Which coach would be the perfect fit to take over at DePaul?
After six seasons in his second stint with the program, Dave Leitao has been fired by DePaul. A native of Massachusetts, Leitao played collegiate ball at Northeastern under the legendary Jim Calhoun. His coaching career began on Calhoun’s staffs at Northeastern and Connecticut, including a brief stint as Northeastern’s head coach as well. Leitao has been a G-League head coach, an assistant under Frank Haith, and was previously head coach at DePaul (first stint) and Virginia.
Leitao led DePaul to their most recent NCAA Tournament bid back in 2004, but he couldn’t quite pull off that same feat since rejoining the Blue Demons. Leitao was surprisingly brought back to DePaul in 2015 but has little to show for his second tenure. DePaul finished in last place in all but one of his six seasons at the helm, with a run to the CBI championship game in 2019 the only real effect of his tenure. Leitao did what he could, but DePaul was just overwhelmed in the Big East.
When you look at all the background, the DePaul seems like a solid landing spot. The Big East has been a pretty solid conference, especially in recent years, though that will of course make turning around this program even more difficult. DePaul is also in Chicago, a fertile recruiting ground. The next head coach will have to be able to bring some of this talent from Chicago and Illinois to stay home at DePaul.
While it’s not clear what exactly DePaul was looking for back in 2015, they’ve got a shot to really turn things around if they can get this hire right. There’s a new athletic director at DePaul a chance to actually compete in the Big East in the next few seasons. DePaul as a program has been pretty lifeless, a complete doormat compared to the days of Ray Meyer, and the next coach will have to be strong-willed and savvy to win in the Big East and recruit superior talent down to Chicago.
There will be a number of names brought up for this job, but we’re going to run through five particular candidates for the job. Without further ado, let’s start running through a few of these names that could turn around DePaul.