The other funny thing I find about this “NIL from donors will come in for the right coach” - Yes, I’m sure there’s some but DePaul is a partial commuter school with 15k undergrad in a city that local businesses aren’t particularly aligned with the university beyond giving the kids a discount (I live in Lincoln Park). They haven’t been good in forever so the average alum is not really connected with sports. And Look at their notable alumni, it’s not a massive list or full of super high end individuals compared to nearly any state school.
I agree with most of what you're saying, but notable alumni have absolutely zero to do with recruiting sports, unless of course you're meaning ex basketball players. Not one kid who is being recruited at any school is asking how many nobel prize laureates an institution has.
C'mon....I mean, for anyone who watched and loved the movie Stepbrothers, just direct them towards John C Reilly and you'll get a commitment. For those kids who's parents watched Happy Days, Tom Boswell can be referenced. For those who like political news stations, throw Gillian Anderson into the mix. Hey, for those who really love their basketball history, there's George Mikan can be referenced. The Daley's went too for those who love their Chicago mayoral/politics history. You can see where I'm going with this.
They are a city school where there is absolutely no reason can't get themselves on the same level as Marquette. The two programs have the same history. St John's is still on the bounce back, but they had a similar situation. They were able to get Pitino because he needed a step up in weight class after a rough road. Shaka Smart and Rick Pitino were lured.
Now, where I do agree with you is that they need the support of the school and community. Mark Aguirre is obviously embarrassed by where the program is and he wouldn't have come aboard if he didn't have some assurances.
In the day and age of NIL and portal transfers, recruiting high school players is more open than ever and getting kids that don't want to be sitting aren't willing to get PT? A guy like Dain(for example) would be the type of player that would be a perfect fit.
What sucks is that Chicago media completely disregards college basketball. They disregard us unless something bad happens. TSJ was the only story about us that came from that media. Anything south of I 80 is useless to them otherwise.
If the effort was there, they'd get it done. We'll know more about their effort with their new hire. I think that a big name cast-off (a guy like Pitino) would be where the fit is. Once Juwon gets let go, there's another fit.
Time will tell. Opportunities to coach in that type of conference are rare.
