When a school has a legend as head coach of their program, they are allowed to go out on their own terms. They have had career success that warrants that level of respect. The school or team never wants to interfere with a person’s legacy. 

DePaul University as well as vice president and athletics director DeWayne Peevy faced this reality with former women’s basketball head coach Doug Bruno. 

Bruno suffered a stroke in the fall that led him to be unable to coach during the 2024-25 basketball season. Peevy knew there would be a decision regarding the head coach position of DePaul women’s basketball, but he wanted to allow Bruno to make the decision himself. 

Bruno’s DePaul coaching career has spanned every presidential administration since Gerald Ford. He has five Big East tournament championships, six Big East regular season championships and two Olympic gold medals, and he has made 25 NCAA tournament appearances. 

“At the end of February, I started having conversations (with Bruno),” Peevy said. “By April 1, we can’t be where it’s undefined as our head coach. I kind of put a deadline on it to Doug, I got to make a decision, one way or the other.” 

Peevy instituted the deadline based on the college basketball calendar. He did not want DePaul to be behind in recruiting players due to the transfer portal opening on March 25. 

Peevy ultimately did not have to make the decision. Bruno came to him during the NCAA men’s basketball tournament saying he needed to step down for the program to move forward. 

“People think this (decision) is hard,” Bruno said. “I know I can still coach, but I know I can’t be there for potential recruits. So a player that you recruit wants to know who’s going to be the coach for four years, and I can’t promise that to a player, so I know that that means it’s time to move on.” 

Bruno said that it was a “no-brainer decision” for him to step down from head coaching. 

“When you’ve done something for this long, you love doing it,” Bruno said. “It’s really simple. It’s the right thing to do. So it’s not hard at all.” 

Bruno officially stepped down as the head coach on March 28, and interim head coach Jill Pizzotti was named as his successor on April 3.

Even though Peevy and the committee decided on an in-house candidate, they still conducted a national search. 

“From the outset, Jill was a top candidate for this position,” Peevy said, “But, I also know we owed it to our program, our university and our student athletes, to conduct a full and rigorous national search, and that’s exactly what we did throughout that process.” 

The search committee to find Bruno’s successor was made up of: executive associate athletics director for sports administration and senior woman administrator Jill Hollembeak, senior associate athletics director for NCAA compliance Faithe Ways, assistant athletics director for communications Paul Stromberg and DePaul forward Jorie Allen. 

When Peevy and the committee were finding the next women’s basketball coach, they kept coming back to one thing. 

Doug Bruno. 

“I couldn’t believe how many head coaches (we talked to) that actually went to Doug Bruno camp,” Peevy said. “They all had found a way to have a connection. There were Power Four conference coaches that were playing in the tournament, assistants that had been former head coaches, that were reaching out gauging interests. It was a very highly sought-after job.”

Bruno has been running his own basketball camp around the Chicagoland area since 1980. Over 84,000 female athletes have attended the camp since its inception. 

Bruno gave Peevy a full endorsement of Pizzotti, which was significant to Peevy. 

“I kind of assumed Doug’s (pick would be head coach) but you never know,” Peevy said. “He’s got a lot of coaches out there, and a lot of alums that are involved in basketball. But he emphatically endorsed her, and that did mean a lot. Doug is a Hall of Famer. He knows basketball in every way. I think it was helpful that I had my own insight to it too, and it just more validated my own thoughts.” 

With Pizzotti now firmly in place, Bruno will transition into an administration role. Starting May 1, he will be a special assistant to the vice president and director of athletics for women’s basketball. 

Peevy said that he and Bruno haven’t had in-depth conversations about what that role completely entails, but he has an idea. 

“It’ll give us some time to talk about some things we had never got a chance to because of the busyness of the coaching,” Peevy said. “I think it’s going to be a primary fundraising role. We’ve got to get more people connected and get more people involved in the community here. And the one universal thing is the love for Doug Bruno in this community.” 

Peevy wants Bruno to be on the forefront of continuing to grow women’s basketball, as he has done in his career, just in a different way. DePaul set up the Doug Bruno Fund for Women’s Basketball Excellence for people to directly fundraise the revenue sharing model and have the money go directly to women’s basketball. The funds will be distributed to be used for recruiting, training, academic support, leadership development and team travel.

“The way I challenged (Bruno) is, how do we get to our first Final Four?” Peevy said. “The biggest things he thought would be growing our revenue sharing capabilities, growing our budgets and things that could impact women’s basketball directly.” 

Even though Bruno is no longer the head coach at DePaul, his role will still be significant, just in a different way. 

“I hold the highest level of respect, admiration, gratitude and love for Coach Bruno,” Pizzotti said. “It is truly an honor to follow in your footsteps, your impact on DePaul women’s basketball is immeasurable. Thank you for setting such a high standard and for leaving behind a legacy that will continue to inspire and show our appreciation to Coach Bruno.”

Related stories:

• Pizzotti officially becomes sixth head coach in DePaul women’s basketball history
• Morrow selected seventh overall in WNBA Draft
• Doug Bruno steps down from coaching, but his love for basketball — and DePaul — endures

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