Game #10 - DePaul Unversity Blue Demons
December 9th, 2012 - 4 p.m.
Rosemont, Illinois
$75,000. That was the amount of money pocketed each of the last two seasons by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to send the Milwaukee Panthers to the Allstate Arena to basically job to DePaul of the Big East. Well, the Blue Demons have had mixed results. Shooting woes for Milwaukee led to everything going as planned in 2010; the exact opposite was true in 2011, with Milwaukee basically getting paid a handsome fee to lay an ass-kicking on a good opponent.
2011-12 Record: 12-19, 3-15 Big East
Statsheet RPI: 194
KenPom: 144
Lead Returnees (Place on team in 2011-12)
PPG: Cleveland Melvin, 17.5 ppg (1st)
RPG: Cleveland Melvin, 7.4 rpg (1st)
APG: Brandon Young, 4.7 apg (1st)
Biggest Loss - Off of last season's team, DePaul will probably miss Jeremiah Kelly the most. A seasoned veteran with great passing ability, Kelly was fourth on the team in scoring and second in assists. Kelly benefited a great deal from having Young and Melvin during his senior year, as he enjoyed a nice bump in statistics due to their rise.
New faces - DePaul has brought in three freshmen who they think will really power the program for the future. Coach Oliver Purnell's recruiting has picked up, and he added the three guards to keep pushing the tempo and playing to that strength of the team. Jodan Price is a 6'7'' beanpole with a seriously killer stroke from the outside. Durell McDonald is a slashing combo guard who may be able to log a bunch of minutes at point guard and averaged 21 points per game as a senior in high school. Dejuan Marrero is a 6'6'' wing with a high motor and strong will and he plays well above the rim for a young buck.
Style of play - Where Milwaukee is all about trying to get to a high speed, DePaul is already there. The Blue Demons attack with Cleveland Melvin's speedy size and Brandon Young's distributing acumen. Purnell's team averaged 74.1 points per game last season, good for 39th in the country and 2nd in the Big East. On the other hand, what really is DePaul's achilles heel is that when they run the ball, they can't stop the other team from scoring.
Bottom Line - When Milwaukee ran the ball out of the gate in last season's game, they opened a 35-13 lead before the Blue Demons could bat an eye. This caused DePaul to lose a lot of games, but the Milwaukee one is the most telling. Yes, the Panthers had an uncharacteristically good shooting night, but more importantly it was a team built to slow down that really kicked butt when it sped up. What is this year's team, a Panthers squad built to play at DePaul's preferred speed, going to do against Purnell's squad? Expect another victory to go with another sweet paycheck.