Today, we’re continuing our critically-acclaimed Let’s Talk About™ series with DePaul. We don’t normally kick a team when it’s down, especially when it’s as down as DePaul. But on the other hand, it’s important to document history. And the Blue Demons may just make some history in the coming weeks.
To DePaul’s credit, the non-conference slate wasn’t a total disaster. It wasn’t even that far from average DePaul over the past decade. They had three wins - over Louisville, Chicago State, and South Dakota. Obviously those teams aren’t world-beaters, but Louisville actually might not be the worst team in the ACC, and Chicago State beat Northwestern, who beat Purdue once and nearly twice. DePaul is just two games from a transitive win over a title contender!
In conference play it’s been a different story. DePaul has been outmatched in 13 of its 14 Big East games so far. The exception was a three-point loss to Georgetown on January 6th, though it was a game where the Blue Demons never led in the second half. Head coach Tony Stubblefield was fired after the team lost its seventh Big East game. Since then, nothing has changed, except that Tony Stubblefield spends his evenings watching Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! instead of dealing with this mess.
(We’ve actually come a long way since the days when college hoops media had an irrational hatred of mid-season firings. Hardly anyone said a peep about Stubblefield’s dismissal, and some have even encouraged Louisville to let go of Kenny Payne mid-season. We wrote about the media’s strange position on this 13 years ago. It’s gratifying to see their evolution.)
After Saturday’s 82-71 loss to Providence,1 the Blue Demons dropped to 0-14 in the Big East, while losing games by an average of 24.3 points. This is the largest average margin of defeat in conference play since at least 1997. The “leaders”:
24 DePaul 0-14 -24.3
21 Portland 0-11 -23.5
20 Chicago St. 0-14 -23.5
21 MVSU 2-13 -23.4
19 Chicago St. 0-16 -23.4
13 Grambling 0-18 -23.2
Depending on how you feel about records from the pandemic-influenced season of 2021, Portland owns the score to beat in this category. However, the Pilots did it over an 11-game schedule and records are much easier to achieve over 11 games than the 20 games DePaul will play, assuming they don’t quit which is a move I would totally understand.
The Blue Demons actually have a winnable game on Saturday, when they get a rematch with Georgetown at home. But their other five games have the potential to be lopsided. Sadly, history is within reach.
The good news for DePaul is that they are far from the worst team relative to their league in basketball history. Until proven wrong, I believe that honor goes to the 2012 GOCOR-Soj Gomel team of the Belarusian Premier League.
That team went 0-33 in the BPL, losing their games by an average of 43.1 points, though one of their games was a forfeit, which is recorded as 20-0 per FIBA rules and therefore actually improved their average margin of defeat. Per RealGM, the team shot 56.4% on free throws, 38.7% on 2’s and 19.2% on 3’s. DePaul is way better than that! Amazingly, the team still took over 10 3’s a game, which clearly wasn’t by choice. They just weren’t capable of getting anything better on many possessions. They finished with a comically-bad offensive rating of 63.9.
Just two of their games were decided by single digits, although that’s one more than DePaul so far. And they did come somewhat close to victory in their season finale against Impuls-BGUIR when they were tied heading into the fourth quarter.
But the point is that 2024 DePaul would have destroyed that team. And GOCOR-Soj Gomel did actually become competent in subsequent seasons, at least by Belarusian Premier League standards. So maybe there is hope for the the future of DePaul.
Under modern transfer rules, DePaul’s roster will get a makeover next season. And this is one of the best examples that if you’re against modern transfer rules, you’re a person of questionable integrity. No current DePaul player should be discouraged from leaving. Their players are in a pretty terrible situation, what with one of their limited years of college athletics being a waste from a competitive standpoint.
In the real world, if you have a terrible job, or in this case, the worst job in your field, you would be crazy not to look for a better situation. Only an idiot would call you a quitter. (To be clear, there are a few idiots in the college hoops discourse.)
And this is worse than the real world - you only get 4-5 years to play college basketball. For most players, this is the peak of their basketball existence. Some of them will go pro in non-NBA leagues, and they’ll have moments. But their most memorable moments will be in college. And forcing anyone on the current roster to continue to play for DePaul would really hurt their chances to experience those moments. (Unless they hire Will Wade, then any current DePaul player with eligibility should try and stay.)
Anyway, enough about DePaul. Let’s close on a positive note and look at the current leaders in conference margin of victory this season:
Saint Mary's +21.0
Gonzaga +20.0
McNeese St. +17.5
Arizona +14.2
Colgate +13.1
None of these stand out on a historic level, but it’s worth noting the demise of Gonzaga is somewhat overstated. They may not make the tournament, but it’s partly because they are down and partly because their league is kind of a mess. This season is reminiscent of 2016, when the bracketology industry gnashed their teeth about Gonzaga being unworthy of a bid despite their true ability being quite a bit better than quite a few at-large teams. The Zags ended up getting an 11-seed and made the Sweet 16.
And as one of the few living humans who was in attendance for Gonzaga’s last NIT win, I hope they make it to the tournament again so I can keep that distinction. The Zags are nothing close to standard set by the program over the past five seasons, but as in 2016, they’re significantly better than a few teams that will get at-large bids.
The final score makes it appear somewhat competitive, but DePaul closed the game on a 12-0 run.