Coached into a Corner

It seems like just yesterday, Baker Dunleavy was at the forfront of basketball imortality. Having coached under Jay Wright at Villanova and having led the Bobcats to the MAAC semi-final in his first year as the teams head coach, Dunleavy looked to be on the fast track to moving up in the divison I basketball rank.

Dunleavy on ESPN's 40 under 40 list in 2020

Then it all went south.

After the 2019-2020 season, Dunleavy lost graduate students Kevin Marfo and Rich Kelly to the transfer portal and was forced to move forward with a lineup that boasted four of the five starters as underclassman. The COVID riddled 2020-2021 season showed the Bobcats worst offensive season since Dunleavy took over the program. Quinnipiac claimed the 8th seed in the MAAC tournament, and were promptly eliminated by Rick Pitino's Iona Gales.

Despite the rough end to a peculiar season, the 2021-2022 season started off hot, when Kevin Marfo suprisingly announced his return to Quinnipiac after a season at Texas A&M. Marfo would be entering his sixth college season, with this being his final year of NCAA elligability.

After a hot start to the season, the Bobcats once again had no wind in their sails heading into MAAC tournament play. Having dropped 8 of their last 10 regular season games, many expected Quinnipiac to be a one and done after the 2022 MAAC tournament, prompting many to speculate about Dunleavy's job security following the season.

Despite the slander, Dunleavy upset the Marist Red Foxes and Siena Saints in the first two rounds of the MAAC tournament, and became the first 11 seed in the history of the confrence to make the MAAC semi-final round. Whatever speulation came up surrounding Quinnipiac's head coaching avaliblity, was sudenly squashed. In a matter of three days, Dunleavy had proven his worth to the program.