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.”

Continue reading “It’s Over: DePaul Knocked Out of Big East Tournament by Marquette” →

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.

Continue reading “DePaul Holds off Marquette Splitting the Season Series” →