From a 12-1 non-conference record to a now 1-12 league mark, DePaul basketball is now back to square one. Tonight was just plain ugly, as the Blue Demons were out of contention very early on at home against #12 Villanova, who finished the evening 18-for-26 from three-point range, en route to a 91-71 victory.
Wildcats coach Jay Wright credited rebounding (and of course shooting) as the difference in this one, as his team led by as much as 31. It was a stark contrast from the reverse fixture, where the Demons took Nova to overtime, before falling in Philadelphia. At this point, it seems like a fourth straight season of finishing last or tied for last in the Big East is in the cards.
“Somewhere along the line we as a group have lost what we once had,” DePaul basketball coach Dave Leitao said in post game.
“As you string a lot of losses together, it gets harder to get back to that place.”
So now where do we go from here? Let’s take a look at the season resume as Georgetown comes in on Saturday night.
DePaul Basketball Metrics: 13-13, 1-12 in the SEC, Net #69 (Nice!), KenPom #80
Key Wins:
@ Iowa (Net 28), Texas Tech (Net 21), Butler (Net 20)
One of the last teams to suffer a defeat at the beginning of the year, DPU started the season hot, but that’s all washed away now.
Bad Losses:
Buffalo (Net 138)
The only other Big East team with a Net ranking down in the same range as DePaul is St. John’s, so none of their league losses are that bad, but they just have too many of them. Northwestern would have been a really close call, but they averted disaster there.
Synopsis of Remaining Schedule
Five regular season games left, two of which are against teams that are currently ranked. Probably have to run the table, or take four of five and then do some work in the Big East tournament in order to get a NIT bid.
DePaul reached the finals of the CBI last year, where they lost the 2 of 3 series to South Florida. The ship has long sailed on the Blue Demons securing their first tournament berth since 2004, but ending the NIT drought (2007)? That doesn’t look likely either.
Ditto for improving on last year’s 19-17 overall record, 7-11 mark in league play.
Postseason Projections
SB Nation has them included in their NIT bracket projection (yes, bracket projections are actually things that exist) but it was made back on Feb 3. Bracket Matrix has DePaul included in their CBI projection. Remember, the CBI selects 16 teams that are not selected for the NCAA Tournament or the (NIT), and who are willing to pay a $50,000 entry fee to participate. So going back to the pay-to-play consolation to the consolation bracket this March would be, sub-optimal, to say the least.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
You can follow Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune on Twitter here and his cat on Instagram at this link.