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The Final Score:
After an uptempo first half in which DePaul kept up with Villanova every step of the way, the second half was a completely different story. The Blue Demons missed their first few shots and the Wildcats were able to turn them into points.
Eventually Villanova got on a 21-10 run and put DePaul’s back against the wall. That wall would crumble and fall as the game went on and things only got worse.
At one point DePaul didn’t score for three minutes in the second half, and in that same time frame Villanova scored 15 points. Donnavan Kirk and Darrel Robertson saw significantly less playing time in the second half because of foul trouble.
Villanova used their size advantage to take control of the paint in the absence of DePaul’s big men. Midway through the half fans started leaving the Allstate Arena in frustration of DePaul’s failures tonight.
There were even negative chants directed towards Demons head coach Oliver Purnell. There were some questionable calls by the officials during tonight’s game, but those calls did nothing to effect the outcome of this contest.
Blue Demons forward Cleveland Melvin gave a valiant effort as he led his team in scoring with 19 points. Jamee Crockett, the other forward finished second with 16.
Brandon Young pitched in with 11, and Worrell Clahar scored 12 which were all earned by three point shots. Despite decent outside shooting by the Demons, it was the inside scoring and defense that suffered tonight.
Without Kirk and Robertson, DePaul was outscored in the paint 42-10. They were also out-rebounded 33-27. The Wildcats also scored 22 points off of 16 Demon turnovers.
Overall it ended up being another bad night for the DePaul Blue Demons as they drop their seventh in-a-row by the final score of 94-71. This is the second time this season in which the Demons gave up 90 or more points.
They are now 10-12 overall, 1-7 in the Big East. Villanova breaks their losing streak and they are now 13-9 overall, 4-5 in the Big East. After the game DePaul forward Jamee Crocket said “We were a little exhausted, but that’s no excuse. We didn’t execute, we didn’t follow the game plan, and we didn’t play well”.
Cleveland Melvin told reporters “We can’t think about this game too much. We gotta worry about the next game and get ready for Marquette. We need to just stick to the game plan. If we can get better on defense, our game plan will work.”
DePaul will indeed make the trip up I-94 to take on Marquette this Saturday. Villanova returns to Philadelphia to take on South Florida this weekend. DePaul cannot afford anymore than one more less if they are to have any chance a t postseason berth.
Here are the stats from tonight’s game:
Here the post-game press conferences for both DePaul and Villanova:
Oliver Purnell:
Villanova:
For all things sports, you can follow me anytime on Twitter @GabeSalgado82 #Q101Sports
Cleveland Melvin leads DePaul with 13 points.
DePaul scored the first bucket of the game but then things quickly got out of hand. Villanova went on a 16-10 run and then the game was back and forth from there.
Turnovers by both teams along with multiple foul calls and missed shots really kept this one tight. The first half had seven ties and three lead changes.
At one point ‘Nova led by as much as seven while DePaul’s biggest lead was four. Cleveland Melvin leads the Demons with 13 points, he is the only Demon in double figures so far.
Worrell Clahar has nine points all of which came from three point shots. Ryan Arcidiacono and James Bell lead Villanova as they combined for 18 points and 9-21 shooting.
The Demons defense has looked shaky at times. They have given up easy shots and just as I predicted they also bring it in the paint. Darrel Robertson Jr. is in foul trouble for DePaul already has he has three fouls.
Which is bad for them because he is the biggest player on the roster and DePaul will need him to take on Villanova’s big men down the stretch. It’s been a crazy one so far, let’s see if the Demons and keep up this tempo in the second half.
You can continue to follow on Twitter for updates @GabeSalgado82 #Q101Sports
Here are the halftime stats:
Both teams are on the floor for early warm-ups.
Tonight the Blue Demons find themselves in a very difficult position. As they take on the Villanova Wildcats in another Big East Conference game, they do so as losers of their last six. All of those losses have been conference games.
Currently DePaul is 10-11 (1-7 Big East) this season. If they are to have any chance of making the NCAA or NIT tournaments, they will have to win at least eight of their next 10 games. It’s easier said than done but not impossible.
Tonight the Blue Demons could pull off the victory. All they need to do is take advantage of Villanova’s own losing streak. The Wildcats from the City of Brotherly Love are coming off of back-to-back losses to Notre Dame and Providence.
Brandon Young, Cleveland Melvin, and Jamee Crockett have been the leaders for this DePaul team. Even though they have lost six in-a-row, the Demons have kept it close in some of these games.
In their last game against Notre Dame, the Fighting Irish needed overtime to put DePaul away. The Blue Demons came from behind late in the second half to take a four point lead late in the game. Just a few days before that at St. Johns, the Demons also forced overtime before that one was said and done.
The Demons have been getting the best from their players, but the issue has been the inability to sustain leads and hold it down on defense. DePaul will certainly be tested tonight as Villanova has quite the size advantage.
The Wildcats have four starters who are 6’6″ or taller while DePaul only has two starters taller than that. Look for Villanova to test the Blue Demons inside early and often in this nationally televised encounter.
Oliver Purnell’s group will need to dig deep, come up big on defense, and limit mistakes if they are going to walk out of Allstate Arena with the win this evening.
If the Demons want to get into the post season, they need to start a winning streak now. At this point it’s now or never.
You can follow me on Twitter for game updates @GabeSalgado82 #Q101Sports
After days of rumors, speculation, and narrow confirmation, DePaul University and six of the other seven Catholic institutions of the Big East Conference made it official that they will be leaving.
Early last week, there were rumors that the main basketball portion of the Big East Conference would be leaving in the near future. By mid-week, it had been confirmed that DePaul was indeed planning to depart.
There had been reports that Villanova, Marquette, St. Johns, Georgetown, Providence, and Seton Hall would be leaving as well. Once those departures were confirmed, there was now speculation that these programs would combine their efforts into a new league.
Notre Dame is the only other Catholic university in the conference. But they were not involved in this decision as they had already announced plans to join the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2015 back in October.
Yesterday after DePaul’s victory over Northern Illinois, DePaul athletic director Jean Lenti-Ponsetto, DePaul president Rev. Dennis Holtschneider, and officials from the other six schools involved issued an official statement.
The statement confirms that these seven schools will indeed forge ahead to start their own conference. Now there some who say that this new conference could include other Roman Catholic universities such as Xavier, Creighton, and St. Louis.
The reason for this change is simple. Over the last couple of years, conference realignment has taken over NCAA Division 1 sports. The reason for all of these recent changes is because of football.
Teams who were once considered “mid-majors”, are moving into the bigger conferences to get a better opportunity to play in the Bowl Championship Series.
With the BCS starting a four-team playoff beginning with the 2014 season, everyone wants a piece of the action. There are also the factors of national television contracts, national television exposure, better competition, and to boost recruiting.
There are also teams who are changing conferences because they hope to improve performance. There are also teams who want a change of pace after playing the same teams for so many years.
Heading into the 2012-2013 academic year, the Big East had 15 teams for basketball alone. Before yesterday’s announcement, the Big East had announced that there will be five new teams joining the conference for basketball in 2013-2014. Followed by an additional team for 2014-2015.
Of course next year Syracuse and Pittsburgh will be departing for the ACC, and West Virginia had already moved to the Big 12. Rutgers and Louisville will leave in 2014 to join the Big Ten and ACC respectively.
This would mean that within the next couple of years the Big East would still have 17 basketball programs, but without it’s core members and with lesser competition.
And with no plans to return to the division system that was in place between 1999-2011 {During this time period the Big East separated it’s schools into east and west divisions for easier scheduling of conference games}, the Big East got a little crowded.
That was just for basketball, for the football side four more schools plan to become football-only members between 2013 and 2015. With all of the hype surrounding Big East football, basketball became overcrowded and irrelevant as a result.
In the long-term these decisions would adversely effect the departing schools that are now being referred to as “The Catholic Seven”. These are the reasons why these schools would be effected:
1. DePaul dropped it’s football program in the 1930′s because of “The Great Depression”.
2. Marquette dropped it’s football program in 1960 because the school could no longer financially support it.
These two football programs never got to join the Big East Conference.
3. Seton Hall and Providence have never had football teams. These two schools today are not big enough to support football.
4. St. John’s dismantled it’s football program because they were never able to compete higher than the Division 2 level.
5. The football teams at Georgetown and Villanova currently compete in the FCS {Div. 1-AA}.
Another reason why these schools would be effected by all of the movement is because the overload of schools would water down basketball competition.
Especially since all of these moves are intended to cater to football only. Losing these seven schools will hurt the Big East in the long run.
The Big East is the only conference that Georgetown, Villanova, Seton Hall, St. Johns, and Providence have ever known. When the conference was founded in 1979, these schools were the core of the upstart league.
DePaul and Marquette joined the conference back in 2005 after playing in Conference USA for 10 years. Both schools have journeyed from conference to conference over the history of their programs.
DePaul has not been very successful as Big East member, their decision to leave is a more internal decision on their side. Marquette on the other hand proved that there are great basketball programs in the Midwest.
During these last eight years, Marquette has proven themselves to be a formidable opponent and has made numerous NCAA Tournament appearances as a Big East member.
Another concern is how the Big East Basketball Tournament would be formatted. A few years back, the Big East tournament only allowed 12 teams to participate.
But over the previous three seasons, all 16 teams in the conference at the time were allowed to play. This season, 14 teams will play in the March tournament.
The concern now is how would you format a tournament with 17 teams? The biggest concern of all is would multiple tournament bids from one of the power conferences leave the smaller conferences out to dry?
“The Catholic Seven” didn’t want to find out and now they have taken matters into their own hands. So over the coming weeks and months we will see what the plan is and what this new conference will look like.
For now there are still some legal matters to resolve such as exit fees, exit strategies, and and other technical matters. But my hope for the long-term is that DePaul’s basketball program will me more successful from here on out.
Halftime:
DePaul finished the first half on a 11-2 run.
The Blue Demons have exceeded everyone’s expectations with an outstanding first half. DePaul leads the Panthers from Wisconsin-Milwaukee 45-27 at halftime.
Cleveland Melvin, Donnavan Kirk, and Jamee Crockett lead all DePaul scorers, while Melvin leads all rebounders. The Blue Demons started the game on a 20-6 and never looked back.
The Panthers looked lost on defense and are getting dominated in the paint. Their offense can’t break through DePaul’s defense and have been highly dependent on jump shots.
Last year, the Blue Demons had a tendency to blow second half leads. I can only hope that this 18 point lead does not go to waste.
If the Demons can keep up this tempo and can keep UWM out of the paint, they will increase this winning streak to four games.
Here is the box score thus far: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/statmonitr/?id=13624
You can continue to follow me on Twitter @GabeSalgado82 #Q101Sports and you will hear from me again after the game.
Post-Game:
DePaul and Wisconsin-Milwaukee shake hands after the game.
The Blue Demons came out firing on all cylinders in the first half and did not led up in the second half. DePaul owned the UWM Panthers for the entire 40 minute stretch, and come out on top with an 84-50 victory.
This is the Demons’ biggest win of the season to date, and they now add to their winning streak which stands at four games. Four of DePaul’s five starters finished in double figures.
They also got 33 points from their bench, and they shot 50% from the field. That was just on the offensive side, the defense was just as good if not better.
DePaul held the Panthers to just 25% shooting, and only one UW-Milwaukee player reached double figures this afternoon. Overall it was a great day and a big victory for this DePaul team which is finally starting to come of age.
Oliver Purnell’s squad is now 6-3 this year, but the real test will come once the conference schedule begins in January. Next up for the Demons is a trip to the Desert Southwest.
On Wednesday night DePaul will take on Arizona State in Tempe and it will be a very difficult challenge. Aside from the headaches of traveling out west, they will play a Sun Devils squad that is 8-1 and winners of their last four games.
DePaul will have a tall order ahead of them as they try to win their fifth straight game. This is will be a major opportunity for the Demons to show college basketball that they are the real deal.
Seven days from now, they will return to the Allstate Arena to face Northern Illinois.
Here is Oliver Purnell’s post-game press conference:
Here is the box score from today’s game: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/statmonitr/?id=13624
The Blue Demons stretch before practice.
The DePaul Blue Demons men’s basketball got back to work on Friday as they prepare for the arrival of Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Sunday afternoon.
The Demons extended their current winning streak to three games after an amazing comeback against Chicago State on Wednesday night.
As great as that victory was, the Blue Demons are not satisfied. They remain hungry and they are well aware that this is just the beginning of a long season.
The Big East Conference portion of their schedule begins on January 2nd. Head coach Oliver Purnell has said that he only focuses on one game at time.
So far the Demons have defied expectations, the only questions is can they continue this winning streak?
How will will they perform once the conference schedule begins? But for the Demons, their more immediate concern is the UW-Milwaukee Panthers on Sunday.
Tip-off is at 4PM on Sunday from the Allstate Arena in Rosemont. You can follow me on Twitter during the game @GabeSalgado82 #Q101Sports
After practice coach Oliver Purnell spoke to the media:
I also had a chance to speak with DePaul forward Donnavan Kirk:
This is a solid athletic Blue Demons team that is looking to take college basketball by storm.
It will be fun to watch……
Yesterday afternoon I had the honor and privilege of attending the Chicagoland Basketball Kickoff Luncheon. DePaul University hosted the event at Maggiano’s Little Italy in Downtown Chicago.
Even though this was a DePaul sponsored event, Northwestern, Loyola, Illinois-Chicago, and Chicago State were also in attendance. Coaches, players, administrators, and special guests from each school were present at this star studded event.
Before lunch was served, some coaches elected to speak to the media before hand. One of those coaches was DePaul head coach Oliver Purnell.
The Blue Demons return 10 players from last years squad along with six new freshman. Once again DePaul has depth at the guard position, but this year they also invested in the front court.
When the Demons take the court for the 2012-2013 season they will have seven players that measure 6’6″ or taller. This was something that was lacking over the last few seasons.
Coach Purnell is confident about this years team, and he expects to see improvement on the court. Here is what he said in his pre-event press conference:
After the press pool, Coach Purnell spoke with me exclusively:
Next up on press row was Chicago State Cougars head coach Tracy Dildy. Historically the Cougars have not been a great basketball program.
Since they began play in 1966, the Cougars have compiled a record of 516-777. Coach Dildy has compiled a record of 10-52 in his two seasons as CSU head coach.
The Cougars have always been at the bottom of the Chicago college basketball barrel. They have never participated in the NCAA Tournament or the NIT.
In the mid 90′s,CSU came close to making the post season on two occasions when former Chicago Bull Craig Hodges was their head coach.
Aside from that, CSU has always been a doormat for teams like DePaul, UIC, and Loyola. Coach Dildy is looking to forever change the landscape of Cougars basketball.
Here is what he said before the luncheon began:
Right before lunch was served, other coaches spoke to the media set including DePaul Women’s head coach Doug Bruno, as well as the women’s coaches from Illinois-Chicago, Loyola, Chicago State, and Northwestern.
The host for Friday afternoon’s festivities was WGN Radio and Comcast Sportsnet personality David Kaplan. Here was his introduction as the event started:
Each coach would speak in a panel setting, beginning with Loyola head coach Porter Moser and Chicago State’s Tracy Dildy. Earlier this week, I spoke with extensively with Coach Moser at the Horizon League’s media day: http://q101.com/2012/10/horizon-league-media-day/
On Friday, Coach Moser would bring his message to a bigger audience. Coach Dildy would talk about the changes that are taking effect at Chicago State:
Next up on the panel was Northwestern’s top assistant Fred Hill. Northwestern is entering it’s 14th season under Bill Carmody, Coach Carmody was on a recruiting trip which is why Coach Hill was in his place.
Last year the Wildcats barely missed the NCAA Tournament, they made a mini-run in the NIT before being eliminated. Coach Hill told the luncheon guests that “Chicago’s Big Ten Team” is primed to make a serious run in 2013.
And finally, Oliver Purnell would close out the event with his speech. Coach Purnell spoke about his optimism for his team this year, his recruiting efforts, the improvement of his players, and the expansion of the Big East Conference:
After the event was over, DePaul forward Cleveland Melvin was kind enough to speak with us exclusively:
This year will be a defining moment for college basketball in the Windy City. It’ll be interesting to see how DePaul, Loyola, and UIC improve from last year.
Chicago State will have a huge microscope on them, Can coach Dildy lead his team out of the dark? But I do think that Northwestern will make another post-season appearance.
The only question for them is, can they get into the NCAA Tournament?
You can follow me on Twitter @GabeSalgado82 #Q101Sports
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