The Blue Demons Meet the Golden Eagles At Madison Square Garden With The Season On the Line
The Setup
DePaul plays the Marquette Golden Eagles on Wednesday, 3/7/2018 at 8:30 pm Central at Madison Square Garden. It will be carried on FS1 (Channel 237 on Comcast) and on the Score (Radio 670).
Marquette comes into the game with 18 wins and 12 losses overall, with a 9-9 record in Big East games after beating Creighton in a must win game. This will also be a must win game for the Golden Eagles if they would like to keep their chances for an at large bid to the NCAA Tournament.
DePaul is coming off their 7th excruciating loss of the season with a 3 point loss to Xavier. . In games decided by 5 points or less, the Demons are 1-7. Not optimal.
Xavier Travels to the South Loop to Take on DePaul
The Setup
DePaul plays the Xavier Musketeers on Saturday, March 3rd at 11:00 am Central at the newly renamed, Wintrust Arena in Chicago’s South Loop. It will be carried on Fox (Channel 190 on Comcast) and on the Score (Radio 670).
Xavier comes into the game with 26 wins and 4 losses ranked #3 in the AP poll. Only 3 losses in Big East play, twice to Villanova and once to Providence (their only loss of the year in a game decided by 10 points or less.)
Down 5 at the Half, the Blue Demons Smother the Golden Eagles to Get Their First Home Conference Win
Holy crap! DePaul won a home conference game at Wintrust Arena for the first time ever! DePaul splits the season series with Marquette for the 3rd time in 4 years. Sure seems like a rivalry to me. Yep, it’s a rivalry again. More fun was putting a big damper on the Golden Eagles’ chances in getting an at-large bid for the NCAA Tournament. Good Times!
Most of DePaul’s fans dressed as something other than blue seats for the second time this season. But instead of dressing up in Notre Dame Green and Gold, they dressed in Marquette Navy and Gold; I didn’t know it was Holloween. So weird that they do not dress in DePaul colors for these home games.
In my game preview, I mentioned that DePaul had to fear 3 main players, Markus Howard, if he played, Andrew Rowsey, and Sam Hauser. Howard was questionable for the game, but after warmups looked like he would play. Rowsey got himself in early foul trouble, which immediately benefited the Blue Demons. Howard was brought in for his first action in a week, coming off a hip injury. He looked a little off, but was relatively effective. The early fouls seemed to keep the shooters out of rhythm, which was nice. All three players ended up with double-figures, but none of them killed the demons all ending with below average offensive ratings, 94 for Hauser, and 87 for both Rowsey and Howard (100 is average).
On the DePaul side, Max Strus was the game MVP with 20 points on 6-13 shooting and a very important 7-7 from the free throw line. He did have 6 turnovers, but redeemed himself with 11 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal.
The game had 2 major runs. One by Marquette in the 1st half, and then a nice run by DePaul in the 2nd half, where the Demons help the Golden Eagles without a point for 6 minutes.
A 19-16 lead by the Blue Demons turned into a 31-22 deficit, until a 3 pt play by Strus at 3:03 left end a 17-3 run by Marquette.
DePaul Hosts Their Neighbors to the North Who are Going to Over-Populate Winstrust
The Setup
DePaul plays the Marquette Golden Eagles on Saturday, 2/24/2018 at 11:00 am Central at the Wintrust Arena in the South Loop of Chicago, in front of thousands of cheese eaters and a handful of Blue Demon Fans. It will be carried on UToo (Channel 230 on Comcast) and on the Score (Radio 670).
Marquette comes into the game with 16 wins and 11 losses overall, with a 7-8 record in Big East games after beating St. John’s in a must win game. This will also be a must win game for the Golden Eagles.
This might be the last chance to win at the Wintrust Arena, unless the Demons upset Xavier at the final game. If neither game ends in victory, for the entire off season, DePaul Nation will have to call the unfortunate arena Losetrust Arena.
This is going to be a quick post, because my heart isn’t in it today. If you read my preview to this game, I stated that Villanova was a well rounded offensive machine. They were. However, for the first 10 minutes of the game, DePaul kept in reaching distance of number 3 ranked Villanova, then the wheels fell off. It took another 20 minutes for the Blue Demons to re-attach the wheels, but by that time they were down 30.
This game sucked. I was so frustrated by halftime that I went to work out to get rid of my angry energy.
I’m going to start with where things went wrong. After Tre’Darius McCallum decided to let Mikal Bridges get by him, and Marin Maric stepped in with help defense collecting his 2nd foul, creating a 3-point play, DePaul was already in a dilemma. Do you stay with Maric and his 2 fouls, or start bringing in reinforcements? Maric left the game, bringing in Paul Reed. After trading baskets, Bridges used McCallum again, but this time McCallum fouled him. Poor defensive decisions lead to massive foul trouble.
What I am trying to get out is that the game quickly devolved in Walk-ons and rarely used bench players being involved. Advantage Villanova.
DePaul Prepares to take on the Number 3 ranked Villanova Wildcats
The Setup
DePaul plays the Villanova Wildcasts on Wednesday, 2/21 at 7:30pm Central at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia in front of a large crowd wishing their seniors well. It will be carried on FS1 (Channel 237 on Comcast) and on the Score (Radio 670).
Villanova comes into the game with 24 wins and 3 losses. Funny enough, DePaul has beaten 2 of the 3 teams that have been the Wildcats.
The Blue Demons travel to New Jersey to Face Seton Hall
The Setup
DePaul plays the Seton Hall Pirates on Sunday, 2/18/2018 at noon Central at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. It will be carried on FS1 (Channel 237 on Comcast) and on the Score (Radio 670).
The Pirates come into the game on a four game losing streak, with losses to Villanova, Marquette, Georgetown, and Xavier. On the season they have 17 wins and 9 losses overall, with a 6-7 record in Big East games after losing by eleven at Xavier.
The Blue Demons Try to Sweep the Resurgent Red Storm in the Vincentian Throwdown Part II
The Setup
Love, or confused status with your loved one, will be displayed on Wednesday night as DePaul hosts the St. John’s Red Storm on Valentine’s Day, Wednesday, 2/14/2018 at 8:00 pm Central at the “Please God let us Win a Conference Home game at” Wintrust Arena in the South Loop of Chicago. It will be carried on CBSSN (Channel 232 on Comcast) and on the WIND (Radio 560).
After famously going on a 0-11 start to conference play, St. John’s comes into the game as the hottest team on the planet with fiery flames burning out of the orifices. In the past 2 weeks, the Red Storm (which describes the color of the flames that are burning out of their orifices) have beaten Duke, Villanova, and Marquette.
After initially being down to the Friars, Eli Cain hit a 3 pointer to put DePaul up 13-12. From that point forward, the Blue Demons never looked back. The Demons went on a 25-7 run to go from 2 down to 16 up over a 8:09 stretch. The Friars got a couple of baskets to close it to 12 with 8 seconds to go in the half. Eli Cain then calmly sunk a buzzer-beating 3 pointer to close the half and put DePaul up 15 at the break.
The Blue Demons Travel to Indy to Face the Butler Bulldogs for the 2nd Time
The Setup
DePaul plays the Butler Bulldogs on Saturday, 2/3/2018 at 11:00 am Central at the Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana, in front of thousands of Butler fans and their dog. It will be carried on FS1 (Channel 237 on Comcast) and on the Score (Radio 670).
Butler comes into the game with 16 wins and 7 losses overall, with a 6-4 record in Big East games after embarrassing Marquette in Milwaukee.
