As a DePaul University student, it is really nice seeing DePaul Men’s Basketball practicing their Vincentian values by giving out something for free. In this case, they are losses and are for a good cause.
DePaul now leads the Big East with a 5-0 record, including a big 73-70 win over Rutgers as a part of the Big East vs Big Ten college basketball kickoff series. Now I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but DePaul Basketball is back damn it.
First off, hats off to Coach Stubblefield for coming in and whipping up a team through the transfer portal, as well as the commits he managed to keep during the whole firing Dave Leitao situation. That entire situation may have directly caused a majority of the team to transfer, and one to declare for the NBA Draft, which made no sense, where he was coming off a 8 point, 5 rebound average through a two year career at DePaul, cough cough Romeo Weems.
A fact that needs to be addressed is DePaul coming off a 5-14 record from the 2020-2021 season, yet having 5 wins already this season. Nobody needs to remember that though, what they should be remembering is when DePaul was a fringe top 25 team in the country during their 12-1 run in between November and December in 2019, because that’s what truly counts.
The team this year is, quite bluntly, making people realize, “You know what, DePaul is one of 31 teams left unbeaten in the entirety of NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball”, something I don’t think anybody expected unless you’re a Blue Demons fan. I mean look at what the “experts” were saying:
Quite literally the opposite with where DePaul is currently in the Big East standings. Now, am I possibly getting a little too ahead of myself? No, and if you think otherwise then you probably go to Loyola.
Our team right now has already drastically improved from last season, especially with the emergence of Javon Freeman-Liberty, a 2020 transfer from Valparaiso University. Right now, Javon is averaging 24.8 points, 9.3 boards, and 5.3 assists a game. Dominican Forward David Jones is also doing his thing as a sophomore for the Blue Demons averaging 18.3 points and 8.3 boards per contest, not to mention his 23 and 17 season opener against Coppin State.
One player we haven’t seen yet is freshman guard Ahamad Bynum, a Chicago-native himself. 247Sports has Ahamad Bynum in the top 10 of all-time commits to DePaul University, yet we have not seen him play due to whatever reason it is. With the addition of him, Oregon transfer Jalen Terry, who played in his first minutes against Northern Kentucky on Black Friday, the further development of center Nick Ongenda, and the development as a team as a whole, DePaul looking like it’s going to send the Big East into a whirlwind, causing bettors to lose thousands, and I’m okay with that. The Demons are back and that’s all that matters.
Over the past few games, DePaul has had $2 beer nights where normally each fan is given two vouchers for the $2 beers. But thanks to donations by alumni, they have been unlimited to fans. Since then, DePaul is undefeated. Now I don’t know if there’s a correlation, but it doesn’t take a DePaul grad to know that whenever there’s a $2 beer night, DePaul wins. Let me dumb it down a little, cheap beer equals DePaul win, DePaul win equals Mason happiness goes brrrrrrrrr.
On a real note, the season is still early, but DePaul is looking like an in-tune orchestra led by Coach Stubbs. Did we maybe have 15 students at the game tonight according to DePaulia Editor-in-Chief Lawrence Kreymar? Probably, I mean DePaul is let out until January of 2022.
The bottom line is that DePaul has already matched their win total from last year and it could be giving us all false hope, do I really whole-heartedly believe that? Absolutely not. DePaul is back and there’s nothing nobody can say that can make me think differently.
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