Chris Holtmann and DeWayne Peevy know it’ll take a lot of work off the court to rebuild DePaul basketball. AP Photo/Andrew Seligman
Andrew Seligman/AP Photos
Last night, Illinois captured its second Big Ten tournament championship under coach Brad Underwood, Northwestern celebrated making back-to-back tournament appearances for the first time in program history and DePaul had a Zoom call.
The Zoom call involved former players with DePaul’s new head coach, Chris Holtmann. He heeded the words from alumni as he looks to steer it to the future. Holtman was officially introduced as the DePaul head coach on Monday at Wintrust Arena.
But before the Blue Demons could even consider luring a coach with Holtmann’s pedigree and resume, the program had to make some changes in its infrastructure.
They had to make themselves an attractive landing spot after years of languishing near the bottom of the Big East—the highest the Blue Demons have finished is seventh over the past 11 years, and there were only nine teams in the conference and 0-20 in the Big East this past season. DePaul hasn’t won an NCAA Tournament game since 2004.
“We weren’t getting a high-major coach without an NIL [plan],” athletic director DeWayne Peevy said. “If the practice facility didn’t exist and NIL wasn’t going to get us back in the top half of the Big East, what you’re talking about millions of dollars, we weren’t going to have a high-major coach.”
Holtmann is not only rebuilding a program, he’s trying to revitalize a program.
“Cities and fan bases rally around a style of play and players they enjoy watching that play with a certain competitiveness, edge, passion, and energy,” Holtmann said.
Holtmann brings a 251-170 coaching record, a 2017 Big East coach of the year and 2018 Big Ten coach of the year to DePaul.
“Everyone that’s in this room probably understands the landscape of college athletics has changed dramatically since those times of ’70s and ’80s,” Holtmann said during the press conference. “The qualities that make up a successful program have not changed.”
Holtmann wanted to know about practice structure, where players stay a night before the game and the intricacies of how the program operated.
Though Peevy said there were five finalists, it was clear after those conversations that Holtmann was the top choice.
“My goal was to have a sitting head coach that has experience in this new kind of college athletics,” Peevy said. “I wanted somebody in the middle of it, so we’re not having to start and learn all that on the go.”
In today’s era of college basketball, continuity is a luxury, not the norm. Holtmann said he learned from his Ohio State tenure that his last two teams skewed too young to win. Experience is king in today’s game.
“The days of being able to potentially get a kid based on relationships alone — I think some of those situations still exist — but it’s not as important as what it used to be,” Holtmann said.
Getting a coach of Holtmann’s caliber is a win for Peevy and the program because it reflects the university’s commitment to the program.
Peevy said this summer, the program will have a new weight room, plans for a new, $60 million practice facility in Lincoln Park and a commitment to having an operating budget in the top half of the Big East.
“It was huge,” Holtmann said of the importance of university commitment. “I had seriously considered just doing media for a year because of my situation there at Ohio State. I had the freedom to do that for a couple of years if I wanted to. So it was not a push that I had to work this year.”
Based on what Peevy and Holtmann said at the press conference, they understand what it takes to compete in today’s college basketball environment and sustain it.
But it’s one thing to win a press conference; it’s another to build a winner.