So Valpo has won 3 straight. DePaul is undefeated at 6-0. All of their games have been at the Wintrust Center in Chicago. Their first road game is at Texas Tech next Wednesday.
So how good is DePaul:
Beat Southern Indiana (3-4) 80-78 in OT (NET 329, RPI 228)
Beat Prairie View A&M (0-5) 92-59 (NET 327, RPI 325)
Beat Mercer (1-4) 95-64 (NET 215 RPI 196))
Beat Duquesne (1-6) 84-58 (NET 80, RPI 328)
Beat Eastern Illinois (0-5) 78-69 (NET 311, RPI 232)
Beat Northern Illinois (1-5) 98-52 (NET 298, RPI 317)
(The Muhammad #7 who torched us for 5 three's went scoreless against the demons, Dent went 0-8 against the demons also scoreless) As a team, NIU shot 25% from the field; about half of what they shot against Valpo)
Back to DePaul... against NIU, they rested pretty much everybody. Only 3 players played more than 20 minutes, 10 players played at least 15 minutes. Scary thought, they were 15-29 from THREE, and outrebounded NIU 55-30. BUT, the "second chance points" were 4-4, depaul had 10 offensive rebounds and converted 2 of them. They had 42 points in the paint. The score was 51-15 at the half! 10 different players had an assist. 10 different players had a turnover. 10 different players had a rebound.
Basically, neither team has been fully tested, but DePaul certainly knows how to apply more pressure on the gas pedal when they have a lead.
Let's hope Cooper has hit his stride. Gonna need that Friday and next Thursday.
One note not mentioned is that this is a televised game on FS1. Would be quite a confidence boost for this team to go in and beat undefeated DePaul on national tv. However, this is really a question of which team shows up that day.
Would love for this to be close , but I just don’t see this being competitive down the stretch. Line has moved about a point in Depaul’s favor and is now at -14.5 with 95% of the money being placed on the Blue Demons according to DraftKings. If we shoot 38% plus from 3 and keep the rebounding margin close we’ve got a chance…
Valpo 71
Depaul 86
I don’t think this is a close game today. The line is -14.5. DePaul has played a joke of a schedule but they’ve blown out all their opponents. Chris Holtzman is an experienced coach and did well at Butler and got them in the dance at Ohio State. He’s got DePaul playing well and our three point shooting is very enigmatic at the moment. In my mind we need to hit 10 or more three pointers to stand a chance today. I hope I’m dead wrong on all of this. Today is our first big litmus test to see where the team is at against a quality opponent.
I agree that Holtzman is a very good coach, but I can't be sold on DePaul being better until I actually see it. I think DePaul wins, but Valpo will hold it close for most of the game.
Yeah I cant be sold on DePaul either. EIU kept a competitive game and the guys beat the breaks off of em. The metaphorical ball is in VUs court as to how competitive they will be
@burnee77 - DePaul is a quality opponent? Yes, they are in the Big East, and they are comfortable being at the bottom consistently.
Regardless of outcome today. This is still a second place finish in an MTE. Guys should be proud of that fact.
This game could be a pretty good measure of our true potential for December and January. If we can not closely compete then I am not optimistic about our early results in the Valley schedule. We can split hairs about what was or wasn't a positive performance after the final buzzer.
I want to see how we compete and the energy brought by each player. I think we can keep it to a 7-8 point loss, but will we. The first five minutes needs to be more competitive. If we are down 10-12 points early, how do we react.
Great start IMO, Cooper with a 3, Wright being aggressive , how do we fare for 36 more minutes…up 7-5 early!
Ahh , things took a turn…this game is over.
This team just doesn’t have players that can make baskets consistently, even when open. Just horrible. Even if they are streaky and get hot, they can’t consistently win games with this low level of shot making.
Why are we such a poor shooting team? Every year with new people still poor. Do we not practice shooting while being defended?
This DePaul team is good but should be very beatable by an MVC team. I am concerned that these ice cold shooting woes do not seem to be navigable by the coaching staff. No adjustments seem to be made.
