In the narrow three point loss to the Cincinnati Bearcats Tuesday night, the DePaul Blue Demons saw their three freshmen combine for 49 of their 68 points. It was the first game this college basketball season in which all three rookies played very well at the same time.
And it’s certainly a bright spot in an otherwise dark season, as once Oliver Purnell gets his own guys in his up-and-down system, things will certainly improve. Jerry Wainwright’s players can’t play Purnell’s tempo, and once they’re gone, the Demons will have a team that will be able to close out big deficits and start winning.
They’ve playing a lot better lately, but they haven’t been able to close out anyone because they fall too far behind. With a trio of talented freshmen, and the recruits Purnell is bringing in next year, DePaul will be able to start winning Big East games again next year.
Yesterday, Moses Morgan reached double figures for the fourth time, with a career high 13 points. Brandon Young reached double figures for the 15th time this season, his fifth game in the last six. And Cleveland Melvin had his 7th 20+ scoring game, as he’s reached double figures in 14 out of his last 15.
Purnell talked about his freshmen:
“These guys are getting great experience, there’s no question about it, as you look toward the future, one of those things we want for these guys is some positive experience like wins. All of them are playing much better than they were at the beginning for obvious reasons.”
on Cleveland Melvin: “he’s been giving us some real good offense, but he went three straight halves without an offensive rebound and you can’t do that if you want to be a real good player in the Big East.”
Melvin is one of four DePaul players to earn the league’s rookie of the week honor joining Brandon Young, Wilson Chandler and Dar Tucker. Chandler picked up the award twice during the 2005-06 season and Tucker received the recognition once during the 2007-08 campaign. Young was named the league’s Rookie of the Week on Dec. 6.
Melvin is the first Blue Demons to pick up the honor three times in a season, and he’s also the league’s leading rookie scorer.