He need only watch Illinois take care of Indiana to see depth, teamwork and feel even more depressed than he already is, though no one is going to tell Pat Kennedy that he’s goofing up.
The perception, of course, is that the Blue Demons should be right there, rounding out another conference championship and, like the Illini, anticipating which NCAA regional they will stare down upon when the tournament berths come out in a few weeks.
Instead, a month after saying their season, then at 8-7, was far from over, it is now, well, a lot closer to over at 12-13 and 4-8 in Conference USA play.
Mugging Tulane in the middle of Mardi Gras may not be the worst way to spend a weekend, but it does little for the Blue Demons or for Kennedy.
The Blue Demons certainly can hold out hope of winning the conference tournament, thereby gaining an automatic bid to the NCAA tourney, the very hope that makes college basketball and America the fine institutions they are. But banking on that is as unrealistic as expecting the Demons would be among the nation’s elite by now.
It is Kennedy’s fault as much as anyone’s, trumpeting his recruiting classes and raising expectations. And he is certainly not going to bail on his team now any more than he will lash back at the DePaul faithful whose only mission left is to come up with new and more creative anti-Kennedy signage at Allstate Arena.
“I remember meeting [then-St. John’s coach] Louie Carnesecca when I was 26 and took my first job at Iona,” said Kennedy. “He had so much wisdom and one thing he said was, `Don’t ever turn on your players or your fans. They’re the reason you’re coaching Division I college basketball.”
In other words, we won’t ever know if Kennedy thinks his team is largely overrated and uncoachable, as is suspected. It would be mostly his fault for recruiting the players if that were the case, anyway, and it would be suicide for future recruiting to admit it.
What he will say is this: “People worry about press clippings, whether in high school, college or the pros, and whether it gives kids a big head,” Kennedy said, referring indirectly to Chicago area high school stars developing overactive egos before they’re old enough to drive.
“When a local kid gets a lot of publicity, the question is, `Can [he] live up to the expectations?’ and as soon as he doesn’t, there are major problems. Usually [the publicity] wasn’t accurate. But I see our kids developing and the silver lining is they don’t want to fake themselves out anymore. They know they have a ways to go.”
And to label Kennedy a bust this soon is short-sighted.
For starters, the man did not turn stupid when he left Florida State. Five tournament berths and steady improvement on a Tallahassee campus that–trust me–you would have an easier time luring a rattlesnake than a blue-chip college basketball player, was a legitimate achievement.
Going from three victories in Joey Meyer’s last year to 18 in Kennedy’s second at DePaul to 21 last season was fairly remarkable. It also created an impatience that, while understandable, is unfair and looks a lot like a city’s frustrated fans simply flailing away at the most convenient targets.
“We’ve had three great years,” Kennedy said. “When you stumble, you find out how strong your coaching staff is and it becomes a huge motivator for next year.”
Only, of course, if your coaching staff is strong to begin with and next year promises a better crop of recruits. The jury is out on Kennedy’s staff. Moreover, word around the program is that prize recruit Eddy Curry would be among the top 10 players in the NBA draft and he probably will go.
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Ask him about this season and Kennedy points to the “huge void” left by the departure to the NBA of Quentin Richardson and Paul McPherson; the Blue Demons’ string of nagging injuries and an early-season schedule that was too difficult, undermined their confidence and eliminated any chance of gathering momentum.
“We designed a schedule that was not fitting for a team coming back, which is my responsibility,” he said. “[Florida, Syracuse, Missouri and Kansas] was too much.”
Taken as a whole, however, Kennedy said it is still just a “bump in the road. I certainly didn’t want this to happen, but it has not taken away from the rebuilding of this program,” he said.
He points to Georgetown and Connecticut as examples of programs that “took a good six to seven years” to re-build.
It’s hard to imagine DePaul Athletic Director Bill Bradshaw firing him before then. But then that would be only two years from now and it’s just as hard to imagine the Demons reaching the heights to which Kennedy was referring.
Just the same, let’s wait until then to call him a bust.