That is right, the DePaul Blue Demons grabbed their first regular season conference win since… well too long to remember with a win over Marquette last night. After trailing for essentially the whole game Marquette missed the front end of two one-and-one attempts and, Blue Demon, Mike Stovall hit a tough jumper giving DePaul their first and only lead, 51-50, with only 0.7 seconds left on the game clock. Marquette could not score in the last 0.7 seconds and DePaul’s 24 regular season BIG EAST losing streak came to an end. The win was the first for interim coach Tracey Webster, who has been at the helm for the Blue Demons for three games. He had this to say after the game.
“Our guys did a great job of battling, battling, battling. That’s all we ask for. To battle and battle for loose balls and really don’t give up. I thought they did a really, really good job of not giving up.”
And for the fans who made the trip all the way to All-State Arena saw exactly that… a battle. DePaul didn’t give up and got a very big win. Will Walker played big and Stovall was a hero.
Obviously we don’t follow DePaul basketball very closely here, but you have to feel good for them and their fans. A 24 game skid is a lot to take. It was a big win for them and a very exciting one at that. And what is even better is that on a night where Rutgers, barely showed up in a losing effort to Villanova, the Blue Demons officially pulled themselves out of 16th place in the league for the first time in a very long time.
From our point of view this makes that 30 point beat Marquette hit us with hurt a little bit more. We mean DePaul beat this team, thirty was a lot to loss to them by. But we were missing Greedy (so maybe we would have only lost by 15) and as we all know anything can happen on any given night in the BIG EAST.
From a Marquette point of view this one really hurts. We have been high on Marquette this season despite their rocky 1-3 start. They beat Georgetown and killed us, but this loss really hurts their credibility. It is one thing when you lose to the Syracuse’s of the league but DePaul really hurts. And being the team they end their streak against adds some insult in injury. And for the teams that have played Marquette already, those wins maybe don’t look as good as they did a day ago. Villanova beat the Golden Eagles twice by two each time. Clearly one game does not dramatically effect other teams wins but it is a bad sign for MU. When you loss to the teams better than you but also give up wins against the teams you are supposed to beat, that will land you near the bottom of the BIG EAST… and that hurts you and the teams that play you. A trip to the Carrier Dome is next for Marquette.
But congratulations to DePaul.
regular season BIG EAST losses for the Blue Demons and the first loss for interim coach Tracey Webster. Providence was led in scoring by Marshon Brooks. Brooks, coming off of an ankle tweak last game, came off of the bench but netted 17 points. Greedy Peterson also played well with another double double performance. Bilal Dixon and Sharaud Curry also scored in double digits in the winning effort. DePaul was without big man Mac Koshwal, who is out again with a foot injury. Without Koswhal DePaul looked to Will Walker, but the senior guard had a quiet night with only seven points. The only player to break double digits for the Blue Demons was Mike Stovall who had 30 points. With the loss DePaul falls to 7-9 and remains winless in four BIG EAST games. They will next travel to St. John’s to take on the Red Storm. The Friars will stay on the road to take on Marquette, Sunday at 4:00.
The first half of this game was tough to watch. The team didn’t look sharp and nobody was really playing inspired basketball. Luckily, however, we were playing DePaul. DePaul was beating us, but if they had any offense going for them last night they could have been beating up on us. We were able to stay close, really through no effort of our own, and were able to get the win. Marshon, played very well with seven rebounds and 17 assists. He also had a nasty steal/behind the back pass to open up a transition play. His ankle didn’t seem to bother him and he played like we need him to.
EAST
What you should know about DePaul: DePaul’s last outing was a brutal beat down at Villanova that lowered them to an 0-3 record in conference play. Earlier this week Head Coach Jerry Wainwright was fired. The 7-8, 0-3 start, and a 22 regular season BIG EAST losing streak were enough to put the coach out of a job. Assistant Tracey Webster will serve as the interim coach and will coach his first game with the Blue Demons Thursday night. On the court the Blue Demons are led by the scoring of senior guard Will Walker. Walker is averaging 15.4 points a game. Behind, Walker is probably the teams best player in Mac Koshwal. Koshwal was injured earlier in the season, but is back. At 6’10″ the junior center is averaging 15 ppg and 11 rebounds. He is a threat offensively and defensively and will be the toughest assignment for the undersized Friars. Nobody else in the lineup really stands out statistically. They have a group of players scoring in the mid-single digits all averaging around a couple rebounds per game.
PFB Perspective: Mcuh like Rutgers, this is a must win game for the Friars. So far we have been able to beat the teams we are “supposed” to beat and it is important that we keep that up. Plus this game is on ESPN 2,. The 9:00 game on ESPN is Michigan vs. Indiana, which isn’t really a great game, but will probably draw more viewers than our game. Either way though, we would like to have a strong showing on national television.
