DePaul Blue Demons
Meyer was an assistant coach at DePaul for eleven seasons under his father, Ray Meyer. Ray Meyer coached DePaul from 1942 to 1984, winning 724 games and leading the Blue Demons to winning records in 37 of his 42 seasons., including seven NCAA men's basketball tournament appearances in his last nine seasons. When Ray Meyer retired in 1984, Joey Meyer was promoted to head coach.
Joey Meyer led DePaul to seven NCAA Tournament appearances in his first eight seasons, including back-to-back Sweet Sixteen appearances in his second and third seasons. In the 1986 tournament, #12-seeded DePaul -- led by freshman guard Rod Strickland (14.1 ppg season average) and junior Dallas Comegys (13.8 ppg) -- upset #5-seeded Virginia and #4-seeded Oklahoma in the East regional before losing to top-seeded Duke 74-67. In 1987, the Blue Demons -- again led by Comegys (17.5 ppg) and Strickland (16.3 ppg) -- finished the regular season 26-2 and received a #3 seed in the Midwest regional of the 1987 tournament. They defeated #14-seeded Louisiana Tech and #6-seeded St. John's before losing to #10-seeded LSU. Meyer was honored as the Chevrolet Coach of the Year in 1987. Besides seven NCAA tournament appearances, Meyer led the Blue Demons to three appearances in the National Invitation Tournament.
In both 1988 and 1989, DePaul reached the second round of the NCAA tournament, but they were on a downward trajectory. In 1992, the Blue Demons were co-champions of the newly formed Great Midwest Conference but made their last NCAA tournament appearance under Meyer. In 1996, they finished 11-18, their first losing season since 1971, and the next year, a young DePaul team finished 3-23. Meyer was dismissed on Apri 28, 1997 and succeeded by Pat Kennedy just over six weeks later.
Read more about this topic: Joey Meyer (basketball Coach)
Famous quotes containing the words blue and/or demons:
“While my hair was still cut straight across my forehead
I played about the front gate, pulling flowers.
You came by on bamboo stilts, playing horse,
You walked about my seat, playing with blue plums.”
—Li Po (701–762)
“Until you have a son of your own . . . you will never know the joy, the love beyond feeling that resonates in the heart of a father as he looks upon his son. You will never know the sense of honor that makes a man want to be more than he is and to pass something good and hopeful into the hands of his son. And you will never know the heartbreak of the fathers who are haunted by the personal demons that keep them from being the men they want their sons to be.”
—Kent Nerburn (20th century)