DePaul Basketball: 8 candidates to watch for potential HC opening

Rashon Burno

This program has tried many things in the past when seeking a new leader for men’s basketball. We’re not going to detail all those failed coaching hires; we’re just saying that almost anything would be acceptable if it works. DePaul has not been a successful program for several decades, though this next name is a collegiate head coach who was around back in a different era of Blue Demons basketball.

Burno played at DePaul between 1998 and 2002, and while that certainly wasn’t the greatest era of basketball he at least has experience with the program. He began his coaching career as a high school coach in the Chicago suburbs and spent over a decade on several coaching staffs, including at Florida and Arizona State. Burno was hired to lead Northern Illinois in 2021 and after two forgettable seasons has the Huskies trending in a great position this year, having already won at DePaul a few weeks back.

He’s still relatively young and the winning percentage being under 40% isn’t exactly appealing at a MAC school. However, Burno does have experience with this program, with coaching and recruiting in the state of Illinois, and even has lived in Chicago. He’d be a relatively raw head coaching hire, especially for a major jump into the Big East, but he could be the energy that this program needs right now.