DePaul Basketball: 8 candidates to watch for potential HC opening

Tim Anderson

When the Blue Demons hired Tony Stubblefield just over thirty months ago, they were bringing a great assistant coach to Chicago. Many see Stubblefield’s lack of head coaching experience as a major flaw with his hire, let alone his lack of connection to the Windy City in any capacity. Every coach in today’s suggestions has D1 head coaching experience besides this first name, though he makes up for it in other departments.

A great basketball mind originally from Chicago, Anderson has coached high school and college ball in Chicago, trained future star athletes, and has been a D1 assistant at several schools. He’s never been a collegiate head coach, but he’s now in his third season on Brad Underwood’s staff at Illinois. More importantly, he was an assistant with the Blue Demons for four seasons prior and has hands on experience with this program; he knows what it’ll take to turn this thing around.

Obviously, four years as an assistant and all that firsthand knowledge doesn’t mean he’d automatically translate into a successful head coach at DePaul. Hiring Anderson would give the program a native Chicagoan in charge, but there’s no guarantee that he’d be the kind of leader on the court that the Blue Demons need. Anderson is a great name to consider, but clearly not in the serious running if the bottom line is head coaching experience.