kghoya
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Post by kghoya on Mar 31, 2010 22:47:46 GMT -5
Why can DePaul not work out an agreement to play at the United Center in downtown Chicago? That would seem far more do-able to me than building an on-campus arena. I've never understood why the school doesn't make that happen. Bulls and Blackhawks both playing at the United Center make that pretty difficult...how many open dates would there be for DePaul basketball from November - March? probably about as many open dates as there is for hoyas basketball sharing with the caps and bullets
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hoyaboya
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Post by hoyaboya on Mar 31, 2010 22:58:03 GMT -5
Bulls and Blackhawks both playing at the United Center make that pretty difficult...how many open dates would there be for DePaul basketball from November - March? probably about as many open dates as there is for hoyas basketball sharing with the caps and bullets Sure, but there seems to be a lot more interest in Georgetown basketball than there is in DePaul hoops. Could be a chicken or egg thing, I suppose. But I'd think the reason DePaul doesn't play at the UC is the same reason that Rutgers doesn't play at the Izod Arena (or whatever the Brendan Byrne Arena is now called)...not enough interest for it to be worthwhile for the arena.
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njhoya78
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Post by njhoya78 on Apr 1, 2010 7:08:03 GMT -5
Rutgers didn't play at Brendan Byrne/Meadowlands/Continental Airlines Arena/Izod Center because it was Seton Hall's home court, until the Pirates moved into the new Prudential Center in downtown Newark. New Brunswick is also roughly 35 miles south of the Meadowlands, and the RAC was, until recently, a great home court advantage.
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theexorcist
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Post by theexorcist on Apr 1, 2010 8:14:33 GMT -5
You're overselling the job. I analyzed the DePaul versus Seton Hall thing a while ago. DePaul is a school in a city that cares about either the Bulls or Blackhawks. When kids from Chicago think about their dream college, it's not DePaul - it's Illinois. The city newspapers cover Illinois and Notre Dame (as one is wont to do with a front-runner). St. John's has a slavering, insane New York City media who believes that anything that happens in the City is critical, and who will hype up Felipe Lopez so much that he is on the cover of Sports Illustrated. If the Johnnies become relevant, I can see the New York media giving them positive coverage pretty quickly and having that story spread. If DePaul does well, I can't see their story getting legs. DePaul, like St. John's also has more of a rep as a commuter school and thus a rep for less intense school spirit. Its arena is located, not in the middle of the city (like St. John's or Georgetown), but in a suburb. Illinois often has an all-Illinois team. DePaul will be competing for Chicago and Illinois talent with Big 10 and Big XII schools with ginormous recruiting budgets. And DePaul does have a great history, but so does La Salle. And until and unless DePaul can break this cycle of futility, they're no better than them. You're overselling Illinois, the Chicago media barely cares about college sports and would only really support a winner, whoever that may be. But despite Chicago's indifference, the Illini have a really big fanbase because students and alumni identify well with the program, which does not happen at all at DePaul. They don't have the money or space to build an on campus arena so they have to think of something to get the DePaul community into it first (rather than thinking Chicago at large) Back in my freshman year in college, I remember seeing a few DePaul games on TV and Rosemont was rocking. Despite the lack of affinity for the team that you and I noted, DePaul is a big school (25,100 students, larger than Notre Dame). That's a big group that you can rope in with auto-emails and an even larger potential alumni fan base, many of whom I would guess stay in or near Chicago and are easier to draw in than the community at large. The problem, as you mentioned with the media, is that they need a winner. Doing it in the Big East is going to be tough.
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SirSaxa
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Post by SirSaxa on Apr 1, 2010 9:17:49 GMT -5
It will be very tough to turn DePaul around. But not impossible. If Baylor was able to recover from their total disaster of one player shooting another and the coach trying to work a cover up, DePaul can recover from some losing seasons. Just takes the right guy. Not easy to find that "right guy". We were lucky to get JT3 at just the right time for him and for GU. DePaul needs to get a little lucky too.
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Post by HoyaSinceBirth on Apr 1, 2010 9:42:06 GMT -5
They're interviewing reggie theus today.
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hoya9797
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Post by hoya9797 on Apr 1, 2010 12:55:34 GMT -5
You're overselling the job. I analyzed the DePaul versus Seton Hall thing a while ago. DePaul is a school in a city that cares about either the Bulls or Blackhawks. When kids from Chicago think about their dream college, it's not DePaul - it's Illinois. The city newspapers cover Illinois and Notre Dame (as one is wont to do with a front-runner). St. John's has a slavering, insane New York City media who believes that anything that happens in the City is critical, and who will hype up Felipe Lopez so much that he is on the cover of Sports Illustrated. If the Johnnies become relevant, I can see the New York media giving them positive coverage pretty quickly and having that story spread. If DePaul does well, I can't see their story getting legs. DePaul, like St. John's also has more of a rep as a commuter school and thus a rep for less intense school spirit. Its arena is located, not in the middle of the city (like St. John's or Georgetown), but in a suburb. Illinois often has an all-Illinois team. DePaul will be competing for Chicago and Illinois talent with Big 10 and Big XII schools with ginormous recruiting budgets. And DePaul does have a great history, but so does La Salle. And until and unless DePaul can break this cycle of futility, they're no better than them. You're overselling Illinois, the Chicago media barely cares about college sports and would only really support a winner, whoever that may be. But despite Chicago's indifference, the Illini have a really big fanbase because students and alumni identify well with the program, which does not happen at all at DePaul. They don't have the money or space to build an on campus arena so they have to think of something to get the DePaul community into it first (rather than thinking Chicago at large) They have hired one of my colleagues to find a north side site that can support mid-sized basketball arena. It won't be on campus as there is absolutely nothing in Lincoln Park that can work but there are a couple sites not that far away that they have identified and will likely make an offer. I think it will still be difficult to see this project through to the end but they are at least trying to see if it can work.
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Post by vamosalaplaya on Apr 1, 2010 13:26:40 GMT -5
Chicago is a Big Ten town with alumni from every possible Big Ten school; in some ways, it is the worst of the Big East markets - in New York, Philly, DC, there is more of a window for the general college hoops fan base to get interested in a private college when it has a great year, where Chicago is filled with Wisconsin, Ohio State, Illinois, Michigan etc alums fans who could care less.
But it's Chicago for crying out loud, and its the Big East conference. Comparing DePaul's history to LaSalle is not appropropriate; DePaul in the 80's had some awesome teams and there is real history there.
Getting DePaul and St. John's competitive is the best thing that could happen to Georgetown with all this football conference stuff floating around. Chicago, New York are big media markets that advertisers pay up for.
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Post by wrestlemania on Apr 4, 2010 23:05:44 GMT -5
DePaul's basketball legacy is a very mixed bag -- Ray Meyer won a lot of games but only went to one final four and suffered embarrasing first round losses to the likes of St. Peters (or St. Joseph's, can't remember which). Just a ton of talent that never really did anything -- guys like Dallas Comegys, Skip Dillard, Clyde Bradshaw and Walter Downing aren't exactly selling points.
If the Isaiah Thomas rumors are true, he probably gets the job if he wants it. Yes, he's a train wreck but so is DePaul, and his Chicago ties and NBA pedigree (at least as a player) still has some cache. No way they try to open a new building with the guy from Dayton.
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DFW HOYA
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Post by DFW HOYA on Apr 4, 2010 23:08:20 GMT -5
If the Isaiah Thomas rumors are true, he probably gets the job if he wants it. He's a basketball program's kryptonite. Hire him and DePaul will end up moving to the Summit League.
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Post by wrestlemania on Apr 4, 2010 23:21:55 GMT -5
If the Isaiah Thomas rumors are true, he probably gets the job if he wants it. He's a basketball program's kryptonite. Hire him and DePaul will end up moving to the Summit League. I don't completely disagree, but one possibility is that he keeps the current head guy on as an assistant who actually does the coaching while he does the PR/recruiting thing. The problem at De Paul is that it's a 3-5 year turnaround project at a minimum, and any coach good enough to make it to year four likely becomes a hot candidate for a better job elsewhere. For better or worse, I think Isaiah actually might be more likely to see it through to the end if he can stay out of the medicine cabinet.
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kchoya
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Post by kchoya on Apr 5, 2010 9:58:07 GMT -5
He's a basketball program's kryptonite. Hire him and DePaul will end up moving to the Summit League. I don't completely disagree, but one possibility is that he keeps the current head guy on as an assistant who actually does the coaching while he does the PR/recruiting thing. The problem at De Paul is that it's a 3-5 year turnaround project at a minimum, and any coach good enough to make it to year four likely becomes a hot candidate for a better job elsewhere. For better or worse, I think Isaiah actually might be more likely to see it through to the end if he can stay out of the medicine cabinet. Since when has Isiah stuck around long enough to turn anything around? Raptors? CBA? Pacers? Knicks? FIU?
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SaxaCD
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Post by SaxaCD on Apr 5, 2010 10:28:41 GMT -5
As a Knicks fan, i'd say Thomas' fault isn't that he doesn't stay long enough to see things through, it's that he stays too long, even if that's only a year. I don't completely disagree, but one possibility is that he keeps the current head guy on as an assistant who actually does the coaching while he does the PR/recruiting thing. The problem at De Paul is that it's a 3-5 year turnaround project at a minimum, and any coach good enough to make it to year four likely becomes a hot candidate for a better job elsewhere. For better or worse, I think Isaiah actually might be more likely to see it through to the end if he can stay out of the medicine cabinet. Since when has Isiah stuck around long enough to turn anything around? Raptors? CBA? Pacers? Knicks? FIU?
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Post by FHillsNYHoya on Apr 5, 2010 12:14:29 GMT -5
Hope Reggie doesn't forget to put his storied career at Deering High on his resume...
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JS
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Post by JS on Apr 5, 2010 13:01:12 GMT -5
Hope Reggie doesn't forget to put his storied career at Deering High on his resume... He's no Mike Katowinski.
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hifigator
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Post by hifigator on Apr 5, 2010 13:10:20 GMT -5
Earlier today one of the local guys labeled Depauls efforts "the absolute worst coaching search in the history of all coaching searches."
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Post by westendhoya on Apr 6, 2010 1:01:13 GMT -5
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Post by jerseyhoya34 on Apr 6, 2010 1:18:36 GMT -5
Wow - enjoy. Somewhere a Clemson fan is smiling.
DePaul fans are calling him High Major Jerry Wainwright - 22 years in coaching and 0 NCAA wins.
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NCHoya
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Post by NCHoya on Apr 6, 2010 8:23:40 GMT -5
At least Purnell will bring an exciting brand of basketball to DePaul and the Big East. He does not have great success in March, but he demonstrated an ability to turn a bad program around in Clemson. If he does that for Depaul I think that fan base will be more than happy.
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Post by hoyawatcher on Apr 6, 2010 8:38:40 GMT -5
I have watched a lot of Purnell basketball and was floored DePaul took him - especially since they had $2 M per year to spend. They gave him a $700K raise to come to Chicago. Wow - that is a lot off his stellar 0 win NCAA career.
I think he had run the string out at Clemson. Booker is graduating and not a whole lot left in the cupboard. The uptempo pressing game is fun to watch until good guards and athletic wings start shredding it as happens a fair amount. But that style may help him recruit Chicago. He will need it.
Purnell may get Depaul to mid level Big East but I don't see him getting them any higher than that.
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