Leitao returning to Gampel for first time in 18 years
On Wednesday night, Dave Leitao will walk onto the Gampel Pavilion floor as a coach for the first time in 18 years.
“I know I’ll be looking for Big Red,” Leitao noted, “and he won’t be there.”
No, Big Red’s famous “U-C-O-N-N” chant will be missing Wednesday night. So will any other fans in this strange, crazy 2020-21 season.
And no one’s had it crazier and stranger than Leito and his DePaul men’s basketball team.
The Blue Demons have had 10 games canceled or postponed since the slated start of the season on Nov. 28. A few weeks ago, they flew out to Ames, Iowa to face Iowa State in a Big East-Big 12 Challenge game. Two hours before the opening tip, the game was canceled.
After nearly a month’s wait, DePaul finally played its first game on Dec. 23 — a 91-72 win over Western Illinois. The Blue Demons were the last team from a major conference to play a game.
“It’s the ultimate in resiliency,” Leitao said on a Hearst Connecticut Media podcast. “Each and every day, today being no different, something is going to get thrown at you that you don’t expect. You have to deal with it. I’ve told the team over and over again, what doesn’t break you makes you stronger.”
DePaul played its second game — and first in Big East play — on Sunday night, taking Providence to double-overtime on the road before falling 95-90.
“Not knowing what tomorrow will bring forces you to concentrate on today,” Leitao continued. “And today has been enough of a challenge for each and every one of them. I continue to worry about where they’re at emotionally, how much more they can take. So far, we’ve made it through. We’re still standing, and our plan is to continue to grow and continue this as a positive.”
Leitao, 60, has certainly had a circuitous route to where he is now. After playing for Jim Calhoun at Northeastern, he joined Calhoun’s coaching staff at the school, then at UConn. After two years as Northeastern’s head coach, Leitao returned to Calhoun’s staff in 1996 and was an integral part of the Huskies’ first national title in 1999.
Since then, Leitao has been head coach at DePaul, Virginia and for the Maine Red Claws, spent a few years as an assistant at Missouri and Tulsa. Now, he’s in his sixth season of his second go-around with the Blue Demons.
The team has struggled
in recent years, going 3-15 in the Big East last season and raising rumors and speculation that Leitao’s job was in jeopardy. Leitao blocked out the noise.
“Including Coach K or Bill Self or John Calipari, all of us work on one-year contracts,” he reasoned. “That means you don’t worry about it. If I read or bought into what people think about what we’re doing here, then I’d be as foolish as some of the people that make comments — good or bad.”
“What goes on here on the inside is known by a few,” Leitao added. “So, those are the people that I would listen to. Anybody else is just making comments. So, I don’t pay any attention to it. I’ve been in this business for a long time for a reason. I’ve had a very awkward path to get to where I am right now. Being here twice is awkward. Things that have happened to me in my career, good and bad, have been awkward. There’s not a script that goes with anything that has happened to my career or my time here.”
Instead of being fired after last season, Leitao was rewarded with a contract extension through 2023-24.
“It means they believe in what we are doing and have faith in this program, what it’s doing and where it’s headed ,” he noted. “Our recruiting for next year and beyond is going well enough that speaks to not only what we’re doing now, but what lies ahead. That’s what I put stock in.”
No question, there is talent on this year’s DePaul roster, led by Romeo Weems and preseason first-team All-Big East selection Charlie Moore.
And there’s more on the way: According to 247Sports.com, DePaul currently has the fifthhighest ranked recruiting class in the Big East for 2021 (UConn’s is ranked third).
Leitao’s immediate future, of course, is returning to Gampel on Wednesday night. He’s been back on campus a few times over the past 18 years, even stay
ing at the new on-campus hotel. But he hasn’t been back in a coaching capacity since leaving Calhoun’s staff in 2002.
There will be no Big Red or any other fans to welcome him back.
“That part of it will be dramatically different, as it is everywhere,” Dave Leitao said. “But the nostalgia of times gone by, I’m sure, will go through my head.”
“But,” he added, “the ball will get thrown up with 20 minutes on the clock, and all that will go out the window. Hopefully, at the end of the game, we’ll talk about it a little bit more. But for those 40 minutes, it’ll be their team against our team, and that’s where my concentration will be.”