland would have walked over hot coals to Chicago in a tutu to get that job. To get any HM job. He took Mississippi State because they were the first job to actually show reciprocal interest.