Greatest teaching gamble in school basketball: Why Chris Holtmann determined to take an opportunity on lowly DePaul

CHICAGO — It is the query he cannot cease getting. From the day Chris Holtmann took the job earlier this yr (March 14), then all through the spring, all summer season lengthy and effectively into the autumn, individuals simply must know.

Why did you do that? Why did you — HOW may you — take the DePaul job?

“I am telling you, in each interview, that has been the query that I have been requested,” Holtmann just lately informed CBS Sports activities.

And it wasn’t simply media folks prodding. Individuals from all instructions and backgrounds would inquire. What is the deal right here? Is that this some type of peculiar dare or charity case? Have been you compelled in opposition to your will to do that? Of all the roles … DePaul? Some would possibly tilt their heads, as if to not offend. Others invoked a softer tone, like the way you’d discuss to somebody simply getting over the flu.

“It has been fascinating for me,” Holtmann stated as we talked about The Query over lunch at Homeslice — a restaurant two blocks from DePaul’s campus — in October. As he begins to elucidate his new life and the selections that led to it, an L prepare drowns him out because it thunderously chuk-chuks simply exterior the restaurant.

“Nonetheless have not gotten used to that,” he says amid the decrescendo.

That is the primary time Holtmann’s ever actually lived inside a giant metropolis, and there is a lot to get used to. One of the best of it: Holtmann has a 10-minute commute by foot to work. He walks house for lunch some days. One of the best half has been exploring Chicago together with his spouse and 14-year-old daughter. He can mix in as an everyman amongst the winsome neighborhoods of Lincoln Park. However that is life, not the job. 

“I am underneath no illusions that that is going to be straightforward.”

Chris Holtmann

His workforce was predictably picked final within the Massive East preseason ballot and Holtmann was all too content material to slink underneath the radar whereas beginning his fourth head-coaching gig. However even with shin-high expectations, there was little probability of that given the distinction in what he is executed and what DePaul most actually hasn’t over the previous 15 years (and past). Holtmann was the best-case hiring state of affairs for this system when athletic director DeWayne Peevy satisfied the previous Ohio State/Butler/Gardner-Webb coach to take over what has been, with out peer, the worst power-conference program this century. 

The Blue Demons final made the NCAA Event in 2004, a drought that’s bested by a whopping 263 packages. In that span, DePaul’s file was 231-391. Since shifting to the Massive East in 2005, it has one profitable season in league play (9-7 in 2006-07). What’s extra, Holtmann took this job after the nadir. For as laughable as DePaul has been, nothing was worse in its 102-year historical past than final season when the Blue Demons went 3-29 and completed 308th at KenPom, the bottom rating for any college in a high-major league within the 28-year database of that metric. 

“I am underneath no illusions that that is going to be straightforward,” Holtmann stated. “Like, I get it.”

Holtmann, who was fired on Valentine’s Day by Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith after going 30-30 in his last 60 video games, has 254 wins and 7 NCAA Event appearances on his résumé. Of all of the rumored names linked to the DePaul job after Peevy fired Tony Stubblefield in January, Holtmann was by far essentially the most achieved candidate. Some within the trade thought DePaul did not have a shot. Plus, Holtmann may simply sit a yr or two, await a greater job and certain get it. 

However the Ohio State firing hit him like a maul, even regardless of OSU’s spiraling season and him dropping grip on this system. He thought he’d have time to reverse course; too many forces rallied in opposition to him. He did initially take into account taking a yr away from teaching, however then he took journeys to see buddies within the occupation as they made their pushes towards March. He flew to FAU to see Dusty Might — the now-Michigan coach wished to know the ins and outs of the then-vacant Ohio State job. Holtmann visited Takayo Siddle (a former Holtmann assistant) at UNC Wilmington, along with his former assistant Ryan Pedon, now the coach at Illinois State. Holtmann additionally flew to Texas A&M and spent three days with Buzz Williams. They held at-dawn exercises and took every day walks that will final two hours. Holtmann obtained to see the great, the unhealthy, the bizarre at different locations. 

“It was cathartic for me,” he stated, including that he even wound up counseling Williams just a little as he was pushing by means of the canine days of February. “That ended up being most likely nearly as good as something for me.”

Not having the stress of teaching a workforce held its attraction … for lower than a month. A few humdrum days round the home settled the matter. Along with his solely youngster set to enter highschool, if he was going to take a job, this wanted to be the yr to do it. He would not transfer her twice. 

So, why DePaul?

Holtmann takes a beat and places it plainly. 

“I am type of an asshole after I’m bored,” he stated. “I haven’t got sufficient hobbies. I simply assume I will be irritable. … For me, I do not know the way I would be not having a workforce, not having a objective for a yr. And if there is a couple alternatives, or a chance that type of grabs my coronary heart, then I have to reap the benefits of that.”

To Holtmann’s shock, DePaul pulled at him. Whilst these near him had been advising in opposition to it, the insane problem of returning DePaul to respectability — not even prominence, simply downright competency — was engaging. Peevy and DePaul president Robert L. Manuel visited the Holtmann house in late February. The three of them sat on the eating room desk for hours. It was sufficient to get him to contemplate a job with one above-.500 season within the earlier 17. For greater than a decade DePaul has been a non-entity for nearly each four- or five-star recruit from better Chicago. Fixing that appealed to Holtmann on a degree he did not absolutely perceive, to the purpose the place he requested a sports activities psychologist for readability. He despatched again to Holtmann’s JFK’s well-known “Why go to the moon?” speech. 

“As people, we aspire to do arduous and tough issues, and will be very gratifying whenever you see that factor by means of,” Holtmann stated.

Holtmann obtained the assurances and situations required earlier than accepting, and to Peevy’s credit score, he is aware of his job is on the road with this hiring as effectively. To that finish, DePaul’s NIL finances has purportedly snowballed and is now not paltry. In agreeing to a six-year deal, Holtmann additionally gave up a few of his personal would-be wage to extend the pool for his workers to be at a aggressive degree within the Massive East. Most significantly, assurances had been made a few new follow facility and workplaces, which wanted to be executed in lower than three years’ time to construct a literal basis for momentum. Earlier this month, DePaul introduced a $2.5 million donation for the challenge. Floor shall be damaged in 2025.

It helps that Holtmann has executed rebuilds earlier than, albeit on totally different scales. The closest analog was his first yr as a head coach in 2010-11 at Gardner-Webb. The workforce went 11-21. He made a rule. You possibly can acknowledge the challenges of the job in entrance of you, however you’ll be able to’t dwell on them amongst the workers, in any other case you may face important penalties. There are few issues school basketball coaches like to do greater than bitch; it’s a part of the job description. However to Holtmann, dwelling about points as a pastime and residing in that woe-is-us can fester in a workforce’s facility and infect a program from the core out. The identical rule applies to DePaul now. 

“We will acknowledge it, see if it is fixable, however we’re additionally going to acknowledge and have fun the areas that we predict this place will be actually good,” Holtmann stated. 

Three video games into this season, it is a welcomed change of tempo. The losses will come and can probably pile excessive in 12 months 1, however DePaul is 3-0 heading into its Friday house tilt in opposition to Duquesne. The workforce’s gained a pair of video games by 30-plus factors to start out the season, one thing DePaul hadn’t executed since 1999-00. Lookie there: fast progress. This spring/summer season, this system bought extra season tickets than at any level within the seven-year historical past of Wintrust Enviornment. That was huge, as a result of whereas DePaul has a very nice house joint, it is also greater than 20 minutes from campus. Again when Holtmann was teaching Butler, there’d be video games at DePaul the place BU followers would outnumber the house workforce. 

“I bear in mind pondering, man, I wager that is arduous on the workers and gamers,” Holtmann stated. 

Possibly this could lastly be the pivot level. Possibly DePaul does not must be the laughingstock of faculty basketball. For as robust of a rent Holtmann was to DePaul, he additionally introduced on a workers that is obtained a great deal of expertise, which is essential at a spot vulnerable to huge disappointments. Along with maintaining Paris Parham as an assistant, Holtmann employed three guys with head teaching expertise: former Miami College Jack Owens, former Southern Illinois coach Bryan Mullins and former Butler coach LaVall Jordan, who’s the workforce’s common supervisor. Jordan really reached out to Holtmann first. He’d executed TV the previous two years, however the gymnasium was calling him as soon as once more. 

Stated Holtmann: “I am undecided there is a extra essential, crucial challenge relating to profitable and dropping persistently proper now than roster development. Does the roster match the pinnacle coach? Does it match his type of play, and the place can he morph it just a little bit? Does he match by way of character? It’s so crucial.”

In constructing out the workforce, Holtmann wished as many multi-year transfers as potential. No final-year eligibility guys. There must be carryover. The primary participant to commit was Troy D’Amico, a Chicago native who performed for Mullins at SIU. 

“I need guys who need to be at DePaul, and persons are going to chuckle, there may be just a little little bit of a chuckle when, after I say that,” Holtmann stated. 

All the time conscious of the place DePaul stands, Holtmann charged himself and his workers with increase the place in an genuine means and by no means dropping sight of the place DePaul is now within the pecking order of the game, even within the Massive East. They did not become involved in a single portal battle they could not win. The roster is patchwork, however so it goes for many groups in a training transition. The objective is to clear double-digit wins with out challenge and construct from there, ideally with at the least 75% of the roster returning for 2025-26. 

Take Drake switch Connor Enright for example. His coach left for West Virginia. Enright grew up an hour from DePaul and had an immaculate popularity. Gained on NCAA Event groups however averaged 6.9 factors, 3.2 assists and three.2 rebounds. 

“He’ll actually embody what we would like this new program to be about,” Holtmann stated. “So I recruited him like a five-star level guard, just like the highest-level level guard within the switch portal.”

Enright’s averaging 6.3 assists to start out the season and will develop into among the best pass-first guards within the Massive East.

For DePaul to have already matched final yr’s win whole within the first 9 days of the season is as humorous as it’s unhappy. This system ought to have by no means reached this level, however then, possibly it wanted to as a way to lastly discover a means out of its vortex of suck. Holtmann now sees how badly individuals need DePaul to matter in a means he did not perceive in March. That juxtaposed in opposition to the danger of all of it is what makes this so compelling. There’s an opportunity it goes terribly for Holtmann the best way it went terribly for many each coach to run this program because the ’90s. If that occurs, he’ll most likely by no means be a head coach once more. He understands that proposition. 

“What comes with it requires a prepared braveness to say, ‘Yep, I am gonna put myself again on the market,'” Holtmann stated. “And I’ve no downside with people who find themselves, like, I am not gonna do it, not for me or I want a break. I do not ever have a look at these issues, and other people can say what they need about any individual who yells one thing at a recreation or no matter, and I simply have a look at it and say we willingly make these selections and obtained to be powerful sufficient to deal with them.”

This may very well be a mistake … or it may very well be the perfect determination of Holtmann’s profession. That is the driving level. If Chris Holtmann can get DePaul again to the NCAA Event for the primary time in additional than twenty years, it should quantity to among the best turnaround tales in school basketball this century. The dimensions and problem of such an task feeds the human ego — Holtmann’s ego — and that may be a wholesome factor as a result of it is in service to others. 

That is the danger. That is why you do it. The more durable it’s, the extra rewarding it may be. That is why he took the DePaul job.