Dunne relishing opportunity to start over at Marist

John Dunne leaving Saint Peter's for Marist came as a surprise to most, but his optimism to resurrect Red Foxes' success has validated his decision multiple times over. (Photo by Marist College Athletics)

This November, one of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference's familiar faces will take on a new beginning.

John Dunne -- the longtime head coach at Saint Peter's before leaving Jersey City for league rival Marist in April -- spent twelve years finding innovative and praiseworthy ways to get a program off the ground in a place where few thought he would be able to succeed. Now four months into a challenge that sent shockwaves through the college basketball landscape, the affable 48-year-old is confident that the hire that ranked among the more surprising in the offseason's coaching carousel will pay off at a program seeking its first postseason appearance since 2007.

"It was a difficult decision," he said of leaving Saint Peter's for what ultimately attracted him to Marist, who hired Dunne to succeed Mike Maker, who was fired after four seasons in which the Red Foxes failed to escape the bottom two rungs of the MAAC standings. "I just loved the people at Saint Peter's, and it was really difficult to leave the new athletic director there, the administration, and most of all, the players. I have a deep affection for those guys, especially the upperclassmen. I'd been through so many wars with those guys, so it was a difficult decision. But (Marist athletic director) Tim Murray presented me with an opportunity here that, quite frankly, I just couldn't pass up for a number of reasons -- the beautiful campus, the academics, the support -- I thought it was just a good opportunity."

"Sometimes, in life, change is good. I'd been at Saint Peter's for twelve years, and even though it was very difficult to leave, sometimes change can just be good."

However, despite a longtime relationship with Murray from his sixteen years in the MAAC as both a head and assistant coach, Dunne initially wavered on taking the journey into the Hudson Valley. It was not until Patrick Beilein -- the head coach at Division II Le Moyne College who was also a candidate for the vacancy at Siena that ultimately went to Jamion Christian -- declined the chance to take over at Marist that the negotiations were revisited, with a payoff at the end of the road.

"Tim reached out, and he was just feeling out my interest level," Dunne said of how the hiring process began. "It's funny, because for all the reasons I ended up taking the job, I explained to him that those were the reasons why I wouldn't want the position, but quite honestly, in my mind, I wasn't ready to leave Saint Peter's at that point -- not just Saint Peter's, but I have a 13 and a 9-year-old and a wife, and we were all settled, and we had been in New Jersey for 16 or 17 years -- so we kind of had a long talk, Tim and I. And at that point, we kind of decided to go in opposite directions. Tim went about his business, and while he was going about his business, I was having discussions with my wife, wondering if we had made the right decision by not looking harder at the job and at the move."

"We kind of came to the conclusion that maybe we had made a mistake, and the job was offered to somebody else, and we kind of thought it was a done deal that we wouldn't be making the move. To be honest, when he turned it down, I felt like maybe this was meant to be. Tim and I began our talks again, and while he was interviewing other people, he made it known to me that I would be his choice if I wanted the job. After a couple of talks, he put me on the phone with President David Yellen, and I had a great conversation with him, so after a few talks with Tim and a great talk with David, I knew it was the place to make my next stop."

Still making the 90-minute drive each way from the Florham Park home in which he still resides, Dunne -- as he has done so many times in the past -- is finding ways to make it work, driven by his trademark confidence and upbeat optimism that always resonates through even the longest of seasons, the most adverse of circumstances. For starters, the familiarity with his new crop of players from having coached against them the past several years has aided the transition process, as has the continuity he has been able to bring on staff by taking assistants Serge Clement and Dalip Bhatia with him to replicate what they had forged at Saint Peter's.

"It's good that I've been in the league and I know those guys pretty well," said Dunne. "You don't really know individuals until you've been around them every day, because although you could see their talent, until you're coaching them every day, you don't really know what's in the heart and the mental toughness side of it. Being around those guys, they're hungry to win. The seniors are definitely hungry to win. We did a lot of defense this spring and summer -- more so than I typically would -- and all of them responded particularly well. They have enough talent, they have the character, and now I've just got to get the best out of them."

"We want to build long-term sustainable success here, and that's gonna take some time. That's not going to happen overnight, but that being said, I think the seniors do have a chance to win right away. Year two here for me could really be like year one, because then we're kind of starting over from there, but I think where the consistency is good is that we have seniors that are capable of getting some wins, and I think having a staff come in that knows the league and knows them gives them the best chance to win right away. Within a couple years, man, we're just trying to build some consistent success."

Never one to back down from a challenge, Dunne was forward in addressing his biggest obstacle in four months on the job at Marist, that being how to position the program to right the ship from its decade-long morass that saw his three predecessors unable to charter a promising course, but is realistic about what lies ahead by not expecting to change the world overnight, yet knowing the responsibility to cultivate a winning culture is incumbent upon him, especially in year one with pieces in place to potentially overachieve.

"When you haven't won, it's easy to get down on yourself," he cautioned. "It's easy to lose confidence, and it's our job to be demanding and point out what we're doing wrong, but at the same time, try to maintain a confident group because we do have enough talent and we have a guy (Brian Parker) that's a first-team potential kind of guy. We are going to, at some point this year, go through a rut. It's inevitable. Then they're going to have to decide: Are they going to dig deep and fight out of this, or are they just going to put their head down and think this is the same old Marist men's basketball team? It's our job to help them get out of that rut, but it's also their job to be mentally tough and fight themselves out of it."

The mental toughness of which Dunne speaks has been among the primary catalysts in his career success to date, and that, along with his excitement to bring Marist back to its now-halcyon days of the 1990s and mid-2000s, has slowly pervaded a program and athletic department whose $30 million commitment to renovating the McCann Center is as much a harbinger of things to come as the positivity outwardly conveyed by the new sheriff in town.

"At the end of the day, we have great leadership here that cares about athletics, and that's where it all starts," said Dunne. "You don't get the money put into the programs and you don't get the facilities that are needed to have success without great leadership. We have that leadership, and it trickles down. We're committed to success here in all areas. It's not going to happen overnight, but we're pretty confident that over the next few years, we'll be able to turn this thing around and stay consistent, because that's what's most important."