DePaul Basketball: 8 candidates to watch for potential HC opening

Scott Nagy

This whole exercise is about potential; Stubblefield could miraculously turn things around, but it’s fair to say that a new direction is needed at DePaul. His lack of head coaching experience certainly wasn’t his only flaw, but the Blue Demons may want to look into coaches with extensive backgrounds in that department. This next name certainly satisfies that and a number of other conditions.

Nagy was born in Texas but spent time as a graduate assistant at Illinois more than three decades ago during the days of the Flying Illini. His head coaching career began with a long stint building the South Dakota State program before taking Wright State’s job back in 2016. Now in year eight with the Raiders, he’s led the program to the Big Dance twice and has certainly been successful throughout nearly 30 years as a collegiate head coach.

Nagy left South Dakota State after more than twenty years for a Horizon League school; what’s to stop him from taking that next step to the Big East if DePaul did come calling? His experience as a coach, recruiter, and student of the game would certainly be appealing for the Blue Demons. That stretch with Illinois was his only experience at a power conference program; would that be an issue as he transitioned from the Horizon League?