A Review of DePaul

[XUFan09]

Everyone has their role to play and somebody's got to be last. DePaul has held ups its' end of the bargain over the years to help the rest of the conference have post-season play.
Their winning 6-7 games this season along with Prov, Butler, and StJ winning 7-8 games upset the conferrence apple cart. Teams 7-10 just won too many games this season and in doing so lowered the conferences' bid ceiling.
If everyone improves and plays like a mid-tier team the conference suffers in the NCAAs. It's BETTER when 8-10 only win 3-4 games in conference. So that being said, Prov, Butler, and DePaul overachieved this season.

Bring in SLU and NE/St Bonnies if you want our other teams to continue improving while keeping 5-7 NCAA bids viable. Stop whipping on DePaul as they are only doing what is expected of them. As we saw this season, if everyone improves we have a problem...no bottom.

GTMO, this where you and I will always disagree. We don’t need ditchdigger programs. We need programs that go out and win games, not a handful that can’t. The Jays had their chance to beat SJU but lost twice. SHU lost twice to DePaul on their own. Clearly SHU proved that there is not a big chasm between them and Nova/Marq yet the top 2 teams took care of business against the teams they should have, and SHU couldn’t do the same. We were all jumbled together this year b/c we had a slew of 10/11 seed programs instead of a bunch of 1-4 seed teams taking care of business at the top. The problem might not be “no bottom” but instead no real top.

Yeah, the tournament seedings accurately reflected the quality of the Big East this year. Just a couple of solid teams that would have never contended for the regular season championship in most years and then a bunch of Bubbly teams.

[gtmoBlue]

I see your point Gumby. However, the Top did it's thing and was 3-4 games ahead of the pack. The pack was jumbled together within a game or two of each other ...all 8 teams.

Nova and Marquette, while not overtly dominant, did their jobs and had good separation at the top. A 3-4 game cushion was great. It's not the tops' fault that the restofus slogged about
in the mire in the middle. The "parity" within the league is what caused that clogged up middle, not a weaker top. For 3-4 years now we've had a top 2 and separation from the rest...normal activity
at the top, but generally we've also had separation beetween the mid-tier and the bottom. Not so this season (and next) and our NCAA bids suffered.

[stever20]

I see your point Gumby. However, the Top did it's thing and was 3-4 games ahead of the pack. The pack was jumbled together within a game or two of each other ...all 8 teams.

Nova and Marquette, while not overtly dominant, did their jobs and had good separation at the top. A 3-4 game cushion was great. It's not the tops' fault that the restofus slogged about
in the mire in the middle. The "parity" within the league is what caused that clogged up middle, not a weaker top. For 3-4 years now we've had a top 2 and separation from the rest...normal activity
at the top, but generally we've also had separation beetween the mid-tier and the bottom. Not so this season (and next) and our NCAA bids suffered.

The top 2 though wasn't as good as the past...
2014- top 2 30 conference wins
2015 top 2 28 conference wins
2016 top 2 30 conference wins
2017 top 2 27 conference wins
2018 top 2 29 conference wins
2019 top 2 25 conference wins

The league got lucky the top 2 wasn't like 2014,16,18 with 4-5 more wins....

[OmahaGuy]

DePaul gets it's first W in the CBI with the win over Central Michigan. They'll face Longwood next.

[stever20]

what I think is amazing.....

there's a halfway decent chance that DePaul is the final Big East team playing basketball this season. All it would take....
The 3 remaining NCAA teams to lose this weekend- very possible
Xavier to lose @ Texas this weekend- very possible
either Creighton lose to Memphis, or have DePaul beat Longwood, while Creighton loses to TCU in the NIT QF- very possible

Also, on a different note.... Was reading that teams that participate in the CBI also have to agree to participate in one of their exempt tournaments.

For DePaul I think this is a really good thing, as they aren't always able to get in one quite frankly.

[gtmoBlue]

C´mon DePaul...git 20 w's.

[gtmoBlue]

2 more W's for Nova and Marquette would not have unclogged the other 8 teams. Both could have gotten said 2 W's during the final week, if they were not sliding into home plate-and lost 'em.
The real problem was no separation between the mid and bottom tiers. all 8 teams huddled together to keep warm around the fire barrel. I look for more of the same next season.

[stever20]

2 more W's for Nova and Marquette would not have unclogged the other 8 teams. Both could have gotten said 2 W's during the final week, if they were not sliding into home plate-and lost 'em.
The real problem was no separation between the mid and bottom tiers. all 8 teams huddled together to keep warm around the fire barrel. I look for more of the same next season.

Those wins would have knocked out Seton Hall for sure. That's the thing. The middle teams were able to survive to some degree because the top teams were so mediocre the 2nd half of the season (both were 4-5 the 2nd half of the season- take out each other and they were 3-4).

[gtmoBlue]

And just like that, it looks like DePaul's season has come to an end as well. Let's check them out.

OUT:
*Eli Cain
*Max Strus
*Femi Olujobi

BACK:
*Devin Gage
*Paul Reed
*Jaylen Butz
*Flynn Cameron
*Lyrik Shreiner

IN:
*Darious Hall (transfer from Arkansas)
*Carte'Are Gordon (transfer from St. Louis who I believe will be eligible at midseason)
*Oscar Lopez
*Markese Jacobs
*Romeo Weems

DePaul was still a bad team this year but they actually showed some signs of life! They pulled off many big wins such as 2 vs St. John's and 2 vs Seton Hall. That senior class will be missed though. Eli Cain gave it his all for 4 years. Strus and Olujobi did everything they could do with the time they had. Though I think Reed and Butz are talented players, they won't be enough so I think the Blue Demons will struggle yet again next season. This recruiting/transfer class does look good though and it's the best that I've seen from DePaul since the league formed.

Dave Leitao? I gave the guy a shot but it's been 4 years and they're still a 10 seed and get knocked out in the first round. I say it's time for a change now or maybe give him one more year with this recruiting class. But if no progress is made, time to go. I'm not too confident but I'd love to be wrong.

What say you?

Depaul is BACK!
DePaul… is Still Playing, in the CBI. However a small rebuttal to Omaha's opening gambit.

Reed, Butz, and Gage return… Team technically finished 8th-Butler and Prov went out on losing streaks and the Demons won their last game. I expect them to finish 6th/7th next season. We are witness to the Progress.

But the real news is in the incoming crop of players – DePaul has a top 3 BE class in frosh, but the class is greater than the sum of its’ parts.
Transfers Hall and Gordon… Hall avg’d 5.1 ppg/3.1 rbg/14.8 mpg as a Razorback frosh and has had a year to learn the DePaul system. Former 3x all-state and 2017 5A State Tourney MVP. Expect a sophomore leap from this 6-6 wing. (Not eligible for CBI play). 3 yrs eligibility. https://depauliaonline.com/34868/sports/arkansas-transfer-darious-hall-commits-to-depaul/

Gordon, 6-9/230 PF has a checkered HS history (Top 100, from St Louis), but left SLU and Travis Ford at midterm. SLU has had issues keeping players since Ford’s arrival, even though they made the Dance this season. Gordon was avg 8.9 ppg/ 4.1 rbg, 54% shooting in his 13 games at SLU. Gordon will have post 1st semester eligibility (Dec 2019) and a year learning the system. He’ll plug right in at C/PF. 3 yrs eligibility.
2018-19 (Freshman at Saint Louis): Appeared in 13 games for the Billikens with nine starts... averaged 8.9 points, 4.1 rebounds and 1.8 blocks in 24.5 minutes per game... recorded seven games in double-figures that included a season-high 14 points in games against Seton Hall and Florida State.
High School: Consensus four-star recruit and ranked No. 75 in the ESPN Top 100 rankings for 2018... played at Webster Groves High School... led the Statesmen to back-to-back state titles and averaged 18.0 points and 8.3 rebounds per game as a senior. AAU ball with MoKan Elite/EYBL (with Nova's Robinson-Earl)... played with USA Basketball as a member of the United States’ U-17 championship team. https://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/jeff-gordon/gordo-slu-couldn-t-afford-to-lose-carte-are-gordon/article_ed827da3-49d1-586f-9e95-cba5770bb11b.html

Frosh -
Weems, 6-7/215 Wing. Consensus Top 50 player, Michigan. Expected to go MU/MSU but chose DePaul. Will Start immediately and is a BE FoY candidate. Scores at all levels, good rebounder as well. https://www.freep.com/story/sports/high-school/2018/05/22/romeo-weems-depaul-michigan-state/634601002/

Jacobs, 5-11/170+ PG, Chicago. Former KU Commit. Top 100 player. BallislifeMidwest
Published on Nov 21, 2018
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Chicago has produced tons of tough guards from Derrick Rose to Isiah Thomas. Recently committed to DePaul (in his hometown), Chicago Uplift guard Markese Jacobs is widely considered Chicago's top guard. Markese is known for his crazy athleticism, toughness and windmill dunks. His Uplift squad opened their season at the Washington TOC near Peoria, IL. Jacobs scored 41 points in the win over a tough St Louis Christian squad which includes PG Ramone Woods. https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=qn4HOm8XJ1U
https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/college/ct-spt-depaul-markese-jacobs-uplift-commits-20181007-story.html

Lopez, 6-4/215 SG, Cali. 3 star, under radar until Jr yr. in LA area. Great upside. 247 Scouting Report Evaluation
Decent size for wing. Makes name on toughness and intangibles. Competitive kid who is best as a slasher on offense. Uses physicality to get to basket and draw fouls. Rebounds well for position and respectable passer. Improving shooter. Versatile defender due to toughness and motor. Ultimate success will depend on improvement of handle and jumper. Projects as role player at high major level who could overachieve due to current upward trajectory.

Look out Big East. What you’ve hoped for is about to become real…DePaul is back!
https://247sports.com/Article/DePaul-Basketball-Signs-Three-for-2019-124752671/

[scoscox]

Coleman-Lands is back as well right? I think they're too young next year, but in 2 years they could be really tough