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Notre Dame wins 72-58.

DePaul was trailing by one point a few minutes into the 2nd half, but ND went on a 3-point barrage, hitting something like 9 out of 10 from deep.

Just another year of DePaul DePauling it up

pki1998 wrote:Just another year of DePaul DePauling it up

Right, because you can always draw conclusions about a team based on its first game of the year.

We didn't beat the #14 team in the country, so we might as well call it a season. Forfeit the rest of the schedule!

This looked like an improved DePaul team, not going to say they win more than 5 BE games this year but they at least have some BE talent in their program. Turning DePaul around is a massive undertaking but in year 3 the seeds are there. We new Cain could play. Gage, sophomore, looks like a BE talent. Butz looked like he is going to be good. Roberts only played a few minutes but has BE level athleticism/quickness. Strus had a rough game and obviously needs to adjust to D1 speed but he is a JR who will continue to get better. They have Jalen Coleman-Lands redshirting and the freshman Paul Reed should start getting minutes by the BE schedule. This may not seem like much but it is a lot more talent than they have had in their program in the past 5-7 years. If they land Tyger Campbell and a legit Center for next year they could be middle of the pack next year. A good team in Chicago is good for the Big East. Also, a big thing that is going to lengthen their rebuild is the rest of the BE continues to get better and better. When PC & Seton Hall were rebuilding 3-4 years ago the rest of the BE was very average. BE is on a totally different level now

billyjack wrote:From the DePaul message board, some thoughts on their exhibition game and current talent.
They all seem to be high on Max Strus, and all think the Wintrust has too few urinals...

https://247sports.com/college/depaul/Bo ... -110028406

As I mentioned earlier, I did go earlier today. WinTrust is a really nice new arena, but there were a couple of issues for fans today. The concourse is very skinny on the upper level, which causes mass congestion between the concessions and bathrooms (there aren't may urinals, which is actually very odd considering its size). The wait time for concessions today was over 30 minutes (and it wasn't during halftime). There were only four workers behind the counter (one per register), and each worker was also going to get the food/drinks from the back - very, very inefficient. It also didn't help that one of the taps was broken. My counter also appeared to run out of cups, which was also odd.

The funniest thing of the day was watching the DePaul dance team go out for a routine, stand for 30 seconds at half-court - waiting for music to start - only for them to immediately sprint off because it was either the wrong time of the game, or someone forgot to hit play. Minutes later, random dance music quickly played for several seconds during game action, but was then cut off. Bizarre, yet hilarious, moment of the game (not counting the breakaway missed alley-oop dunk).

At least you guys have a new arena. I was at the New Orleans opener at Carnesecca where I have been many times, and it's honestly just an atrocious place to watch a game. The new massive screens on either end were a welcome addition and so were the big "SJ" logos lit up on each end. But it's almost like they're ignoring the real issues. The real issues are:

1) Absolutely horrific concession options/setup...more along the lines of what a decent HS or community college would offer. I believe all you can really get is a hot dog or popcorn.

2) On one side of the court there are literally ZERO seatbacks. Yes, that's right, the entire side is all hard plastic and metal bleachers. It's almost as if they designed it to keep fans away. If you are in your 20's and your back is aching terribly every game you sit there, how are the 50+ yr olds going to sit through games? It really makes me appreciate seatbacks wherever I go. Makes a world of difference. There is absolutely no excuse to not have padded seatback chairs throughout the place. The only area bleachers are acceptable is for the student sections as you would expect them to be the loudest, craziest ones standing most of the game. It's like not putting a radio in a car...it should not be a luxury, it should be basic standard by this point.

3) Horrific promotions...they did not even have any for the home opener. Every once in a blue moon there will be a cool bobblehead offered. They need more bobbleheads, shirts, replica jerseys, etc. What about duffle bags? Backpacks? People will come for this stuff. Now of course for diehards they will come anyway, promotions or not. But if you want to get the average fan out for these games, you need to have strong promotions and you have to really put it out there and advertise it to get people motivated. Then to ensure they stay the whole game and don't just take one and leave, you hand them out at the end of the game.

The place should be knocked down and totally rebuilt with a modern arena in mind. Make it a bowl shape where all seats are seatbacks, sell alcohol and other real concessions, make it cozy and intimate, and setup a shuttle to take people from the Jamaica LIRR station to campus. That increases accessibility. Problem solved, and the place is packed.

MM is Hooper, right? Can you please stop making every topic about SJU? Yes CA sucks but that's very old news and off topic.