Category: Big East Game

Pennsylvania Screw Job: DePaul Loses in Overtime at Villanova

The Zebras Did the Demons No Favors

DePaul can play with anyone.  No one intimidates the Blue Demons.  This team has been in every game.  Tonight, the DePaul Blue Demons were screwed.  Screwed terribly.  Improbably, the Men in Blue took the 14th ranked, Villanova Wildcats, to overtime, losing after Villanova took 8 free throws in overtime.  The most egregious were the first set of ‘fouls’ called.  But alas, let’s dwell on that later, in the Bad, Bad section.

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Down eleven with 2:10 to go in regulation, Charlie Moore hits a three, Paul Reed hustles to get a jump ball, Jaylen Butz catches a tough pass and hits a two.  DePaul forces another turnover.  Egregious foul called on Reed (when I thought the game was over.)  Incredible steal by Reed and a monster dunk.  Gillespie travels horribly, but since we are in Villanova, there was a foul called on Reed.  He made one of two.  Jalen Coleman-Lands hits a 3, his first of the game to cut it to two.  DePaul traps the Wildcats who throw it away.  The Demons call a timeout and let Charlie be Charlie who delivered.  DePaul then stopped Villanova on their last gasp effort, which brought us to overtime.

Overtime

DePaul started overtime with two awful possession, while Villanova was gifted with the following possessions, which added up to 4 free points.  Compare this to the first of 2 consecutive fouls called on the first 2 possessions of the second half when DePaul hosted Seton Hall and Charlie Moore picked up two push off fouls.  Which is worse?  Maybe no calls across the board would be the answer, but instead 4 calls against the Demons.

Jalen Coleman-Lands then set up Romeo Weems for an alley-oop, which looked like Weems had been hit off the ball by Gillespie, missing the shot.  Moore stole a ball and made a layup.   ‘Nova made their first field goal of the session.  JCL hit his 2nd 3-pointer of the night to make it a one point game.  Villanova made a contested layup and after an exchange of turnovers, Charlie Moore was fouled.

Astonishingly, the Blue Demons were still in a One-and-One situation, and Moore missed the front end.  Weems blocked a dunk and Saddiq Bey turned the ball over, which set up a JCL three point shot.  JCL was short.  Reed blocked a Justin Moore shot with eleven seconds left, and ‘Nova fouled Charlie Moore to make sure that DePaul would not get a 3 off.

Moore made the front end, and intentionally missed the 2nd, and the Demons failed to get the rebound.  DePaul fouled with less than a second which brought the end game score.

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Demons Downed By Johnnies

DePaul 0-3 in Big East Play, Trouble Brewing

In a game that both teams needed, the St. Johns’s Red Storm prevailed in an ugly, forgettable victory.

Not all was bad at first.  Charlie Moore hit a 3 pointer at the 16 minute mark.  We like when Charlie finds his long-distance stroke.  DePaul took at six point lead at 13-7 with 14:31 in the half.  The players were playing loose and confident.  Of course, it rapidly changed after that.  A quick 3, a turnover leading to a layup, and it was a one point game.  From that point on, the Demons were never up by more than 4 points.  The teams exchanged the lead several times for the next few minutes until the Red Storm began to take control of the game taking a lead that they would never relinquish with 6:12 to go in the 1st half.  DePaul went over 3 minutes without a point, during which the Jonnies went on a 10-0 run getting the lead to 6 points.

With 1:24 left in the half, Paul Reed finally got on the board to cut the St. John’s lead to 3.  DePaul  played strong defense to get the ball back with the chance to tie and 1:09 left in the half.  Then badness occurred.  Moore missed a layup, DePaul played excellent defense again, getting the ball with 32 left.  After running the clock down to less then 10, Devin Gage missed a wild shot which lead to this awful sequence.

So instead of being down 1 or being tied, the Blue Demons found themselves down 5 and extremely hot-headed going into the locker room.

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Demons in New York: Vincentian Throw Down as DePaul Visits St. John’s

Let’s Start With a Little History Between These Coaches…

March 2, 2005 was a big night of truth for the DePaul Blue Demons.  Firmly on the bubble, DePaul traveled to Birmingham to take on the University of Alabama-Birmingham Blazers.  The winner of the game would have the upper hand going into the Conference USA tournament and, mostly likely, move up and off the NCAA tournament bubble.

The coaches that night were Dave Leitao, in his final year of his first term at DePaul, and St. John’s Mike Anderson, who was in his 3rd year at UAB after several years as Nolan Richardson’s top assistant at Arkansas.  Anderson brought with him Richardson’s famed “40 Minutes of Hell” defense and fast paced, three point shooting and layup lined offense.

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Corliss, I want to point out that I, Nolan Richardson, invented the 40 Minutes of Hell, and We won a National Championship using it.

This Blue Demon team was one of the last good teams that DePaul has had.  Lead by Drake Deiner, Sammy Mejia, and Quemont Greer, the Demons came into the game 18-7 with a 10-4 record in conference.  A victory would seal a first round bye in the conference tournament and get them closer to being in the NCAA Tournament.  UAB came into the game 8-6 with a need to win their last two games to get the important bye.

The game went back and forth.  The Demons were up 2 at the half, and took their largest lead of 8 in the second half.  Then the pace and the pressure took its toll on DePaul. UAB tied the game late sending it to overtime.  In overtime, UAB hit a 3 pointer with 24 seconds left.  DePaul set up Diener for a 3 pointer, which he missed.  DePaul rebounded and set up another 3 point shot.  Ultimately hitting a 2 pointer shot with a second left losing by a single point.  DePaul lost their regular season finale to Louisville and UAB won theirs to secure the 4th seed and 1st round bye in the C-USA tournament.

8 days later, after DePaul won their first round game against Tulane, the Demons once again faced UAB in the quarterfinals.  The winner would go to the NCAA tournament and the loser would go to the NIT.

Another back and forth game with DePaul going up by 10 with a little under 10 minutes left in the game.  The frenetic UAB defense chipped away at the lead, and with 1:28 UAB hit a 3 pointer to gain their first lead of the game.  Mejia scored a game tying free-throw.  DePaul got a defensive stop and got the ball to Drake Diener with the hope that he would get fouled and be the iceman that he was.  Under intense pressure, UAB forced Diener into a walk.  UAB then made a 3 pointer leaving .7 seconds on the clock and DePaul lost.  Two brutal losses, in which DePaul had the lead with less than 2 minutes to go in both game.

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I didn’t travel.  That was a damn foul Mr. Referee.  Damn Your Eyes.

UAB lost to an excellent, Final Four Louisville team in the next round but was selected to the NCAA tournament the next day.  The Blazers won their 1st round game, before being knocked out by the Arizona team that almost knocked Illinois out of the tournament at Allstate Arena.

Meanwhile, DePaul was selected to the NIT, where they beat Mizzou but lost to Texas A&M.  Dave Leitao left for Virginia, and a year later, Mike Anderson left for Mizzou.

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Demons Downed by Last Second Free-Throw to Friars

To say that the result of the DePaul/Providence game was disappointing would be a severe understatement.  The headline of the game is that the DePaul Blue Demons lost on a last second free-throw by a 38% shooter on a foul that is generally ignored.

The story of the game was that DePaul could not hit from 3 point land, while the Providence Friars uncharacteristically shot fluid.  In the preview of this game, it was pointed out that DePaul was a better shooter of 3 pointers and better at defending them than the Friars.   Providence came into the game shooting 32% from the outside, while the Demons came into game shooting nearly 34%.  However, during the game, the Friars made 40% of their 3 point shots going 10-25, while DePaul shot only 23.8% on 5-21 shooting from beyond the arch.

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Why?  Why can’t we close out games?

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Blue Demons Host Friars Looking for First Big East Win

DePaul hosts Providence on Saturday, January 4th at the Wintrust Arena trying to get off of the schneid in Big East play.  The Blue Demons failed to put Seton Hall away in their conference opener, whilst the men from Providence destroyed a short handed Georgetown team leading by as much as 33, before settling on a 16 point win.

The Hoyas’ star, Mac McClung, had his eye severely poked during a game versus American on December 28th and missed the Providence game.  I picture McClung’s eye looking like Bob Costas’s eye during Winter Olympic coverage.  The only difference is that McClung, with or without bad eye, could probably reverse dunk over tiny Costas.

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McClung Could Reverse Dunk Over Me and My Eye.
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Not Sure Which is Scarier Looking, the Costas Eye or the Friar?

Providence has been a trick-or-treat team this year, losing to such basketball luminaries as Long Beach State (303), Charlestown (120), Penn (108), and Evanston’s favorite Big 14 team, Northwestern (109), while beating Texas and Georgetown in their last two games.  Before beating the Longhorns and Hoyas, the Friars’ biggest wins were against Stony Brook, Pepperdine, and Sacred Heart.  On paper, they are the worst team in the Big East.  However, DePaul will not be playing paper on Saturday.

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DePaul Loses Big East Opener to Seton Hall

 

giphy-9Well, that sucked.  Games are not always lost in the final two minutes.  Games can be lost via attrition, lack of offensive flow, or a series of defensive mistakes.  Attrition can occur in different ways such as the physical toll taken on the body to the point where players lose their legs, or the gamesmanship of players getting into foul trouble via the ticky-tak foul.

I hate blaming losses on the officiating crew, but in tonight’s DePaul/Seton Hall game, the crew was an abomination.  In the first half, DePaul’s Paul Reed and Jaylen Butz both got into foul trouble with minor infractions.  We all know that DePaul’s offense is not the most free flowing thing to witness, but Paul Reed’s general excellence and Butz’s ability to rebound errant shots generally propel the Blue Demons to success.

At the half, I could not believe that the Demons were only up 6.  They had thoroughly dominated the half.  DePaul shot a higher Field Goal percentage, higher free-throw percentage, had 5 less turnovers, and 3 more rebounds than the Pirates.  How could they only be up six?

At the high point, they were up 10 and felt in complete control.  But then the zebras got involved.  In the last 3:53 of the 1st half, Seton Hall did not score a single basket, but somehow cut a 10 point lead to only six at the break.  Any idea of how you could complete that magic trick?  6 free-throws.  This matters.  This is how teams are kept in games when it is not their day.

At half time, it was extremely clear that one coach, Kevin Willard of Seton Hall, got in the ears of the officials, while the other coach, Dave Leitao of DePaul, remained dignified.  Within 3 minutes, DePaul’s Charlie Moore picked up two offensive fouls on ‘push-offs’, which happen on virtually every possession by every guard in NCAA basketball.

The combination of 3 of DePaul’s key offensive players all getting ticky-tak fouls disrupted the Demons from expanding their lead.

This all culminated in DePaul being up 1 with 2:18 left.  Myles Powell, coming off of a concussion, and being treated by the officiating crew like a lost son, did an excellent pump fake from 3 point land making Romeo Weems foul him.

Powell, gifted fifteen free-throws, FIFTEEN FREE-THROWS!!!!!!, calmly sank all 3, mainly because he had had so much practice through out the game, to put Seton Hall up 2.

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Jalen Coleman-Lands then tried a step-back 3-pointer, which he shoots 20% on as covered in the pre-game notes to this game, which he, of course, missed.  JCL is a catch and shoot guy, and desperately needed to be set up in a catch and shoot situation, but the offense did not execute that, which lead to a poor shot.

Seton Hall then did an impressive alley-oop dunk to Romaro Gill, who just killed the Demons tonight, to go up 3.

Leitao called a timeout, and drew up a play??  It ended with Weems taking a difficult shot which was contested by Gill, and Seton Hall rebounding it.

Powell missed an ill-advised 3 pointer, but during the rebound, Butz knocked it out of bounds.  On the ensuing inbounds play, Weems lost Myles Cale for a layup, and that was the ball game.  DePaul was now down 6, and it wasn’t going to happen.

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Big East Play Begins With DePaul Hosting Seton Hall

Seton Hall is coming to Chicago to mark the beginning of Big East play.  The Blue Demons and Pirates had two epic match-ups last year with DePaul winning both times.  The Demons’ size is what put them over the top with Femi Olujobi, Paul Reed and Jaylen Butz dominating both games.  In the first one, DePaul won 75-74 in Chicago as Max Strus had 21, while the 3 big men all scored double figures.   The second match-up was one of the most offensively efficient games by the Demons in a 97-93 victory in New Jersey behind Olujobi’s 22, Strus’s 22, and Reed’s 21.  DePaul scored at a 1.31 points per possession, one of their highest of the season.  Let’s hope for an encore this season.

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It’s Over: DePaul Knocked Out of Big East Tournament by Marquette

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Down One with 11 seconds left, the Season Rested in Max Strus’s Hands

On a complete defensive mishap by Marquette, Eli Cain found Max Strus wide open for a potential game winning 3-point shot with 5 seconds left in the game.  Strus took the shot, and left it short, and DePaul lost, yet again, by less than 5 points for the 8th time on the season.

I have watched this play an unhealthy amount of times, but hey, let’s relive it again.

Marquette’s Andrew Rowsey completely messed up this pick and pop.  Rowsey should be sending Strus a wheel of Wisconsin cheese for the following:

  1. Missing the shot
  2. Not driving to the basket
  3. Not passing to a wide open Brandon Cyrus
  4. For standing around admiring his missed shot instead of running towards the basket in case he missed.

 

 

And with that, DePaul’s season came to a crashing halt.

As I said on twitter, “Was this a microcosm of the season or what?  Wouldn’t want it any other way than to go down losing the way we have 8 other times this year.”

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DePaul’s Valiant Comeback Effort Against Xavier Falls Short, Again

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Blue Demons Hold Xavier to 2 Points Over Last 4:47, Miss Two Opportunities To Tie

Senior Day was almost an incredibly satisfying memorable day, as the DePaul Blue Demons fell short, yet again, to the 3rd Ranked Xavier Musketeers.

It was Senior Day, and if you want to read some things about our graduating Seniors, feel free to read the preview.

Things looked dire in the early going as Marin Maric picked up 2 early fouls and Max Strus picked up 3 fouls with 8:43 to go in the 1st Half.  Strus picked up 2 fouls on one play when he clearly charged into the Xavier defender and then kept talking to the referee.

In the arena, I was pretty sure that it must have been a block for Strus to be so upset, but after having time to watch multiple angles of the various replays, it was about as clear a charge as you will ever see.

When your two most reliable offensive players are out of the game, and you see that the Demons were down by 12 (22-10), it sure felt like game over.  However, the lineup of Hanel, McCallum, Cyrus, Roberts, and Cain, scored on 5 consecutive shots, closing the gap to 2 points (25-23).

This stretch allowed DePaul to make it to the much needed break, only down by 6.

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Creighton’s Offensive/Defensive Dominance, Too Much for DePaul

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Creighton Holds Blue Demons to 4th Worst Shooting Performance Of the Year

In a game that quickly deteriorated after 5 minutes of the first half, Creighton shot lights out and kept DePaul from matching them.  A 7-0 run towards the end of the half by the Demons kept the game respectable at halftime.  Down 10 to start the 2nd, Creighton quickly advanced the score to 20, and it was game over.

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