DePaul made a move Monday to sustain one of the nation’s winningest women’s basketball programs by extending the contract of coach Doug Bruno through the 2023-24 season.
The iconic Hall-of-Famer whose impact on the game has grown to legendary status just completed his 32nd season guiding the Blue Demons to its 16th consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
That puts DePaul in elite company with Connecticut, national-champion Notre Dame, Tennessee, Stanford and Oklahoma as the only schools who can claim that distinction out of 349 Division I programs nationwide.
Bruno led the Blue Demons to their fifth-straight BIG EAST regular-season title in 2018 and their third BIG EAST Tournament crown in the last five years. His program has won 20 or more games for 11 years in a row and 15 of the last 16.
His teams have advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16 four times including three times in the last eight years. DePaul is perennially at or near the top of Division I in scoring, assists and three-point shooting.
His coaching influence is on a global level as an assistant coach on the last two Olympics gold-medal USA women’s basketball teams. As head coach, he led a USA under-18 national team to the FIBA Americas gold medal in 2006 and a U-19 national team to the 2007 World Championships gold medal.
“I am so thankful to be working at a great institution like DePaul,” said Bruno who played for the Blue Demons in the late 1960s and early 70s. “I never would have been here without coach Ray Meyer who gave me a basketball scholarship, Frank McGrath and Gene Sullivan who hired me in the 1970s.
“I am really blessed to work for a terrific administration led by DePaul President Dr. A. Gabriel Esteban and for the best athletics director in the USA in Jean Lenti Ponsetto. Jeanne consistently puts all of her coaches in the best position to succeed.”
That success included posting his 700th career win in early February after an 86-68 triumph at Butler. Bruno was inducted into the National Italian-American Sports Hall of Fame last November joining luminaries such as Joe DiMaggio, Rocky Marciano and Vince Lombardi. In May, he will receive the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association’s first-ever Rich and Ron Herrin Award for meritorious lifetime contributions to the game.
“I’ve been fortunate to have great assistant coaches through all the years,” Bruno said. “My current staff is absolutely one of the best in the country.
“Most important, the reason you succeed is the players. I’ve been blessed to have tremendous student-athletes help build the DePaul women’s basketball legacy.
“I am excited about this contract extension because we still have work to do. As proud as we are of everything we have achieved, our expectation through the length of this extension is to take the Blue Demons to even higher places.”
Ponsetto has every confidence the program will ascend to new heights.
“We wanted to reward coach Bruno for all his dedicated years of service and the incredible contributions he has made to the DePaul women’s basketball program and the university community,” Ponsetto said. “It’s a reward for the way he has represented us nationwide in women’s college basketball and internationally with USA Basketball.
“Coach Bruno has brought tremendous distinction to our program and the university, and it seemed only fitting to ensure he will be our coach for the next six years.”
Photo Courtesy DePaul Athletics
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