DePaul Basketball Team Preview by:Trevor Metke

 DePaul is coming off another disappointing season, where they started the season going 12-1 non conference picking up quality wins over Boston College and Minnesota on the road, and defeating Texas Tech in a thriller at Wintrust. In conference play they upset #5 Butler at home picked up their first top 5 win in nearly 14 years. They finished 3-15 in Big East play and finished 15-16 in the regular season. They picked up a win in the Big East tournament vs Xavier but the tournament and March Madness was cancelled due to the Coronavirus Pandemic, ending up 16-16 and most likely missing the NCAA tournament for the 16th season in a row.


DePaul lost a lot of talent in the offseason, with forward Paul Reed going to the draft. This was a huge loss for the Blue Demons as Reed was second on the team in scoring with 15.1 points per game. Reed also led the Demons in rebounds (10.7 per game) and steals (1.9 per game). DePaul lost guard Jalen-Coleman-Lands to the transfer portal who was 3rd on the team in scoring (11.1 ppg). Coleman-Lands had some notable performances throughout the season, including 20 points in a win vs Butler, an 18 point game vs Texas Tech and hit a game tying shot with 8 seconds left which eventually led the Blue Demons to an overtime victory. DePaul also lost guard Devin Gage to the transfer portal, Gage averaged 4.5 points per game and led the team in 3 point percentage, shooting 46.3% from 3 point range. DePaul also lost guard Flynn Cameron to the portal as well, Flynn averaged 2.3 points per game appearing in 11 points last year.


Even though DePaul lost a lot of talent last year, they are still returning many key pieces. Sophomore Romeo Weems returns to DePaul coming off of a very promising freshman year, averaging 8 points, 4.9 boards and 1.7 assists while shooting 42.3%. DePaul will also return point guard Charlie Moore who led the Demons in scoring and assists (15.5 points, 6.1 assists per game). Big man Jaylen Butz also returns coming off his best season averaging 10.1 points per game along with 5.4 rebounds per game. Big man Darious Hall also returns for the Blue Demons. Darious appeared in 32 games for DePaul and averaged 4.5 points and 4.3 rebounds a game.  Nick Ongenda is a player to watch out for this season for the Demons. Nick was a 4 star in high school, but only played 10 minutes per game last season averaging 2.7 points and 2 rebounds a game. The development of Ongenda is a key piece for DePauls success this season, with the development of Ongenda would match DePaul up with most of the Big East starting lineups, leading to DePaul becoming a possible sleeper in the upcoming 2020-2021 season. 

Recruiting Wise, DePaul landed Kobe Elvis who is considered to be one of the best players in all of Canada. DePaul landed Valpo star Javon-Freeman-Liberty, who just got his waiver cleared. Freeman-Liberty is expected to play a major role in the Blue Demons offense this upcoming season. DePaul also landed Monmouth star Ray Salnave, who averaged 14.5 points per game, 4.5 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game including some monster games, notably putting up 34 points vs Fairfield on 70% shooting. Pauly Paulicap joins the Blue Demons after averaging 10 points per game at Manhattan. Expect him to come off the bench as a solid role player. DePaul also got Division 2star Courvoisier McCauley. McCauley was an All American guard at Lincoln Memorial University scoring 20 points per game and led his team to a 32-1 record. Expect McCauley to come off the bench, and he is a scoring guard, he has a reputation for having excellent 3 point shooting. The Blue Demons may have one of the best transfer classes in all of college basketball.


Overall, Coach Dave Leitao brings an experienced team combined with some young stars to the table this season. DePaul lost a lot of talent in the offseason, including 2 of their top 2 scorers, but with this elite transfer class that the coaching staff has brought in, DePaul could be a surprise team in the Big East. Expect DePaul to finish around 10th in the Big East, with the amount of talent of this team, they could very well be a very interesting team that could sneak into March Madness as an 11 or 12 seed, although I do not expect them to make the NCAA tournament this year. Their depth on the bench will be a major factor to their possible success, as well as keeping turnovers down. DePaul led the Big East in turnovers with 14.7 turnovers per game last season, so in order to sneak into the tournament, the Demons need to keep the turnovers to a minimum, especially in these close games, which cost them last year. DePaul should be a very interesting team to watch this year as the future looks very bright.

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