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A former player for Jerry Wainwright, Barron Thelmon is in his second season at DePaul as an Assistant Director of Basketball Operations. A native of Chicago, Thelmon spent the two seasons as a graduate assistant at UNC-Wilmington before starting his current role prior to the 2008-09 season.
Prior to joining the Seahawks, Thelmon was an assistant coach at Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington, N.C. in 2002-03 and returned as a volunteer assistant coach from 2006-08. He assisted with coaching, scouting and developing offensive and defensive schemes. Individually, he worked with the perimeter players, conducted skill workouts and monitored academic progress.
Before joining the coaching ranks, Thelmon spent three seasons playing professionally in the Xtreme Basketball Association (2002), the National Basketball Developmental League (2003) and the Ontario Basketball Association (2004).
As a collegiate player Thelmon started his career at Indian Hills Community College where he helped the Warriors to a combined record of 76-1, and winning a pair of national titles over his two seasons (1997-99). He then moved on to UNC Wilmington where he played for Wainwright for two seasons and served as a co-captain during his senior campaign. With Thelmon on the roster the Seahawks won 37 games, made appearances in both the NCAA Tournament and NIT and won the Colonial Athletic Association Conference title in 2000.
As a prep, Thelmon was a standout guard for coach Mike Oliver at Chicago’s Curie High School, where he earned all–city honors as a senior.
Thelmon earned an Associate’s Degree from Indian Hills in 1999, his Bachelor’s Degree from UNC Wilmington in 2001 and then returned to the school to earn his Master’s last spring.
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DePaul added assistant coach Billy Garrett in May 2009 to the men's basketball staff. Garrett returns to Chicago after a stint as associate head coach at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi the last two seasons.
Garrett enters his 10th year of coaching at the collegiate level in 2009-10 after his latest coaching stop at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Prior to joining the Islanders in May 2007, he was an assistant at Iowa (2006-07), Seton Hall (2001-06) and Siena (2000-01). Following his first collegiate stop with a Metro Atlantic Metro Conference Championship at Siena, Garrett spent five seasons at BIG EAST member Seton Hall. With the Pirates, he made two appearances in the NCAA Tournament and one appearance in the NIT. Garrett joined the Iowa staff during the 2006-07 campaign and was briefly on the staff at New Mexico before accepting the associate head coach position at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
He started his coaching career in Chicago as head basketball coach at Providence St. Mel High School from 1994-00. Garrett was also athletic director and head track and field coach while leading the basketball program to a 130-50 record in his six seasons. At Providence St. Mel, he tutored former DePaul player LeVar Seals and also coached Steven Hunter while directing the Illinois Fire AAU program.
The native of Indianapolis, Ind., earned his degree from the University of Indianapolis in 1991 after playing four seasons of football at Illinois State. Garrett and his wife, Annissa, have one son, Billy.
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Former Blue Demon standout David Booth joined the staff as an assistant coach in May 2009. Booth returns to his alma mater for the 2009-10 season as a coach after playing professionally around the world and scouting in the NBA.
Booth was inducted into the DePaul Athletics Hall of Fame in February as one of the program’s all-time basketball greats. Over his career from 1988-92, Booth totaled 1,933 points for second all-time while leading the Blue Demons to a pair of NCAA Tournaments and one NIT appearance. Overall, he’s ranked among the program’s all-time best in scoring, scoring average, rebounding, blocked shots, steals, field goals and free throws. Following the 2008-09 season, he still ranks in the top 10 all-time in scoring (2nd), field goals (3rd), steals (5th), free throws (5th) and blocked shots (6th). After graduating from DePaul as the first player in school history with 1,500 points, 500 rebounds, 200 assists and 100 blocks, he spent 14 years playing professionally around the world. Booth made stops in France, Greece, Italy, Japan and South America.
The native of Peoria, Ill., returned to the United States following his professional career and in Dec. 2005 became a NBA scout in the Southeast Region for the Memphis Grizzlies. He and his wife, Melissa, have three children, Mariah, 18, Sydney, 14, and Brandon, 10.
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One of the greatest players in school history, Tom Kleinschmidt joined the men's basketball program as Director of Basketball Operations in the summer of 2009. During the 2008-09 season, he was an intern with the team as he completed his degree from DePaul.
Kleinschmidt was the first player at DePaul to earn conference player of the year honors when he was named by the Great Midwest Conference in 1995. He finished his career as the only player in Blue Demon history with 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, 300 assists, 100 steals and 100 three-point field goals.
An honorable mention All-American in 1995, Kleinschmidt was a three-time first team All-Great Midwest pick. He led the league in scoring as a senior and averaged over 20 points per game in both his junior (20.5 ppg) and senior (21.4 ppg) seasons. He is one of four Blue Demons to lead the team in scoring and assists in the same season and the only player to accomplish the feat twice.
One of Kleinschmidt's most memorable moments in a DePaul uniform came on Feb. 25, 1995. With DePaul trailing by three points, Kleinschmidt converted a four-point play with eight seconds remaining to beat Louisville. He also dropped in a career-best 37 points against UAB as a junior and topped the 30-point mark eight times in his career.
Kleinschmidt was a McDonald's All-American at Chicago's Gordon Tech High School where he finished as the runner-up in the Illinois Mr. Basketball voting (to future DePaul teammate Howard Nathan). After finishing his career at DePaul, Kleinschmidt spent 11 seasons playing professionally in Italy, Venezuela and Japan for Toshiba.
Tom and his wife, Cassandra, reside in Chicago with their daughter, Ryan.
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Tracy Webster, a native of Harvey, Ill., joined the DePaul men's basketball program as an assistant coach in April 2009 and was named interim head coach for the remainder of the 2009-10 season on Jan. 11. He enters his first season on the DePaul bench in 2009-10 following stints over the last eight seasons as an assistant coach at Kentucky, Illinois, Purdue and Ball State.
Webster spent the last two years at Kentucky where he helped lead the Wildcats to a pair of postseason appearances. A year ago, Kentucky went 22-14 and reached the NIT Quarterfinals following a NCAA Tournament appearance in 2007-08. Before moving to Lexington, he was an assistant coach at Illinois from 2004-07 and an assistant at Purdue during the 2003-04 season. The Illini made NCAA Tournament appearances in each of Webster’s three seasons in Champaign, including a trip to the NCAA Championship game in 2005. Webster’s one season at Purdue saw the Boilermakers make the NIT.
Before his two stops in the Big Ten Conference, Webster spent two seasons at Ball State. The Cardinals put together one of the best seasons in program history under Webster’s watch with a Mid-American Conference West Division title and quarterfinal appearance in the NIT. He started his collegiate coaching career in 1998 as an assistant at UW-Parkside.
Webster was a three-time letterwinner and team captain at Wisconsin from 1991-94 and finished his career with 1,264 points and a school-record 501 assists. He picked up All-Big Ten honors three times and his 179 assists in 1992-93 are a Wisconsin season record. In 1991-92, he set the school season mark with a .490 three-point percentage.
He earned his bachelor’s degree from Wisconsin in 1995 and is married to the former Shenetta Richardson.
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