Category: Non-Conference Game

Blue Demons Get Their Revenge on Wildcats

On a day that featured a first half in which Paul Reed went 0-9 and Jalen Coleman-Lands had zero points, the DePaul Blue Demons still found a way to defeat the Northwestern Wildcats.  Charlie Moore and Jaylen Butz lead the Demons by scoring 28 of the 34 first half points to keep the team afloat.  The Blue Demons shot 37%, while the Wildcats shot 55.6% to take a 4 point lead into the break with Freshman Boo Buie leading the way with 18 first half points.  As was mentioned in the preview of this game, Boo Buie was the man to be worried about,  the only reason that the Boys in Blue were still in it was that they had only 6 turnovers and had out-rebounded the ‘Cats by 5, mostly on the offensive end.

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At the half, probability made it clear that DePaul could come back if they shot just a little better.  It took just 1:12 for JCL to hit his first 3 pointer of the half, and 2:28 for Paul Reed to finally get on the board putting the Demons up by 1 in the process.  DePaul held the lead until the 10:36 point of the 2nd half.  The Wildcats took the lead to 6 points with 6:28 to go.  When Paul Reed hit his only 3 point shot of the day, cutting the lead to 3, it ignited a 15-2 run which culminated in the sequence of the night by Jaylen Butz.

Butz’s steal and layup brought the DePaul lead to 7 and the Demons never looked back winning 83-78.

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Blue Demons Host Northwestern Seeking Revenge

I don’t know where you were December 8th, 2018.  I know that my poor son and I were in Evanston, Illinois to watch the Blue Demons visit Northwestern.  You know, great bonding moments between father and son.  Nice seats, easy drive from the Northwest ‘burbs, why wouldn’t I go?

DePaul came out beautifully, taking a  41-29 lead into half-time.  Now, I have been to too many games where things have been flowing excellent, and then the Demons have gotten their teeth kicked in, so I always have my guard up, and never get too high.

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DePaul Survives Berserker Vikings

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Evidently, it truly is Believeland.  The Cleveland State Vikings gave the DePaul Blue Demons quite a scare, ultimately losing 73-65.  It was a bizarre game.  DePaul turned the ball over 26 times, shot less than 50% from the field and 21% from the 3-point line, but…….DePaul made free-throws, 26 of them!

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Fortunately, Cleveland State turned the ball over more than normal to the tune of 29 times.  Normally, the Vikes turn the ball over at an incredible rate of 25% of possessions, while today they turned the ball over 36% of the time.  So that’s good??

The State of Cleveland shot better than normal from 2 point land (44% normally 48.8% today) and 3 point land (23.6% normally 33.3% today), but thankfully, they shot like crap from the free-throw line 56.5% when they normally shoot 67.2%.

If you tuned in early, the game went exactly as expected, with the Demons going on a quick 9-0 run after 5 minutes.  I was already having dreams of being up forty and getting a little excited about seeing some extended time from our non-starters.  I was talking trash to my son, my dog was begging to be petted, so I was indulging her.  Everything was going great.

Although there were a plethora of turnovers, the lead kept expanding, reaching a high point of 16 with just under 1:30 left in the half.

From then on, it was a slow march to the end.  It was mildly stressful with never the thought of the Demons actually losing.

So what was the problem?  The damn diamond beserker press.  It has becoming abundantly clear, that our guards do not like pressure.   Buffalo and now Cleveland St. asked us to increase our tempo and we obliged them with a deluge of turnovers.  Even when we did break the unholy press, our big men, would make a bad pass, lose the ball, miss a layup, or charged into our old friend Big Al Eichelberger.

Jaylen Butz, Paul Reed, Romeo Weems, Charlie Moore, and Devin Gage all had 4 turnovers.  Only Jalen Coleman-Lands had more assists than turnovers.  It was an awful game to watch.  It hurt my feelings.  Best summed up by the following tweet which was inspired by a tweet by @HSS1DPU:

Alright, let’s get to the nitty-gritty.

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Blue Demons Douse the Flames

During the first 10 minutes of the DePaul/University of Illinois-Chicago game, many were having flashbacks to the Buffalo game.  The Blue Demons physically looked like the better team, but a lack of execution, and awful 1-9 shooting felt a lot like last Sunday’s debacle.

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Thankfully, UIC did an equally terrible job of making shots and as a bonus, they also did not take care of the ball.  With 10:14 left in the 1st half, Darious Hall made a layup with an assist by the resurgent Charlie Moore for DePaul to take a 15-14 lead, which they never relinquished.  Lovely.

The Blue Demons slowly choked the Flames to death, expanding their lead in each 10 minute increment for the rest of the game.

After it was all said and done, DePaul finished with an 86-65 win.

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Blue Demons Hope to Get Back On-track against UIC

After the terrible, awful loss to Buffalo on Sunday, DePaul hosts the UIC Flames at Wintrust Arena.  The Blue Demons hope to get back to their winning ways, as do their neurotic fans.  This will be the sixth consecutive season that these teams have played.  In the 10 overall meetings, DePaul holds a 8-2 record, with UIC’s latest win in December 2016.

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Demons Succumb to the Trap Game

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The LazyBlueDemon after the game.

After a euphoric week of fun after beating Texas Tech, with the hashtag #RankDePaul trending, and the BigEastBias.com writing 7 or 8 articles about the AP voters being cowards for not ranking the Demons, DePaul came out flat, missed Eleven free-throws, turned the ball over fifteen times in the first half, and ultimately lost to the Buffalo Bulls by 5.

The first 18 minutes of the game were brutal for both teams.  DePaul couldn’t get out of their own way and invented new ways to turn the ball over.  The Bulls could not make a shot.  For most of the half, Buffalo was shooting in the low 30 percents and less than 20% on 3-point shots.  However, the Bulls began to get easy buckets off of the increasingly careless turnovers.

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The Northwestern Game (DePaul’s Soul Crushing Loss)

We let one get away

DePaul let another one get away.  I would put the Notre Dame, Illinois, Oregon and Northwestern games in this category.  Of the ones the Demons really let get away, Oregon and Northwestern.

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The Alabama A&M game

The Setup

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The Good

After winning the must-win crosstown game with UIC on Saturday, DePaul returned to a rocking, blue seat filled Wintrust Arena on Monday to face 24 point underdog, Alabama A&M.  DePaul pulled out a 83-59 victory over Alabama A&M getting the push (unless you were unlucky to have them at 24.5).

On paper,  this looked like it should be an easy victory for the Blue Demons, and for a pleasant change, it was.

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