11-1 DePaul hosts 5-5 Northwestern Saturday night in the next installment of an all Chicagoland series that has certainly been intensely competitive in recent years. DPU’s last win in the series came in the 2013 meeting, 57-56, but they have since dropped the last four, including a 75-68 decision in Evanston last year. All time, the Blue Demons lead the series 20-13.
“We’ve had really competitive games with those guys, over my time here,” Northwestern coach Chris Collins said after falling 77-72 last night at home to #15 Michigan State. “Pretty much every game has gone down to the wire that I can remember.”
“My first year they came in here and won at the buzzer, we won in overtime at AllState, last year at Wintrust. We had to come back from 15 down- they probably outplayed us for 30-32 minutes, we’ve always had really hard fought competitive games and the game always comes at a great time- right before the holidays.
ESPN Matchup Predictor: 77.3% DePaul win 22.7% Northwestern Win
GAMER Projection: DePaul wins 80-68
TV/TIP: CBSSN 7:30 pm central, Wintrust Arena, Chicago
The Blue Demons enter this game with a RPI of 75 and a schedule strength of 235. It’s been a very long time since the Blue Demons have had double figure wins well before Christmas, and their home win over Texas Tech, last year’s national runner-up, is impressive. Their best RPI win though is Iowa (#46), and it’s complemented by another win over another Big Ten team, Minnesota, on Thanksgiving weekend.
“I’m really impressed with what they’ve done,” Collins added.
“Dave’s done a great job and it’s going to be a big test for us. We know we’re going to have another high level game on Saturday Night.”
DePaul, going for its third win, in three tries against Big Ten teams, is a side that is certainly much improved, but we won’t know just how much better they are until we see how they fare in Big East conference play. College basketball has change a lot in recent years- the season is longer than ever and starts earlier and earlier every year.
You also have more early season meaningful games, where power conference teams play each other, now more than ever. You also have a couple conference games here and there in December now.
“I think it’s great overall for the league,” Collins continued.
“I think we saw last year- it got us extra bids into the tournament, which was the goal, coming into this thing was to have more teams have more opportunities for quality wins.”
“In the grand scheme of things, it’s put some attention on basketball at a time when it’s usually football until the bowl season is done.”
“And then you get through the national championship, so having those conference games early has given some attention to our league, the Big Ten/ACC Challenge, the Gavitt Games, it’s given everyone some high level games to get some national attention, which in the long run, I think is good for everybody.”
Prediction: DePaul Blue Demons 71, Northwestern Wildcats 68
Collins said it best, his team’s record of 5-5 is where many experts believed they would be at this point, but the route to get there, the specific wins and losses, is not something many would have anticipated.
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.
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