Never a player, Barrington native Devitt shines as UIC assistant coach
It's long been established that you don't have to be a great player to be a great coach.
In the basketball world, Michigan's Dusty May is the latest to gain notoriety as someone who worked as a team manager in college before going into coaching. Former NBA head coaches like Frank Vogel and Lawrence Frank also followed that plan.
UIC men's basketball assistant Kevin Devitt took the unconventional career path a couple steps farther. The Barrington native didn't even play high school basketball at Carmel Catholic. He never washed uniforms or mopped the basketball court as a student at DePaul.
“I don't want to misspeak and say I'm the only Division I college basketball coach who didn't play in high school,” Devitt said. “I might be.”
Devitt joined the staff of first-year coach Rob Ehsan and together they've helped lead UIC to its best winning percentage since 2004, which was also the school's last NCAA Tournament appearance.
The Flames (17-13) are the No. 6 seed in the Missouri Valley Conference tournament — aka Arch Madness — and will face No. 11 Valparaiso at 8:30 p.m. Thursday in St. Louis.
To be clear, Devitt was an athlete in high school. He returned punts and played nickel back for Carmel's 2004 state championship football team. He was on a relay team that advanced downstate in track. But playing basketball ended after eighth grade at Transfiguration Catholic school in Wauconda.
“I love basketball, but I'm 5-8, 150,” Devitt said. “I could lift weights and I could run fast, so that gave me a chance on the football field.”
Devitt went to DePaul as a track walk-on, but a freak accident during freshman year actually set his path toward basketball. Imagine a rec center with an elevated running track surrounding basketball courts. Devitt was doing an aggressive warmup on the track, somehow lost his balance and fell.
He can't even fully explain how it happened. The 20-foot fall was a bizarre accident, extremely fortunate in a variety of ways, and strangely symbolic since he landed on a basketball court.
“I should have been paralyzed,” he said. “I should have been dead, really, and I was fortunate I wasn't. I was in the hospital for three days.
“I was unconscious. I don't really remember everything that happened. I just remember waking up and was very thankful I could feel my toes and feet. My immediate reaction was, 'How did I get there?' Then I kind of put it together.”
There were no broken bones, but his hips were messed up to the point where he had to stop running track. So he needed a new outlet and chose basketball. During high school, he went back and helped coach the grade school teams at Transfiguration, so that's where his love for coaching began.
“It's just a wild story,” he said. “In college my sophomore year, I started a website covering high school basketball. Then I started an all-star game to go with it. I was coaching the freshman team at Lindblom High School, then I got on with Richards (in Oak Lawn).”
After graduating from DePaul, Devitt took a job as a grade school PE teacher on Chicago's West Side, while also working as a volunteer coach for the relaunched Roosevelt University basketball team.
Still a long way from Division I, Devitt was able to make a connection with current South Alabama head coach Richie Riley by reaching out with a handwritten letter.
“I scoured the internet, looking at all 364 schools and he was one of the only guys at the time that had made that jump from NAIA,” Devitt said.
A couple years later, Riley was at UAB and had an opening. Not for an assistant coach, but the woman who basically served as the administrative assistant in the basketball office was retiring. So Devitt took her job and left Roosevelt at midseason.
He did a few different support jobs at UAB, then got his first actual Division I coaching job on the staff of Northbrook native Billy Donlon at Wright State.
A year later, UAB head coach Jerod Haase left for Stanford, Ehsan became the new head coach and he brought Devitt back to Birmingham. After four years at UAB, then four at Niagara, Devitt returned home when Ehsan got the UIC head job.
The two are obviously a good match. Ehsan officiated the wedding of Devitt and his wife, Alex, a Glenbard West High School grad, eight years ago. Devitt has evolved into more of a defensive specialist, with Ehsan focusing on offense.
“As time's gone on and I've established myself, I don't think (not playing basketball) is ever a thought,” Devitt said. “Players just want you to make them better. So as long as you're knowledgeable and can help them grow and reach their ceiling, that's all that matters.”
Arch Madness
Missouri Valley tournament at St. Louis
Thursday's games
Southern Illinois (8) vs. Indiana State (9), noon
Illinois State (5) vs. Missouri State (12), 2:30
Murray State (7) vs. Evansville (10), 6
UIC (6) vs. Valparaiso (11), 8:30
Friday's games
Drake (1) vs. SIU-Ind St., noon
Belmont (4) vs. Ill St.-Mo St., 2:30
Bradley (2) vs. Murray-Eville, 6
Northern Iowa (3) vs. UIC-Valpo, 8:30
Saturday's games
Semifinal No. 1, 2:30
Semifinal No. 2, 5
Sunday's game
Championship, 1:15
TV: First two rounds on ESPN-plus; semis on CBS Sports Network; final on CBS