{"id":95,"date":"2017-11-03T20:37:23","date_gmt":"2017-11-03T20:37:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/2017\/11\/03\/20171022quinnipiacs-new-prized-possession\/"},"modified":"2020-09-05T19:52:00","modified_gmt":"2020-09-05T19:52:00","slug":"20171022quinnipiacs-new-prized-possession","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/2017\/11\/03\/20171022quinnipiacs-new-prized-possession\/","title":{"rendered":"Baker Dunleavy: Quinnipiac&#8217;s new prized possession"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Conor Roche<\/p>\n<p>If the reports are true, then Quinnipiac\u2019s men\u2019s basketball\u2019s new head coach is also the school\u2019s highest-paid head coach\u2026and he\u2019s never been a head coach.<\/p>\n<p>   <a id='Gx9oONnQTMBfmWnKWB2miw' class='gie-single' href='http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/500439804' target='_blank' style='color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;'>Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'Gx9oONnQTMBfmWnKWB2miw',sig:'wpZNp4VXKjjHFtAK96ODD-2S1Yab9PFo5mLrdpnzR7Y=',w:'396px',h:'594px',items:'500439804',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>However, Baker Dunleavy, 35, does have the background of a basketball head coach. His father, Mike Sr., played in the NBA for 11 years and was also an NBA head coach for 17 years, spending two of those years as the Los Angeles Lakers head coach. He\u2019s now the head coach at Tulane University.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was going to (my dad\u2019s) practices watching the players, watching their footwork, watching them go through drills and trying to play them one-on-one after practice,\u201d Dunleavy said. \u201cBut I wasn\u2019t watching the coaching, the teaching, the little things that right now I wish I had access to. But just being around it, I think was a privilege and helped me a ton.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Dunleavy\u2019s brother, Mike Jr., is a 15-year NBA veteran that\u2019s played for six teams.<\/p>\n<p>Dunleavy was good enough to play basketball at the Division-I level. In fact, he played for Villanova University, one of the premier teams in college basketball from 2003-06. Even though he only played in 28 games in this three-year career, former teammate Mike Nardi realized the importance Dunleavy had to the team.<\/p>\n<p>   <a id='ADtLlTTbRYdXFl_KW4HTYg' class='gie-single' href='http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/52081612' target='_blank' style='color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;'>Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'ADtLlTTbRYdXFl_KW4HTYg',sig:'ZlEtHJfGWvWwlJjLQQcO39pH-Mg4lJMr4VcB_ji1LQI=',w:'427px',h:'594px',items:'52081612',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWithin his role as one of the guys coming off the bench, (Dunleavy) always knew what we were doing as a team,\u201d Nardi said. He always knew what the coaching staff was looking for. He did a great job at pushing guys at practice\u2026He knew what we were doing. Really good guy off the court. Smart, intelligent and great locker room leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dunleavy didn\u2019t have the same talent that his father and brother had to make it into the NBA, so he left basketball after graduation to work at Merrill Lynch. That only lasted until 2010, when he returned to his alma mater to work for his college head coach, Jay Wright, as the program\u2019s director of basketball operations. After working his way up the program\u2019s totem pole for a few years, Dunleavy became Wright\u2019s right-hand man in 2013 when he was named the team\u2019s associate head coach.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust the way our staff is and what coach Wright wants us to be is everyone pretty much has their hands on everything,\u201d Nardi, who is now in his third-year on the coaching staff at Villanova, said on Dunleavy\u2019s rise in the program. \u201cHonestly, (Dunleavy\u2019s) pedigree and his basketball-mind, he\u2019s just very intelligent and knows the game very well. He has a calm demeanor about him that I think a lot of time helped coach Wright. You need someone that\u2019s managing the game and helping you and see where the players heads are at.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In his four years as associate head coach, Dunleavy&#8217;s Wildcats went 129-17 (.883)&nbsp;overall and 63-9 (.875) in Big East play.&nbsp;Dunleavy\u2019s tenure as the Villanova associate head coach can be defined by one play. In 2016, the Wildcats won the national championship as Kris Jenkins made a three-pointer at the buzzer. The play is seen as one of the most iconic in college basketball history, if not sports history.<\/p>\n<p>   <iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/L7FFJUz0tdo?wmode=opaque&amp;enablejsapi=1\" height=\"480\" width=\"854\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><br \/>\n<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Dunleavy had a significant impact on the title, according to Nardi.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think (Dunleavy) was a great backbone for coach Wright and someone that he could always go to whether it be player relationships, recruiting, X\u2019s and O\u2019s, anything off the court with our guys,\u201d Nardi said. \u201cBaker was involved with everything, That\u2019s why he&#8217;s where\u2019s he\u2019s at today. He was very prepared for this opportunity and he\u2019s ready for it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On March 7, Quinnipiac relieved its 10-year men\u2019s basketball head coach Tom Moore after the team went 10-21 in the 2016-17 season. Some of the early candidates for the job were coaches that had Quinnipiac ties like Iona assistant coach Jared Grasso, who played and coached for the Bobcats, and Southern Connecticut State head coach Scott Burrell, who was an assistant coach for the Bobcats for eight years.<\/p>\n<p>However, DHR International, the search firm hired by Quinnipiac for the hiring process, keyed in on Dunleavy a couple of weeks after the national search began.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019d never seen the school, but I knew it had a really good reputation in terms of facilities. And that\u2019s certainly the case,\u201d Dunleavy said. \u201cI knew it was a really good academic school, an up-and-coming academic school that was exploding in the northeast.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Over the next week, reports surfaced that Quinnipiac was willing to pay nearly $800,000 per year to its next head coach, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bigeastcoastbias.com\/2017\/3\/27\/14982480\/villanovas-wildcats-baker-dunleavy-to-be-head-coach-at-quinnipiac-coaching-carousel\">which is a rare number for a mid-major program and a near $300,000 increase that Moore reportedly got.<\/a> Within a few days of that report coming out, it was announced that Dunleavy, who had two interviews with the school, would be the school\u2019s next men\u2019s basketball head coach.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Quinnipiac willing to pay in the 800K range, sources told ESPN. Names mentioned they are looking at: Bonnies&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/qQ7D4ZF2vl\">https:\/\/t.co\/qQ7D4ZF2vl<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanESPN) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GoodmanESPN\/status\/841807101936644096?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 15, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s never one thing. Just like a player looking to commit to a school, coaching\u2019s the same way. You want to find the right fit,\u201d Dunleavy said. \u201cThe environment that I was used to was a really well-rounded place\u2026I thought that on the surface was a fit. Came to school, saw the place and was blown away but what it looked like\u2026then by far the most important thing meeting the athletic director Greg Amodio and meeting Dr. (John L.) Lahey the president, and then from there on and continuing to meet other coaches and administrators.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"infogram-embed\" data-id=\"74ae2d84-f41b-453a-b5df-ce63b15675cc\" data-type=\"interactive\" data-title=\"Dunleavy wins by year as associate head coach\"><\/div>\n<p><script>!function(e,t,s,i){var n=\"InfogramEmbeds\",o=e.getElementsByTagName(\"script\"),d=o[0],r=\/^http:\/.test(e.location)?\"http:\":\"https:\";if(\/^\\\/{2}\/.test(i)&&(i=r+i),window[n]&&window[n].initialized)window[n].process&&window[n].process();else if(!e.getElementById(s)){var a=e.createElement(\"script\");a.async=1,a.id=s,a.src=i,d.parentNode.insertBefore(a,d)}}(document,0,\"infogram-async\",\"https:\/\/e.infogram.com\/js\/dist\/embed-loader-min.js\");<\/script><\/p>\n<div style=\"padding:8px 0;font-family:Arial!important;font-size:13px!important;line-height:15px!important;text-align:center;border-top:1px solid #dadada;margin:0 30px\"><a href=\"https:\/\/infogram.com\/74ae2d84-f41b-453a-b5df-ce63b15675cc\" \n \n\n\n\n<p>W<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.quinnipiacbobcats.com\/news\/2017\/3\/28\/baker-dunleavy-named-quinnipiac-mens-basketball-head-coach.aspx?path=mbball\">ell-known college basketball analysts Jay Bilas and Bill Raftery as well as two-time NBA Coach of the Year Mike D\u2019Antoni praised the hire.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>And if Dunleavy\u2019s as good as advertised, then Quinnipiac is lucky to have him as multiple other schools were looking to hire him, according to Nardi, who is also a close friend of his.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think we all knew that day was coming much sooner than later,\u201d Nardi said. \u201cHe was just waiting for the right fit and waiting for a job that he thought he could thrive in and be successful\u2026Not to say that those other programs weren\u2019t good positions or spots, but Baker just didn\u2019t feel that at the time that was the right move for him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nardi didn\u2019t specify which schools had interest in Dunleavy, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/college-basketball\/2017\/02\/23\/nc-state-indiana-coaching-carousel\">but a February 2017 Sports Illustrated article reported that Dunleavy turned down multiple jobs in 2016 to stay at Villanova.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>In his two interviews with the school, Dunleavy discussed how to run the program and how it can take the next step.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow that we\u2019re here, the next step is establishing an identity,\u201d Dunleavy said. \u201cMy eventual goal for this program is to be a perennial contender in the MAAC. That\u2019s the end-goal. You can\u2019t get there right away. My job right now is to establish a culture, an identity, a style of play, recruit and develop the players I have right now and make them the best they can be.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In establishing the identity of his team, Dunleavy wants the Bobcats to do the simple things really well.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe talk about playing really hard first and just being an effort team. I think every team in the country talks about that, but who commits to it? And we want to be a team that plays together,\u201d Dunleavy said.<\/p>\n<p>The men\u2019s basketball team is coming off of its third-straight losing season in conference play. To add to this, the team lost its top-two scorers from last season in Mikey Dixon and Peter Kiss due to transfer after Dunleavy was hired as the head coach. The team also lost five other players due to graduation or transfer.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s clear that the school wants Dunleavy to make the NCAA Tournament after Moore failed to do it in his 10-years at Quinnipiac. But both sides aren\u2019t expecting that result to come right away.<\/p>\n<p>Only time will tell if Quinnipiac managed its wealth properly in the former Merrill Lynch employee.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Conor Roche If the reports are true, then Quinnipiac\u2019s men\u2019s basketball\u2019s new head coach is also the school\u2019s highest-paid head coach\u2026and he\u2019s never been a head coach. Embed from Getty Images However, Baker Dunleavy, 35, does have the background of a basketball head coach. His father, Mike Sr., played in the NBA for 11 &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/2017\/11\/03\/20171022quinnipiacs-new-prized-possession\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Baker Dunleavy: Quinnipiac&#8217;s new prized possession<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":96,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[49,50,4],"class_list":["post-95","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-quinnipiac","tag-basketball","tag-coach","tag-quinnipiac"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3237,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95\/revisions\/3237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}