DePaul long-time coach Doug Bruno on medical leave, Pizzotti serves as interim head coach
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CHICAGO - DePaul women's basketball may be without its fixture at head coach to start its season.
The university announced Monday that Doug Bruno, the Blue Demon's head coach since 1988, will be on medical leave. He missed DePaul's media day.
"Last month, Head Coach Doug Bruno experienced a medical incident," DePaul athletics wrote in a statement. "He is recovering at home and looks forward to returning to team activities as soon as possible."
In his career, Bruno is 438–184 all-time at DePaul.
The release also said DePaul Associate Head Coach Jill M. Pizzotti was named interim head coach in Bruno's absence. She talked about Bruno on Monday's media day, and when asked about Bruno she immediately became emotional.
Pizzotti has been with DePaul for 14 seasons with the Blue Demons and has been the team's associate head coach for the last 11 years.
The Villa Park native reminisced about coaching against Bruno during her team as the head coach at Saint Louis and the different basketball camps she met Bruno at in the Chicago area before she even worked for him.
"I was a Doug Bruno camper, like very female in the Chicagoland suburbs, and he's just a guy that bleeds DePaul women's basketball. He bleeds Chicago," Pizzotti said. "I have a ton of admiration just for what one individual can make in an impact on a program."
She did reiterate the release in saying how the program and team does expect Bruno to back on the sidelines at some point.
"We're excited about Doug just continuing to get better and coming back,"Pizzotti said.