Greenberg: Porter Moser should pass and Jon Scheyer should jump on DePaul job

Jan 22, 2019; Pittsburgh, PA, USA;  Duke Blue Devils associate head coach Jon Scheyer reacts on the bench against the Pittsburgh Panthers during the first half at the Petersen Events Center. Duke won 79-64. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
By Jon Greenberg
Mar 15, 2021

As a Chicago columnist, it is my sworn duty to have a provincial take on DePaul’s latest men’s basketball coach opening, even if I otherwise never, ever care about DePaul basketball. And it is my solemn promise to you, the reader, to suggest only coaches who have Chicago ties and whom I’ve heard of.

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This is the life I chose.

As you might know — and maybe you don’t because it’s DePaul — retread coach Dave Leitao was fired Monday after going 69-112 with a 21-89 Big East record in six seasons in his second tour with the school. In 2019-20, he somehow went 16-16 with a 3-15 conference record.

It’s been a bad, uh, 16 years for the Blue Demons. The true sign that March Madness is upon us is a series of tweets from Zach Zaidman giving the final scores from some early-round losses in the Big East tournament.

So with the reality of the DePaul job in mind, I’ll give you some coaching candidates — even though they’re the ones whom The Athletic’s Brian Hamilton, who actually covers this sport, already wrote about here.

First, let’s cross off Loyola’s Porter Moser. Or, to be more clear, Moser should cross himself off.

The only reason he should leave the Ramblers for the mess that is DePaul is if he’s not getting along with his athletic director or Sister Jean has banished him from the program. That doesn’t appear to be the case in Rogers Park.


Porter Moser has built a comfortable program at Loyola. (John Fisher / CSM via Associated Press)

While DePaul (where, full disclosure, I teach a journalism class every winter as an adjunct) can offer him more money, he’s making more than a million dollars to coach at Loyola and this season’s success should get him another pay hike. He already has enough money that he can afford to live in Tom Ricketts’ old house. Moser showed he’s not about the short money when he turned down St. John’s in 2019.

He could double his salary at DePaul, but how long would he have that job? He’d be wise to enjoy himself at Loyola — despite the NCAA Tournament seeding disrespect that comes with this program’s status — and wait to see if a much better job comes up.

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DePaul just isn’t the kind of gig that should be tempting to Moser, who is winning in a comfortable, low-pressure situation.

But for a coach like Dennis Gates, DePaul would be a no-brainer. Gates, a Chicago native who won a state title with DePaul legend Quentin Richardson at Whitney Young in 1998, is a hot name on the market after taking Cleveland State to the tournament this season. The Vikings improved from 11-21 in his first season to 19-7 in this one. He has the kind of coaching pedigree athletic directors should want, working as an assistant for eight years under Florida State’s Leonard Hamilton. Before that he coached at Marquette, Northern Illinois, Nevada and his alma mater, the University of California-Berkeley, where he was a guard on a tournament team.

The risk here is that Gates, with just two seasons as a head coach under his belt, might have taken advantage of a fluky season. Can he really build a major program? DePaul is in a situation where it has to take those kinds of chances to find the right fit. Either way, I’m guessing he’s not long for Cleveland State.


Cleveland State head coach Dennis Gates celebrates with his team following the Vikings’ 80-69 win in the Horizon League championship game. (Darron Cummings / Associated Press)

Jon Scheyer is just 33, but he has been on Mike Krzyzewski’s bench since 2013 after he ended a brief pro career. (An eye injury at the NBA Summer League 10 years ago likely cost him a bench role with the Heat, with whom he could’ve spent years high-fiving LeBron James going into a timeout.)

Scheyer has two fewer seasons as a head coach than Gates, but he moved up to a top assistant role with the Blue Devils. While “Duke assistant coach” isn’t always a recipe for success outside of Durham, Scheyer’s polite manner belies his competitiveness. One of the best high school players in Illinois history, Scheyer is now a top recruiter for Krzyzewski and has landed Duke some five-star players from Chicago. Going back to his middle-school days, he had an appreciation for the history of Chicago basketball.

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Scheyer would be my pick for the job, and not just because I know I could get him to speak to my class next winter. Scheyer would bring name recognition, recruiting prowess and some enthusiasm to DePaul’s program.

If that doesn’t work out, I’m guessing some deep-pocketed Northwestern boosters would be willing to trade a slightly used Chris Collins back to Duke for him.

It should be accepted by now that DePaul, even with its long-awaited Chicago arena, isn’t the DePaul its ardent fans remember from the 1970s, and it never will be. Right now, it’s the kind of program the Loyola coach should pass on to stay in Rogers Park. It’s the kind of program for which you don’t leave a good situation to try to save.

But for coaches like Gates, who is in his early 40s and running a mid-major, or Scheyer, a young assistant coach with stars in his eyes, it’s worth a shot to see how you could do.

Now, if Jean Lenti Ponsetto were still in charge, this previous 700 or so words would’ve just been a waste of time. She would hire a search firm that would suggest Jim Christian, or she’d just rehire Pat Kennedy.

But with new athletic director DeWayne Peevy running things, perhaps we’ll see DePaul make an inspired hire. Maybe it will be someone who isn’t from here — Peevy comes from the University of Kentucky, so think of someone with those ties.

But I’m a Chicago columnist, so those people don’t exist to me.

(Photo: Charles LeClaire / USA Today)

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Jon Greenberg

Jon Greenberg is a columnist for The Athletic based in Chicago. He was also the founding editor of The Athletic. Before that, he was a columnist for ESPN and the executive editor of Team Marketing Report. Follow Jon on Twitter @jon_greenberg