Villanova workswith previous Quinnipiac head coach Baker Dunleavy as basketball GM

It’s totallyfree firm season in college basketball and cash matters. Yes, that’s the present, ever-evolving environment the sport is in, and it’s why Villanova followed a brand-new pattern: hiring a basic supervisor. 

University vice president and athletic director Mark Jackson revealed on Thursday earlymorning that Baker Dunleavy, now previous Quinnipiac head coach who played at Villanova from 2003-06 and served as an assistant under Jay Wright from 2010-17, would be taking on this newly-created athletic department function to handle the guys’s and ladies’s basketball programs. 

The statement came simply minutes after Quinnipiac launched a declaration that Dunleavy was stepping down after 6 seasons at the helm in Hamden, where he went 86-93. In the verysame statement, the Bobcats called previous Hofstra (2001-10) and Fordham (2010-15) coach Tom Pecora their brand-new head coach. The 65-year-old was Dunleavy’s partner head coach for the last 6 years. 

Villanova’s choice to bring Dunleavy back to the Main Line, where he was Wright’s right-hand guy as partner head coach for the nationwide champion run in 2016, is a clever and imaginative relocation. Dunleavy is a school of service graduate and will take on name, image and similarity within the guys’s and females’s basketball programs while tracking the transfer website and looking at methods to develop gamers’ brandnames. 

For a males’s program that missedouton the NCAA Tournament for the veryfirst time consideringthat 2012 and went 17-17 in Kyle Neptune’s initially season, Dunleavy is a familiar face and needsto just increase the Wildcats in his return.

Villanova’s lineup will be highlighted by the return of fifth-year senior Justin Moore, who came back from an Achilles injury and moved the Wildcats to a late-season rise this past year. With Eric Dixon back to lead the frontcourt efforts and an anticipated leap from sophomore point guard Mark Armstrong, the Cats have a strong core establishing. They are likewise waitingfor a choice from Washington State transfer TJ Bamba (15.8 PPG on 43% FG last season), who is set to pick inbetween Villanova and Georgia Tech on Friday. 

Villanova’s statement on Thursday is the mostcurrent case of the college videogame proving concepts of the expert ranks, duetothefactthat in this day and age, it’s required. 

Over 20% of Division I males’s scholarship gamers have wentinto the transfer portal, most especially Hunter Dickinson of Michigan. NIL dollars are playing secret functions in identifying numerous of these gamers’ next stops. So, like Duke did in hiring the first-ever basic supervisor in college basketball last June with previous Nike executive Rachel Baker, the Wildcats are following match. 

Others will do the verysame.

John Fanta is a nationwide college basketball broadcaster and author for FOX Sports. He covers the sport in a range of capabilities, from calling videogames on FS1 to serving as lead host on the BIG EAST Digital Network to supplying commentary on The Field of 68 Media Network. Follow him on Twitter @John_Fanta.

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