DePaul Preview

[Jonathan Breiner]

DePaul has had a makeover of sorts since last season.  A new coach, a new athletic director, and slightly different results on the court.  The Blue Demons are 8-2 as opposed to the more recently familiar, 2-8.  UC will open Conference USA play against DePaul at 8 p.m. Wednesday at The Shoe.  Channel 19 will provide local television coverage.

 

The Blue Demons (8-2) lost by 31 points to Notre Dame and by three points at St. Joseph's.  Their "quality" wins have been over Seton Hall by 11 and Ohio U by 8.  They have only played 3 road games (2 losses) and tend to struggle.  I expect UC to be able to come out and dominate on Wednesday.  Not only that, but UC needs to make an early statement in CUSA. The schedule is back loaded.  Among their final nine conference games are both games against Marquette and UL and the games at Memphis and at Charlotte.  Starting slow will not be a good idea, as the top teams seem to be better able to compete with UC this year.

 

DePaul is similar to UC in that they have no true center, but they are not weak inside, led by 6-7 junior Delonte Holland and 6-9 senior Sam Hoskin.  Holland and Hoskin lead DePaul in minutes and scoring (14.7 and 14.5, respectively).  While junior Andre Brown is playing after a knee injury early in the pre-season, his offensive explosiveness has not come back yet.  The 6-9 junior would likely have been DePaul's go to player, but while leading the team in rebounding at 7.6 per game, he has not found his shot shooting a horrible 24 of 69 (35%) from the field.  One would have to think he would turn it around at some point based on past performance.

 

DePaul has two shooters to worry about and we are somewhat familiar with both: Sophomore Drake Diener and senior Joe Tulley.  Tulley is much more of a set shooter whereas Diener is not afraid to shoot the 2-pointer also.  Diener spent July completing a seven-game tour of Australia with the People To People All-Star team.  He averaged over 16 points and I think this time really helped his game.  The Dieners are well known in CUSA with one at both SLU and Marquette.

 

Keys for UC

 

1. Possessions.  UC and DePaul have the #1 and #2 scoring defenses in CUSA.  Each possession will be meaningful.  Barker and Moore will need to protect the ball and make good decisions.

 

2. Rebounding.  Coming off their best rebounding performance of the season, UC must repeat it.  A good deal of the offense against UT-Chattanooga came off of missed shots and I would expect to see a few missed shots on Wednesday.

 

3. Tulley.  He is not the fastest point guard and can be pressured into some mistakes.  He can also, when left open, hit shot after shot (44.4% 3 point shooter).  Do not let him get on his game and it could easily be a blowout.

 

 

Personally, I cannot see DePaul coming into the Shoe and winning this game, but it has been a strange season and very few of us have any idea of what UC team will show up.  I am hoping for the more recent edition.

 

UC 74  DePaul 61

 

jon b