Quinnipiac hires 'Nova assistant Dunleavy as head coach
Villanova's associate head coach, Baker Dunleavy, has been named head basketball coach at Quinnipiac and will be introduced at a news conference Tuesday, sources said Monday.
Villanova's associate head coach, Baker Dunleavy, has been named head basketball coach at Quinnipiac and will be introduced at a news conference Tuesday, sources said Monday.
Dunleavy, 34, has been on Jay Wright's staff since 2010 and has spent the last four seasons as associate head coach. He was not available to comment on his first head coaching job. A news conference was scheduled for 1 p.m. at the school in Hamden, Conn.
Dunleavy will succeed Tom Moore, who had been with the Bobcats for 10 seasons but was fired earlier this month after his team finished 10-21. Quinnipiac is a member of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.
The son of former 76ers player Mike Dunleavy, the current Tulane head coach, the younger Dunleavy held responsibilities at 'Nova that included player development and recruiting. He was credited with developing Josh Hart into a national player of the year candidate. Hart led the Big East in scoring and was named conference player of the year.
Dunleavy played for the Wildcats from 2002-06, a reserve on a team that featured Randy Foye, Allen Ray, Curtis Sumpter, and Jason Fraser. The Cats made it to the 2006 Elite Eight.
After graduation, Dunleavy embarked on a career as a stockbroker on Wall Street, working at Merrill Lynch and Bank of America. But the pull of basketball eventually proved to be too much, and after a number of talks with Wright, "I kind of begged my way back in," Dunleavy told the Inquirer in an interview last year.
Published reports identified head coaches Andy Toole of Robert Morris, John Becker of Vermont, and Scott Burrell of Southern Connecticut as candidates for the Quinnipiac job.
Quinnipiac's last winning season came in 2013-14 when the Bobcats went 20-12. Since then, they went 15-15, 9-21, and 10-21. The Bobcats return guard Mikey Dixon, who was the MAAC freshman of the year after leading the Bobcats in scoring with a 16.5-point average.
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