The Blue Demons are Impotent
Has this ever happened to you? All your efforts have been building to a moment, and then once the moment comes…nothing? You walk out of a cold, Milwaukee night to meet up with your familiar partner in an exchange of heat, sweat, and emotion, and instead, you go limp. You fail to follow through. You strain and flail, but you just can’t get it to your goal.
If this has happened to you, you either:
- Need Cialis
- Or You were last night’s DePaul Blue Demons!
What a complete crap of a game. Going against the worst defensive team in the Big East last night, DePaul played their worst offensive game of the season, and it is not even close. Sure, the Demons have been bad before, but this was their Worst Offensive Rating of the Season! DePaul had a whopping .73 points per possession. Previously, the low was against Michigan State, the 10th best defensive team in the country. That was somewhat understandable. But against the now 144th best Defense?
Last night, the Demons had an 8:31 stretch and a 5:05 stretch where they made zero field goals! Last night, DePaul shot 18.2% in the 1st half.
In my preview, I stated the following about Marquette’s 2 Point Field Goal defense:
“Holy crap they are terrible inside. Marquette has allowed opponents to shoot 55.3% from inside the arc. That is 317th in the nation. That is dumpster fire awful. Marquette blocks some shots and steals, but jeez, look at that horrific inside defense.”
Venture to guess how DePaul shot inside the 3 point line? 32.7%! Against a team that had been giving up 55% prior to this game.
DePaul’s shooting needs Cialis.
The Demons need to follow through on shots. They need to get more passes to cutting defenders versus playing 1 on 1 basketball. DePaul needs to travel less.
Our Point guard, Eli Cain, started the night 0-8. Our shooting guard, Max Strus started 0-7. Our big man, Marin Maric had 5 turnovers, including 2 stupid walks. McCallumn went 3-10 with 3 total rebounds. With all of the misses, how do you only get 3 rebounds!
The Setup
Happy to report that some of the Wintrust Arena’s blue seat made their way to Milwaukee. No sell out for this massacre.
Gambling Corner
Marquette and the under were your bets of the night.
The Player of the Game: Sam Hauser
On a night when Markus Howard and Andrew Rowsey shot nearly as bad as Eli Cain and Max Strus, Sam Hauser was the clear MVP for Marquette.
Hauser went 5-10 from 3 point land ending with 19 total points. He also blocked 2 shots and had 2 steals with zero turnovers.
The Good
It sucks that I have to point out anything good from this freaking game.
DePaul’s Defensive
If you told me before the game that the Demons would hold the Golden Eagles under a point per possession, I would be giving high 5’s to everyone around me, knowing that DePaul was probably going to win. Of course, when your boys in blue lose their ability to shoot a flipping basket, and average .73 points a possession, you are going to still lose.
Shut Down Howard and Rowsey
If you can believe this, DePaul shut down Marquette’s 2 best players, Howard and Rowsey, to a total of 18 points. These jokers now average a combined 42.3 points a game.
Held the Golden Eagles to their 3rd Worst Performance of the Year
The Demons held the Golden Eagles to their 3rd worst Offensive Rating of the year (0.99 points per possession). Only Wichita St. (0.96) and Georgia (0.97) did better defensively. I will say, that Marquette had plenty of wide open shots that they missed. I had to listen to the awful Marquette Radio guys for part of my drive back from skiing, and they were dumbfounded that the were missing the wide open shots.
I Guess I have to Say that Brandon Cyrus Had a goodish Game.
Nothing spectacular, but Cyrus did lead DePaul in scoring. That is how awful this game was, Brandon Cyrus, a player who cannot repeat his jump shot, had the best night for the Demons. He sported a 107 (100 is average). Congratulations Brandon, you were the top of the Delta Pledge Class!
No One Died on the Trip Back to Chicago in Treacherous Driving Conditions
I am reaching here. What an awful game!
The Bad
Every other Player: Roll Call
Eli Cain
Started the night 0-8. Weirdly, he ended his night hitting back to back And-1’s, but in true DePaul fashion, missed the free-throw on the 1st And-1. So he got one And-0 and one And-1. 2 flipping Assists and only 1 turnover.
Max Strus
Started 0-7. Yep, 0 for flipping 7. Iron was definitely unkind. No hoops in the first half (3 Free throws only.) Of course, Max stopped the night from being the historic night where DePaul finally fails to make a 3 pointer, by ruining the party with 2:29 left in the game. This might be the latest that the 756 (now 757) game streak has ever gone. I was hoping it would fall tonight, because this was an unforgivable performance by the whole team.
Marin Maric
5 turnovers. Key travel call on a dunk that would’ve ended one of the interminable scoreless streaks. Marin needs to remember that NCAA refs love calling travels and even occasionally like to make up a travel call every once in a while, because the vast majority of them like to be on TV calling charges and walks. Think Marin! He tied with Cain for lowest Offensive Rating for a starter, with a nice 58. That is awful.
Tre’Darius McCallum
3 Rebounds on 3-10 shooting.
The Bench
All contributed badness. Paul Reed (4pts) and Peter Rychbosch (2pts) lead the way with a 78 rating. Justin Roberts (4pts 3 turnovers) with a 70, and poor Austin Grandstaff (zero points) with an offensive rating of 8. Eight!
Jalen Butz was Sick
Bummer that he couldn’t be there. I am sure he is happy that he doesn’t have the stink from this game on him.
Coaches
Just saying, Coaches don’t miss jumpshots. Demoralizing game. The team came out flat, that has to be partly on the coaches.
Tweets of the Game
There were a lot of unhappy DePaul fans, so we there are plenty of tweets to choose from.
Here’s Looking at You Dr. Esteban
Reminder, DePaul hasn’t Been Successful for Over a 14 years
Blue Nightmaring
In Conclusion
This game was the worst offensive performance we have seen from the Demons in quite a while. Terrible by all.
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