The Pirates’ Timely 3 Point Shooting Plus Immense Physicality Doomed the Demons
Let’s cut to the chase, If you read my preview to this game, I’ll wait for you here…you would’ve read that in general Seton Hall was a balanced team, but that DePaul needed to fear 2 players, Angel Delgado and Myles Powell.
Who killed the Demons today? Angel Delgado and Myles Powell.
Delgado finished with 19 freaking rebounds, including 5 offensive rebounds. I think he got 3 of them on one possession. He only had 10 points on 11 shots. He also set the Big East record for career rebounds today. DePaul didn’t get the memo that this dude occasionally gets rebounds. You know, he is like the best ever in the Big East or something at catching the stupid ball off the basket.
The scoring came from Eli Cain’s “little brother”, Myles Powell. Powell and Cain played on the same high school team together for a year, and they formed quite a partnership. Anyway, in this game, especially in the first half, the two matched up against each other. Powell dominated the match up with 21 points on 7-14 shooting, including 4-9 from 3 point land.
Cain’s evening started out poorly when his first driving shot went in and out. It started an awful shooting night. Cain went 1-8 from 3 point land, and 4-10 from 2 point land to put up a terrible offensive rating of 77 (as always, 100 is the benchmark.)
The hope for this game (kiddos, we all have hopes and dreams) is that the Demons could control the boards, create some foul shots, and make their open shots. That didn’t happen. In fact, these 3 factors directly lead to the massacre:
- The Hall out rebounded the Demons 43-33.
- The Jersey Boys went 18-22 from the free-throw line for 81.8% (usually shoot 68% from the line), compared to DePaul’s 7-14 for 50% (usually shoot 73%).
- The Pirates went 8-16 from 3 point land (usually around 37%), while your Blue Demons went 5-22 (22.7%) when they generally go for around a still crappy 33% from the arc.
Eli Cain’s shooting regressed back to his 2018 mean. The Georgetown game was clearly Cain’s outlier. Cain’s ball handling was great today, with a 6 assist to 1 turnover performance, but when you shoot 27.8% from the field (12.5% from the arc), you team is going to lose.
Marin Maric was dominated by Delgado.
This writer was frustrated in seeing the lack of coaching creativity as it was obvious that both Maric and Cain were not playing to their best.
Paul Reed, who has made the last 8 shots that have left his fingertips from the field over the last 3 games, played a total of 8 minutes. 8! EIGHT!
Justin Roberts who has been wildly inconsistent this year, was en fuego today! He saw 12 minutes. 12! TWELVE! In 12 freaking minutes, he went 3-4 with 3 free throws, 3 assists and NO Turnovers; none! Dude had a 191 Offensive Rating. 191! ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY-ONE!
Post Game comments from Coach Leitao:
Was Leitao confusing Roberts with Cain? I guess when I wasn’t clearing smoke out of my ears, Roberts must have missed an assignment or something.
The Setup
It felt emptier. Poor players from the past were at the game. They probably are the ones who pushed it over the half way mark.
Gambling Corner
Seton Hall and the over.
The Player of the Game: Myles Powell
Myles Powell, high school teammate of Eli Cain, destroyed Cain tonight. 21 points with a 135 offensive rating. He was hot from 3 point land, making 4 of 9, but all four were killers. It felt like every time DePaul had momentum and were about to take a deficit from 8 to 5 or 10 to 7, Powell would hit a dagger 3, and put it back to a double digit lead. Killer.
DePaul gets to 11-8, on back to back possessions, Powell 3s. 17-8
DePaul gets back to within 7 at 28-21, Powell gets fouled on a 3 pointer, 31-21
DePaul gets to 66-58, Powell 3 pointer, 69-58, back to 11.
DePaul gets back to within 10, 69-59, Powell hits another 3, back to 13.
If you have ever played the game of Craps, Powell was the 7 that hits in the middle of a run. Today DePaul was Seven’d out on 4 possessions by Powell. The house wins dammit.
Justin Roberts Was Great in Limited Playing Time
Roberts was an immediate spark plug going 3-4 with 3 free throws, 3 assists and NO Turnovers for 10 points. This culminated in a 191 Offensive Rating.
Others
Max Strus, Tre’Darius McCallum, and Brandon Cyrus had above average offensive ratings, but Strus was way underutilized. DePaul’s most efficient player took 9 shots on Sunday. 9! Cain nearly missed that many from 3 point land alone (7 misses.) Maric took more shots than Strus.
The Bad
Butz Was Unavailable
Jaylen Butz is still recovering from a sickness that has now kept him out of 4 games in a row. Get well Jaylen!
Key Play of the Game
DePaul cuts the lead to 8 with less than 8 in the game. The Demons get a stop. Strus does a pick and roll with Maric and passes to the rolling Maric, who hits the bottom of the basket. Really, the bottom of the basket. WTF! This leads to one of Powell’s 3 pointers. Game Over.
Justin Roberts Played Limited Minutes
You know what I always did when I played basketball with my buddies growing up? Whenever one of them starting making their shots and blowing by people making slick assists, I would always make them go sit on the sidelines or go to the water fountain. Yep, that is what I would do. I wouldn’t dream of continuing to feed them the ball and wishing they would continue making shots.
Justin Roberts, who has been wildly inconsistent this year, was a spark-plug tonight. Tonight he was instant offense, which must have been too much for Coach Leitao, because he only played him 12 damn minutes.
The Coaching
Dave Leitao was a stubborn SOB on Sunday. He insistence with staying with Maric and Ryckbosch, two Seniors, over Paul Reed is indefensible. Delgado would have had major issues with Reed. Reed might have been bowled over on the defensive end, but hey, that’s why you have 5 fouls. Reed’s length would’ve pissed Delgado off.
Additionally, since Reed isn’t the sturdiest guy yet, in our fantasy scenario when he would actually play more than 8 god-damned minutes, when Delgado would bump him, it would be so freaking obvious that Delgado WAS fouling, and the referee’s would have to blow a whistle on the Sainted members of Elizabeth Ann Seton’s team.
On a night when Justin Roberts clearly had it, sticking with defensive specialist, offensive cancer, Brandon Cyrus, made no sense.
Another thing Dave, since we are here, Cain was distributing the ball well tonight! Taking care of the damn ball, except when he took aim at the basket. Be a good coach and tell your main man, “Eli, tonight your don’t have it. Continue distributing the ball and only take wide open layups.” Be the grown up in the room!
Eli Cain
Welcome back old friend. “The Bad” section missed you Wednesday, and Blue Demon Nation was so pleased.
Cain regressed to the mean going back to a 77 offensive rating for the day. Let’s update Cain’s Offensive Ratings in Big East Play in order.
Remember Boys and Girls that 100 is average:
80, 47*, 90, 94, 71, 58, 96, 137, and then ending today’s game with a 77 Offensive Rating.
Which of these numbers is not like the other?
*Took last shot in Xavier Game, when logging his worst game….WHY????
Marin Maric
Marin Maric needed to have a great game. Unfortunately, he was dominated by Delgado, by only collecting 7 rebounds (compared to Delgado’s 19). Maric only scored 10 points on 11 shots. He had several point blank shots that he lost the ball on the way up, missing and not getting the foul called.
The Most Cyrusy Brandon Cyrus Play of the Year
Only Brandon could realize that if he catches the ball at mid-court it would be bad, and then be paralyzed by the thought of a back court violation. So instead of catching the ball, let’s just try a soccer move or something. What would you call this? You know what, the writer is happy that it ended this way, it was incredibly insane and entertaining.
God-Awful Offensive Stretch to Start the Game
Why don’t we just stay in the locker room?
DePaul started this repulsive game going 0-5 plus 2 turnovers. Sweet! Let’s go down 6-0 before my son goes to the bathroom for the 2nd time.
Tweets of the Game
There were a lot of unhappy DePaul fans, so there are plenty of tweets to choose from.
First the positives:
This can be said of 90% of DePaul’s Lineups:
This one was pretty funny to watch live. I will see if I can get a video of it later:
Yep:
The coaching genius of Dave Leitao:
I couldn’t agree more with @guccialligator
This is Very True:
Note to Disgruntled Blue Demon Fans
If you are a disgruntled Blue Demon Fan, give Coach Cieperski a follow on WordPress and Twitter, and don’t forget to Retweet him, and for that matter, if you are enjoying hate reading my blog, please give it a Retweet, and consider following it at lazybluedemon.wordpress.com
In Conclusion
And Finally, The Dumpster fire is back!
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