Within rules, DePaul coach has to go for it
Institutional control might become the two most important words in DePaul's basketball future.
Last week I suggested that the Blue Demons' next head coach should be Scott Drew, who was in the process of guiding Baylor into an NCAA Tournament regional final.
Who knows whether that's even a consideration on either his or the school's part? For one thing, would Drew be interested in leaving what he built at Baylor to take on DePaul's formidable challenges?
For another thing, Drew has coached at Valparaiso, a Lutheran school, and Baylor, a Baptist school. I don't understand religion enough to know whether that qualifies him or disqualifies him to coach at a Catholic university such as DePaul.
Anyway, a larger consideration for DePaul could be the reputation Drew acquired while resurrecting Baylor's troubled basketball program.
Drew's methods reportedly irritated other Big 12 coaches like Texas' Rick Barnes and former Texas Tech grouch Bobby Knight.
Negative recruiting is among the charges. So is hiring an AAU coach as an assistant to lure a player to Baylor.
Those tactics don't fit an established basketball program like Duke. However, let's be real here: They do fit a program like DePaul trying to re-establish itself.
The Demons have become irrelevant nationally and locally. It's naive to think a prude is going to revive them.
The next DePaul coach will have to make noise, rattle cages and bruise egos. Some within college basketball, the Big East and DePaul itself will cringe at how the he teeters between propriety and impropriety.
Listen, folks, the Demons aren't new to this game.
Even Ray Meyer's hallowed regime took chances on players who turned out to be less than solid citizens. Later, whispers wondered how Pat Kennedy's regime managed to attract blue chippers.
The Demons' crisis today is much more severe than back then, so it's natural to ask how unethical is still ethical in college basketball?
Is it OK for DePaul to hire a Chicago Public League coach to land one of his players? Sure it is. Is it OK to spread rumors about Big East and Big Ten recruiting competitors? Of course it is.
Not only is it OK, it likely is the only way to get DePaul to where it wants to be. The coach at this urban school will need a little urban edge and a lot of urban con.
No, don't give a player a suitcase full of money. Don't alter transcripts of his high school grades. Don't cheat at all. Just operate on the margin of the rule book.
College basketball teams aren't church choirs. Many players come from mean places and are recruited by mean men with mean means.
Cesspool is a common description of the sport, making institutional control paramount.
DePaul's coaching staff - with or without Scott Drew - will have to be monitored so NCAA rules are blurred but not obliterated.
Everybody from the upper levels of DePaul's administration down to athletic director Jean Lenti Ponsetto will have to be vigilant every minute of every day to make sure coaches are in compliance.
Then they'll have to pray nobody else catches the coach doing anything wrong.
mimrem@dailyherald.com