Coaching Rumors

[wh]

I would bet money that if DePaul offers, Bryce is gone.

[vu84v2]

Why?  DePaul is a wasteland of failure for 2+ decades. There will be much better jobs available...perhaps very soon. Again, I hope Bryce stays but wish him the best.

[valpotx]

I don't see Bryce going to a school like Wichita State either, agreeing with Vu72's point on religious affiliation.  Try speaking like Bryce does at a state school, and not get into a lot of trouble!  DePaul has landed on 20+ losses in 7 of the last 9 seasons, with coaches that performed very well in tougher conferences (Purnell with Clemson).  It is an extremely risky position.  Yes, I assume that Bryce is confident that he can do well anywhere, but DePaul is a career killer with their recent history.  They are in a much tougher conference that has better athletes at every school, and it comes down to coaching to eke out wins.  If he does leave for DePaul, I see him getting great recruits to the school, but I still don't see him making the right coaching decisions in every game to make them into a consistent winner on a national scale.  He needs a few more years at Valpo to fine tune his tight game coaching decisions against better teams, before he is ready for that step up.  Scott has the same problem at Baylor.  He can recruit exceptional talent, but he doesn't make the correct decisions in tight game situations.  Outside of that one run in the NCAA tourney, his teams always underperform in key situations, which is a reflection on situational coaching.

[valpotx]

I completely forgot that Ivan Vujic went back to coach at DePaul as well.  He was there from 2006-2008, Northwestern from 2008-2013, and DePaul 2013-present.

http://www.depaulbluedemons.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/ivan_vujic_865448.html

[elephtheria47]

DePaul talked with Hurley and drew today, according to the latest. Not sure what "talked with" means but Hurley was spotted in ohare today. Would imagine interviews happened or will shortly. Hurley seems like a slight frontrunner. Hope Bryce stays to coach the team next year, could be a real special season.

[wh]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/college/ct-coach-search-depaul-spt-0329-20150328-story.html

Bryce Drew and Bobby Hurley each want the DePaul men's basketball job "badly," according to a source.

[a3uge]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/college/ct-coach-search-depaul-spt-0329-20150328-story.html

Bryce Drew and Bobby Hurley each want the DePaul men's basketball job "badly," according to a source.

Is this source Bryce's wife or something?

[valpotx]

I really would like to meet Bryce's source someday.  He/she seems to believe that Bryce wants every job out there, except for Valpo.

[valpotx]

This would be an ideal situation for Valpo :

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/12579222/depaul-blue-demons-seriously-considering-bringing-back-dave-leitao-coach

[vu72]

Many seem to think the decision is easy: "of course Bryce would leave for a big time position. Think of making 5X your current salary, having great facilities and tons of national exposure" 

But is it really that easy?  The Dave Leito situation comes to mind.  If you take the job and fail--say, after four years, you are all of 44 years old and then what?  A future of being someones assistant?  Or, you could end up being a head coach again at a place like Texas Southern.  Ask Mike Davis, former head coach at this big time program called Indiana.

[chef]

The first line in that Tribune story is embarrassing journalism. Bryce has been incredibly tight lipped about every coaching possibility. There's nobody outside of Homer or Scott that knows anything. Period. There's no way either of them is a source.

[HC]

I offered on the Twitter to take Bryce smallmouth bass fishing this Summer if he sticks around. Sources say that's a great offer, or a creepy one, but it could push staying at Valpo to be his choice.

[truth219]

I wonder if valpo is interviewing for the possible vacated head coaching spot. They should, if bryce were to leave it would be nice to announce the new coach immediately. 

[a3uge]

I would think that a spot, that would be considered special, would include a religious affiliation.  Many of his players were drawn to Bryce because of his faith and Bryce also knows that he won't get any blow back from school officials or alumni for his vocal and regular reference to his beliefs. Presumably DePaul would fit that requirement.  Wichita State would not.  My guess would be that a "special" location might include a place like Wake Forest or perhaps Notre Dame. Valpotx has referenced TCU which might also fit and is only a 2 hour drive to Baylor.  The problem there is that both schools are in the same conference which would be unacceptible to both coaches.

DePaul is religious in the sense that the Fort Hood shooting was "workplace violence"

[usc4valpo]

I would say that if you are required to take 6 to 9 hours of theology and there a humongous chapel is in the middle of a campus, I would say you have strong religious affiliation.f

[Pgmado]

The first line in that Tribune story is embarrassing journalism. Bryce has been incredibly tight lipped about every coaching possibility. There's nobody outside of Homer or Scott that knows anything. Period. There's no way either of them is a source.

Amen. People constantly want updates. There are maybe five people that know Bryce's mindset. We'll know when we know. Sadly I can't imagine being first on this story because I don't make things up hoping it sticks.

[gamelord]

I hope he stays like everyone else wants, but if he leaves I would lose a lot of respect for the guy. Bryce signed a 10 year contract extension only 2 years ago. Sure, people break their contracts in all sports, but it shouldn't be possible or morally right. Maybe if he was halfway through the extension I would feel a little bit better about it. I think he stays, but just the thought of him accepting an interview makes me super nervous.

[HC]

More rumors: DePaul has upped its offer to Drew. I would imagine Hurley must have said no and Bryce must have either said no or was teetering, or this is just more made up nonsense.

Sources say Bryce would stay if a local restraunt would name a sandwich after him.

[gamelord]

Sources say Bryce would stay if a local restraunt would name a sandwich after him.

The Bryce Burger does sound catchy!

[truth219]

B.l.t bryce left town

[ValpoHoops]

I hope he stays like everyone else wants, but if he leaves I would lose a lot of respect for the guy.

Why would you lose respect for him? He would have spent time here and built the program back up to what it is today. There's a reason that coaching contracts have buyouts for both sides. Would you also lose respect for an AD who fires a coach who isn't performing? Or should he stick with someone who can't win games because there are years left on a contract?

Valpo pride and affiliation aside, I know that at some point Bryce is going to move on. That could happen this week, or it could happen in five years. When he does, I trust that he will have thought long and hard about the decision and that he will be making the one that he feels is appropriate at that time. If he looks at DePaul and sees a place where he can build something from the ground up (much like Scott did), in addition to having a brand new arena on the way, and chooses to make that move, then we should all be happy that he is doing something that he feels strongly about. Who are we to tell him where he belongs?

I also trust that Bryce will not leave the Valpo program in a tough spot. While it wouldn't completely surprise me if a couple of players left (or even followed him), I believe that he would encourage every player on the team to stay and try to keep the program pointing in the right direction.


There's no way for me to know what Bryce's thoughts or motivations are. But, God has a plan for each of us, and if that plan is for Bryce to move away from Valpo to build not only a new program, but his own growing family elsewhere, then we should all feel blessed that we got to call him our coach as long as we have.

[valporun]

I saw the story that valpotx posted about Depaul considering rehiring Dave Leitao, and had forgetten that he was the last mildly successful coach there. He led the team to the postseason in each season he was there, only to bolt for Virginia when that job offered him money, to resign/be fired four years later. That move would make sense to those in the Depaul community that doe remember his short tenure because he would know how to recruit Chicago, and the values in a basketball coach that Depaul needs. Sure, Bryce could be a good fit there, but I also fear this would be the next Andy Enfield move. Picking the hot coach from a mid-major to coach your bottom-dwelling school back to glory, only still looking for the glory from the "Flavor of the Month". Yes, I'm calling Bryce going to a Power 5 school a "Flavor of the Month" because while Bryce has a couple HL conference titles and NCAA appearances, what else does he have to show for it to sell Depaul on, besides "local boy" and can win a lot of games? If Bryce does accept the Depaul job, I'll listen to Chicago sports radio, both ESPN 1000 and The Score to find out what people there have to say because while it will be interesting, it could be a lot of hell fire and brimstone from people that want a true Chicago coach, not just the next big name, but one of their own.

[valpotx]

Enfield is a good example of taking a struggling program, getting great recruits, but still showing the same results.  He had the #12 recruiting class heading into this last season.  His first season was 11-21, with a second season at 12-20 (3-15 in conference this year).  Sometimes, that school that has 'all this potential,' is not the best choice to get a stable long-term position. 

Scott ran into a 'lucky' (if you can call it that) situation where he probably had 6-8 years to try and turn around Baylor, since no one would have expected anyone to win while they had that mini-death penalty.  He had one thing that Bryce won't get in his next opportunity, quite a bit of time.  If Bryce leaves for DePaul, he has 3-4 years to turn it around, and with players leftover from the previous regime. 

[valpotx]

Interesting to see that Murry Bartow was let go after this last season.  It now seems even more fitting that we honored his father at the game this season!

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/12568253/east-tennessee-state-name-wichita-state-shockers-assistant-steve-forbes-head-coach

[ARCInsider]

I think we should be worried about the Texas opening.  Bryce is a hot name, Scott and family are in Texas, and it is a great job.  This is the kind of position I think Bryce would leave for...and grandma and grandpa might follow.