Tag: Blue Demons

Hot Shooting St. John’s Sweeps Cold Shooting DePaul

This is going to be a short post.  There will be no video highlights.  There will be no “good job by you” section.  DePaul blew it.  With all the momentum in the word, with a hungry fan base being reawakened, with national media paying attention, DePaul has blown it by losing 6 of their first 7 Big East games.  Could they rebound and win 7 or the final 11 games?  It’s possible, but unlikely because they have lost the ability to hit from 3 point range, while also losing the ability to stop their opponent from hitting from distance.

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Throw This Game, and The Conference Season in the Toilet

Quick Recap of the Game

The path to success in this game was laid out in the pregame post, limit turnovers, rebound to a draw, shoot 30% from 3 and hold the Johnnies to under 35% from 3.

Limit Turnovers?  DePaul did great!  They had 3 less Turnovers than the Red Storm!

Rebound to a Draw?  Yes!  The Demons had one more than St. John’s!

I’m loving it, tell me more.  So the Demons Only had to shoot 30% from 3 Point Land and have the Red Storm shoot under 35%?  I like our chances.

From 3, St. John’s shot 40.6% and DePaul shot 16%, and there goes the Conference season.

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When your crappy shooting opponent shoots 40% from 3 and you shoot 16%

DePaul Struggled in the first half but went to the half tied.  LJ Figueroa of St. John’s killed the Demons going 5-9 from 3 point range almost single-handedly keeping the Red Storm in the game.  After starting 2-6 from 3 point land, The Demons went 1 for their next 7 in the half to end 3-13 (23%) from 3.  Charlie Moore had 5 assists and zero turnovers. No one player shot particularly well.

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DePaul’s plan was to throw it inside and overpower the Red Storm.  This sounded great on paper, but it seemed like any time the Demons received the ball, the ball was being slapped or bumped, and the close shots ended up not being easy buckets.  From inside the arc, DePaul was 9-17 (53.%) in the half.  The Johnnies were 3-9 (33.3%) from 2, and 32% from 3, making 7 key 3 pointers.  This illustrates 3 point math.  DePaul had 18 points from 2 on 53% shooting, St. John’s had 21 points from 3 on 32% shooting.  It’s crazy!  3 is greater than 2!

The 2nd Half

Mustapha Heron started the half with a 3 pointer and began warming up.  With 17:18 left, Paul Reed hit 1 of 2 free-throws to put DePaul up for the last time in the game.  A 3 and a half minute drought by DePaul signaled their doom.  The Johnnies hit 2 layups and 2 three pointers to go up 9.

It took until 6:51 for DePaul to get back within 3.  After a couple of near steals and immediate turning the ball back over, the wheels fell off.   A dunk, a jumper, and a back breaking 3 pointer brought the score to 63-55, and the game never really felt in doubt again.  Ultimately, DePaul lost by 13.  DePaul managed to go 7-23 (30.4%) from 2 and 1-12 (8.33%) from 3 in the 2nd half.  Unbelievable.

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Blue Demons Host St. John’s: Vincentian Throw Down II

DePaul Looks to Split the Season Series

On January 11th, DePaul travelled to New York to play St. John’s.  In a hotly contested game, the Red Storm prevailed after DePaul’s Jalen Coleman-Lands failed to connect on 2 of 3 free throws that would have narrowed the gap to 2 points.  After St. John’s knocked down several free-throws, DePaul ultimately lost by 7.

 

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Creighton Extends the Streak to Eleven Against DePaul

Poor 3 Point Shooting Dooms the Blue Demons

The three game gauntlet against Villanova, Butler, and Creighton, teams that had beaten DePaul a combined 40 times, is over.  However, two of the long streaks are still alive.  A diminished Blue Demon squad, missing starter Jaylen Butz, and sixth man, Devin Gage, succumbed to Creighton’s 3 point shooting in the second half.

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18.75% from 3 will make a Demon Cry

The Blue Demons took an early lead on Nick Ongenda’s dunk.  It was the only lead of the night for DePaul.  At the ten minute mark of the 1st half, the Bluejays had taken a comfortable 8 point lead on Denzel Mahoney’s 3 point shot.  The Demons stayed within striking distance keeping the deficit under 10 for the remainder of the half, and closed the half being down only 3.

This writer was ecstatic to only be down 4, because the Demons did not look right.

In my preview, I thought that Romeo Weems would draw Creighton sharpshooter, Mitch Ballock, but he ended up on point guard Marcus Zegarowski.  In general, Weems disrupted him and kept him to having an average night with 9 points, 10 assists, and 3 turnovers.

Ballock did turn into an issue as the night went on going 5 for 11 from 3 point land, ending up with 19 points.  It was the supporting cast of Creighton that did the damage.  Five Bluejays scored in double figures.  As a team, the Bluejays shot 40% from deep going 10-25.

If you watch the makes below, Ballock really had only 2 open shots.  The guy is a shot maker.

DePaul made three 3 pointers in the game, all by Jalen Coleman-Lands, who went 3-7 on the game, but that was it.  The rest of the team went 0-9.  As a team, the Demons shot 3-16 or 18.75%, which was a season low.  Simple math explained the whole game in one tweet.

If your opponent averaged 1.2 points per possession on possessions that ended in a 3-point shot, and your team averaged .56 points per possession in which you shot a 3-pointer and your opponent took 9 more 3 point shots?  You are going to lose.  The end.

It didn’t help that when Creighton wasn’t shooting 3’s they made 53.5% of their 2 point shots (1.07PPP), while DePaul made 51% (1.07PPP).

Always remember boys and girls, 3 is greater than 2, and when you have an elite group of shooters who take a ton of 3s, you are going to come out ahead a lot of the time.

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Blue Demons Try to End 10 Game Losing Streak to Creighton

Coming off of the massacre of the Butler Bulldogs, ending an eleven game losing streak to the boys from Indianapolis, DePaul tries to end a ten game losing streak to the Creighton Bluejays.  This will be the third game in a row against teams that the Demons had a combined 40 game losing streak.  At least now, DePaul have snuffed out one of them.  This game could put the Blue Demons right back on track to relevance in the Conference standings and NCAA Net ratings.

The last time, and only time, that DePaul beat the Blue Jays in Big East play was when Forrest Robinson, with lighting bolts shooting out of his fingers, made 5 three pointers in the first 5 minutes of the game and made 6 three pointers on the night at Omaha on January 7th, 2015.

Forrest Robinson Murdered The Blue Jays in January 2015

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DePaul Puts a Leash on 5th Ranked Butler

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Lead by Paul Reed’s 23 points and 9 rebounds, the DePaul Blue Demons dominated 5th ranked Butler, ending an eleven game losing streak to the Bulldogs.  The game felt like DePaul was in control throughout, with the exception of a few minutes at the end of the first half, when Reed picked up his 2nd foul with 6:05 to go.  Butler went on a 12-2 run to close the gap to 4 points with 2:17 left.  For the first time in a long time, Win Probability favored the Bulldogs.

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The Demons responded with their own 6-0 run to get back ahead by 10.  With 16 seconds left in the half, Butler’s Jordan Tucker hit a 3 pointer to get the game back to 7.  Tucker thought he had silenced the DePaul side of the crowd.  Well guess what?  Romeo Weems decided to ignite the crowd again.  Weems ended the half with an exclamation point, 3 pointer to put the Demons back up by 10.  DePaul never looked back.

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Butler Visits the Blue Demons in Chicago

Blue Demons Look To Snap 11 game Losing Streak to Bulldogs

In January, 2014, DePaul and Butler met up in Hinkle Fieldhouse for the first time as Big East opponents.  For the first 30 minutes of the game, the Bulldogs had the game in hand, building a 12 point lead with 10 to go.  At that point, the Blue Demons mounted a furious attack lead by Cleveland Melvin, Brandon Young, and Freshman, Billy Garrett Jr.  When regulation was over, the Demons found themselves tied with Butler.  After 28 points combined were scored in Overtime, DePaul and the Bulldogs remained tied.  Finally, after 2 Overtimes, the Blue Demons won an epic game 99-94.  DePaul has not beaten Butler since.    Sounds like a recurring them.

Cleveland Melvin Eyes a Rebound in Last DePaul Victory against Butler.  Melvin had 30 points in the Double Overtime victory.

DePaul is coming off of a tough loss at Villanova.  AP ranked #5, Butler is coming off their 1st home loss and first Big East loss against Seton Hall.  Let’s hope the referees try to extricate themselves from deciding this game.

 

The Setup

DePaul takes on Butler Saturday, January 18th at high Noon at Wintrust Arena in the South Loop of Chicago.

The game will be on The UToo on Comcast and on Radio 670AM.

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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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