Don’t look now but DePaul basketball (10-8, 2-3) could be .500 in conference play this college basketball season. They won back to back Big East conference games for the first time since 2008 tonight.
The Blue Demons beat Steve Lavin and St. John’s (9-7, 0-4) at All State Arena. This DePaul basketball team has been in every conference game they’ve played this year. Doug McDermott and Creighton didn’t pull away until the very end. The Blue Demons were down just seven within five minutes so that final score was misleading. Yes, as of right now DePaul basketball has a 400 winning percentage in Big East play.
There are certainly come winnable games left on the conference slate for DePaul basketball. These Big East contests could be Ws Jan at Seton Hall, Feb. 1st Providence, Feb 3rd Georgetown (they only lost by 7 at their place), Feb 15 at Providence, Feb 22nd Marquette (again, almost had them on the road last time) Feb 25th Seton Hall, March 2nd at the Steve Lavins, March 6th Butler. Let’s say they go 6-2 in those. That’s put them at 8-5. Am I painting a rosy picture? Yes. DPU might only go 5-3 in these eight. Then again, they could go 7-1. I’m just looking at the games in which Vegas might favor DePaul basketball.
Of course, now let’s get to the remaining games in which I think DePaul basketball will almost certainly lose:
Two with Villanova, ranked #6 in the nation, a trip to Creighton and then dos con El Xavier. I don’t really like their chances a whole lot in any of those five. So let’s say the Demons go 6-7 down the stretch. That would put them at 8-10 in conference for the year. Not quite .500 but right there, knocking on the door. Whether they can reach 9-9 or above, you can’t deny that this time is at least showing the first green shoots of growth. It’s not progress yet, but it’s a sign of prospective progress. With the addition of Billy Garrett Jr., this team looks like it could potentially be better this year. Plus, DePaul basketball has been on the floor long enough. It’s only upward from here.
Oliver Purnell went 1-17 his Big East debut, 3-15 in his sophomore season at DePaul. A 2-16 last year puts him at 6-48 before this year. So can he get 6 wins in conference this year? That looks quite reachable. Since DePaul basketball joined the Big East in 2005-06, their best mark was 9-7 in 2007. I would think DePaul basketball could be within striking distance of that at some point this year.
Purnell described some of the ways that DPU showed improvement tonight:
“We played defense better and longer.
Our execution was better.
We’re getting higher percentage shots.”
Paul M. Banks is the owner of The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. He’s also an analyst for multiple news talk radio stations across the country; with regular weekly segments discussing: Illinois, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Bears and Bulls on NBC and Fox Sports Radio. President Barack Obama follows him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)