For years DePaul was the college basketball equivalent of a successful family business.  Ray Meyer served as head coach for over 40 years and took the team to Final Fours 36 years apart.  He coached George Mikan, Mark Aguirre, Terry Cummings, Dave Corzine and countless other stars.  When he retired in 1984, his son and longtime assistant Joey was primed to continue the tradition, take over the family business if you will.

For a while, the family business underwent a seamless transition.  Rod Strickland, Dallas Comegys, Tyrone Corbin and Stanley Brundy kept the Demons going as an NCAA tournament fixture for the rest of the decade, which included two Sweet 16 appearances.

But after getting upset by New Mexico State in the 1992 tournament the Demons fell on hard times.  Five years later, Joey Meyer was gone.  Pat Kennedy, Dave Leitao and current coach Jerry Wainwright have tried to restore the tradition to no avail.  This year's edition went 9-24 and didn't win a single game in the Big East until scoring an upset over Cincinnati in the first round of the Big East tournament.

God Bless the USA?

Since the Demons made the move to the Big East they haven't come close to making the NCAA tournament, with their last appearance coming in 2004 as a member of Conference USA. 

So should the Demons return to Conference USA?  The only teams that seem capable of competing in the Big East are Memphis and UAB, so the Demons would have an advantage of playing easier opponents.  But teams that had a decent year in C-USA don't even make a ripple on the national scene.  Also, many of the other BCS conferences do feature teams that have fallen on hard times only to rise again in a few seasons.  Finally, don't forget the recruiting advantage.  Incoming freshmen would have to like the chance to compete on a national stage several times over the course of a season.

Sweet Home Chicago

When the Demons were at their peak their best players were from the Chicago area (Aguirre, Cummings).  On their current roster, sophomore center Mac Koshwal is a local product who averaged a double-double as is Jeremiah Kelly, a freshman guard who started toward the end of the season.  Next season Mike Stovall, a junior-college transfer and shooting guard, will return to DePaul and his Windy City roots.

If nothing else, Chicago is deep in talent and Wainwright's staff should maximize the amount of players available on the L-train lines.

Can They Get It Back?

Their three leading scorers (Dar Tucker, Willie Walker and Koshwal) should all be back next season and each of them averaged over 12 points a game.  The problem is the rest of the roster combined for only 20 points a game.  They also finished near the bottom of the league in rebounding, had more turnovers than assists and only shot 40 percent from the field. 

Besides Stovall, the only confirmed recruit is an undersized power forward named Tony Freeland who will fight for every loose ball but might not have the size to be a big factor unless he switches positions.

DePaul may re-establish themselves as a national contender one day.  But unless they can keep more of Chicago's best talent at home it's not likely to happen in the foreseeable future.

Next team: Virginia.

DePaul Blue Demons (0-18, 9-26) at Providence Friars (10-8, 18-12)

Big East Tournament—Round 2
Wednesday, March 11—12:00 PM EST

Preview

The second round of the Big East Tournament begins on Wednesday with No. 16 DePaul taking on No. 8 Providence. And yes, you read that right—the regular season Big East winless DePaul Blue Demons have moved onto the second round of the Big East Tournament.

In an unlikely turn of events yesterday, the Blue Demons defeated Cincinnati 67-57 to grab their first conference win of the season. While it was a great game, perhaps the best part of being at Madison Square Garden yesterday was listening to the sheer joy of the fans after the game.

In yesterday's game, the Blue Demons were lead by junior guard Will Walker and sophomore forward Dar Tucker, who had 17 points apiece. Tucker scored all of his points in the second half after getting into foul trouble early in the game.

Walker, sophomore forward Mac Koshwal, and freshman guard Jeremiah Kelly all played 40 minutes yesterday. Koshwal and Kelly were the only other Blue Demons to score in double-figures, each adding 12 points.

Providence has been very surprising this season. While a majority of their conference wins have come over opponents seeded beneath them, their two most notable wins of the season were a six point victory over Syracuse and a 10 point victory over Pitt (who was the top ranked team at the team).

The Friars' strength lies within their backcourt—specifically with guards Weyinmi Efejuku and Sharaud Curry, and guard/forward Marshon Brooks. Between the three of them, they average 38 points per game.

The Friars have not won in the Big East Tournament since 2003.

By The Numbers

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I will be live-blogging from MSG for the Big East Tournament all week at my blog Ballin is a Habit. Come by and join in the conversation!!

We are just one game into the fifteen game marathon that is the Big East tournament, but we may already have our best story.

DePaul was awful all year. How bad? They were just 8-23 on the season coming in, and they lost every single Big East game.

0-18.

In conference play, the norm is that parody reigns supreme. Teams know each other so well, scout each other so well, and have such long-standing rivalries, that it is almost inevitable that the best teams will lose games they shouldn't. Along those same lines, you expect the worst teams to win games they shouldn't.

That didn't happen for DePaul this season. They somehow managed to go 0-fer the Big East. One of the knocks all season on the Big East was that while they were loaded at the top, they had a number of teams at the bottom that could not play with the UConn's or the Pitt's.

Rutgers was 2-16 this year. One of their wins?

Yup. DePaul (South Florida was the other.)

You cannot say that anymore, as DePaul won their opening round game in the Big East tourney, 67-57 over Cincinnati. While the Bearcats are not destined for the NCAA tourney, there were in the conversation up until their two March losses to Seton Hall and South Florida.

Today, it was all about Dar Tucker. Will Walker had 17 points, Mac Kowlshal added 12 and nine boards, and Jeremiah Kelly added 12 points as DePaul was able to stay with the Bearcats early on.

But Tucker took over in the last 15 minutes of the game. He scored all of his 17 points during that stretch, adding eight boards, as he led the Blue Demons back from an early second half deficit.

The biggest difference was his ability to break the Cincinnati press. His quickness and ball-handling ability prevented the Bearcats from getting effective traps, rendering their press useless.

Congratulations, DePaul. Enjoy it while it lasts. They get Providence tomorrow at noon. Will we see another upset?

NEW YORK—The debate over whether the Big East Championship should have been expanded to allow all 16 teams play ended after the very first game of the newly formatted tournament.

The lowly DePaul Blue Demons walked into the world's most famous arena and ran away with a 67-57 win over Cincinnati. It was the Blue Demons' first conference victory of the entire season. Only five times could DePaul keep a Big East regular season game within single-digits, but this was not the regular season.

"This is a new season, brand-new start for us," said DePaul's leading scorer Dar Tucker.

A brand-new start it was. DePaul took its last chance ran with it.

"It's now or never. We have to get respect now," said the Blue Demon's high scorer of the game, Will Walker.

It was clear, early and obviously, the Blue Demons wanted this game and respect more than the Bearcats. 

Rarely did a Cincinnati player jump up with emotion, beat his chest, or try to fire up the crowd. The Blue Demons did just that.

Repeatedly.

Heading into huddles for timeouts, DePaul players bubbled with pride, especially in the second half, when they could smell victory.

"At the television timeout at eight [minutes left in the game], we knew we would win the game," said Walker.

Late in the second half, DePaul showed the world why they went 0-18 in the league. Blue Demon freshman Jeremiah Kelly made as big a freshman mistake a first-year player could make as he tried to get fancy on a fast break, but turned the ball over with only a seven-point lead. His teammates quickly comforted the frosh in order to help him regain his composure

Walker says that's this team's motto, "We stick together, the losses brought us closer and we became stronger."

About a minute later, Kelly let Madison Square Garden know he didn't check himself out of the game mentally. The freshman drove the lane with the shot clock winding down. A few of Cincinnati's trees in the post blocked his path. But coach Jerry Wainwright says that didn't stop his player, "The kid came back and made a great bounce pass at the end of the shot-clock."

Kelly turned to the crowd, beat his chest, and got a slowly growing crowd of several thousand on their feet.

That's composure.

That's passion.

That's the Big East Tournament.

A tournament that rewards every team a chance to redeem itself for a long schedule designed to create failures.

"For kids to go through 18 tough games, to not go to the Big East Tournament is not what this league is about," says Wainwright.

DePaul must use this "reward of playing in the BET" to build into the next year. The momentum created by the lore of the conference tournament that willed Syracuse into two consecutive runs to Big East titles and was then squandered when the 'Cuse lost in the first round both years. Last year, Pittsburgh caught fire, won the tournament, but also made an early exit.

Chances are DePaul won't even make it past Wednesday's matchup with Providence, but the Blue Demons can still turn this win into many...next year. DePaul has weapons, three of them in fact. Junior Will Walker is thrifty through the lane and can knock down the outside shot. Sophomore Dar Tucker brings to the court one of the best scoring touches in the conference. Fellow classmate Mac Koshwal is a bruising big man with the potential to become an all-conference player by the end of his career.

Wainwright commented after the game that his players now know how to win.

Wainwright's players need to remember how to win and still show the heart that made a fairly neutral crowd give them a standing ovation as they walked off the court victors in the Big East for the first and maybe the only time in 2009.

DePaul Blue Demons (0-18, 8-23) at Cincinnati Bearcats (8-10, 18-13)

Big East Conference Tournament
Tuesday, Mar. 10—12:00 PM EST

Preview

The 2009 Big East Tournament kicks off the new format with No. 16 DePaul and No. 9 Cincinnati at noon.

This is the first year that all sixteen teams make it to the conference tournament, and if this wasn't the format the Big East winless Blue Demons would be sitting at home with their season over.

But this year is all about change. And helping the little guy. So even though the regular season is over and DePaul wasn't able to muster up a conference win, let's still take a look at the team.

DePaul has been disappointing by all standards—they entered conference play with an 8-5 record and have since lost every game they have played.

There was a lot of hope for the Blue Demons this season, though, as their two players from the All Big East Rookie Team—forward Dar Tucker and center Mac Koshwal—returned. Their backcourt is lead by junior guard Will Walker, who has improved this season across the board.

Unfortunately for the Blue Demons, that is where their talent ends. Stats drop off across the board, and they have shown the hoops world that it takes more than three players to compete.

In the preseason, it looked like the Bearcats were in trouble. Their only true point guard, freshman Cashmere Wright, went down in October with a torn ACL. Cincinnati proved that they have the ability persevere, though, and have been impressive on more than one occasion this season.

Recently, though, the Bearcats have been struggling—in their last six games, they are 1-5. But some of those losses have come against the best the Big East has to offer, including Louisville and Pitt.

The Bearcats pulled off multiple upsets this season: they defeated Georgetown twice, and knocked off West Virginia and Notre Dame one time a piece as well.

The Blue Demons and Bearcats faced each other once this season, and Cincinnati walked away with the 59-55 win. In that game, DePaul made a late surge to come back from a 16-point deficit.

As the Big East Tourament kicks off, the question now is will DePaul be able to get their first Big East win of the season?

By The Numbers

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Prediction

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DePaul does not belong in the Big East.

After being routed by West Virginia tonight, the Blue Demons are 8-22. But more importantly, they have lost each of their 17 Big East games. This has been, by far, their worst season since switching from Conference USA in 2005. 

In a league like the Big East, every team should be able to compete with the rest of the conference. Sure, the league is extremely powerful this season, but losing every game is simply unacceptable.

I think the Big East made a mistake. They should not have admitted DePaul as the fifth team in the Realignment of 2005.

Memphis would have been a better choice.

They are rolling over Conference USA, they are ranked fifth in the AP Poll and third in the ESPN Poll, and they have beaten a number of solid teams en route to what is now a 27-3 record.

The record is obviously impressive, yet multiple writers have claimed that Memphis is overrated—an opinion that I happen to agree with.

It's definitely possible that the Tigers are the No. 5 team in the nation. The problem is that they have not played top competition in Conference USA. This is a recurring problem for the Memphis basketball program because they are above and beyond their conference.

As a response, John Calipari has done a decent job of bolstering their non-conference schedule. However, the argument that Memphis would falter against a consistently strong schedule is a valid one.

How would they fare if they had to play at Pitt on Wednesday and then at Louisville on Saturday?

We'll never know until they get the chance.

It's not too late to make another change, as long as both teams are willing. DePaul would stand a chance against Conference USA competition. Memphis would have a chance to prove that they are one of the premier teams in the nation while playing in the Big East.

How about it?

Villanova Wildcats (10-4, 22-5) at DePaul Blue Demons (0-14, 8-19)

Wednesday, Feb. 24—8:00 PM EST on The Big East Local Network

Preview

Villanova just moved one spot closer to getting into the top four of the Big East—and thus getting a double-bye in the conference tournament—with Pitt losing to Providence on Tuesday. The Wildcats have only four conference losses, and have gone 8-2 in their last ten games—with their two losses coming to UConn and West Virginia. After starting the season out 0-4 against Top 25 teams, Nova has since gone 4-0.

DePaul is still winless in Big East play. They've had their chances a few times this season—they have played South Florida twice and already faced Rutgers, who only have one conference win—which was over the Blue Demons. They only have four remaining games to get a regular-season win.

Villanova has been on fire recently—they scored in the triple-digits back-to-back for the first time in school history a few weeks ago, and they have been knocking down "better" teams left and right. The only issue facing their team right now is the fact that they've been involved in such high-scoring games recently. What I mean by this is that their defense hasn't been as strong as Coach Wright would like to see it.

This game shouldn't be much of a challenge for the Wildcats, although we have seen stranger things occur this season. The bigger question is how are they going to fare against the spread?

By The Numbers

Prediction

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DePaul Blue Demons (8-17, 0-12) at Louisville Cardinals (18-5, 9-2)

Sunday, Feb. 15, 2009 – 4:00 PM EST

The No. 5 Louisville Cardinals welcome Big East doormat the DePaul Blue Demons to Freedom Hall on Sunday afternoon for the only regular season match-up between the two schools.

After starting the Big East portion of their schedule with nine straight wins, the Cardinals have lost two of their last three. And both losses have been in convincing fashion. The first was a 17-point thumping at home to Connecticut and the most recent loss was a 33-point beating at the hands of Notre Dame.

Louisville’s front line of Earl Clark (13 ppg, 8.6 rpg), Terrence Williams (12.6 ppg, 8.8 rpg), and freshman sensation Samardo Samuels (12.2 ppg, 5 rpg) is one of the most athletic and versatile in all of college basketball.

While Clark and Williams don’t shoot it from three exceptionally well, they do combine for 7.6 apg.

The back court of Edgar Sosa and Jerry Smith each average a little over 7 ppg. Smith is also one of the best three-point shooters on the team converting at a rate of 39.5 percent. Preston Knowles and Will Scott also excel from long-range.

Louisville, as it does to every opponent will look to force turnovers through full-court pressure and turn those turnovers into points.

DePaul is having a season to forget, to say the least.

The Blue Demons are currently riding a 12-game losing streak, all in conference play. And they’re average margin of defeat is 15 points.

Offensively, DePaul is a three-man show. Dar Tucker (18.45 ppg), Mac Koshwal (13.5 ppg), and Will Walker (12.8 ppg) are the only legitimate scoring threats for the Blue Demons. No other player averages more than 3.7 ppg.

Koshwal (10 rpg) is a monster on the glass while Tucker grabs 5.1 boards per contest.

Matija Poscic leads DePaul in three-point shooting, but only at a clip of 33.3 percent.

And DePaul doesn’t share the ball exceptionally well as Michael Bizoukas is the team leader in assist but only at a rate of 2.1 per game.

Current line: Louisville -21.5

Louisville is 12-10 overall against the spread with a mark of 4-6 as the favorite.

DePaul is an awful 4-15 overall against the spread with a record of 3-12 as an underdog.

Louisville is sure to be in a foul mood after the thrashing they received at the hands of the Irish. And unfortunately for DePaul, the Blue Demons stand to be on the receiving end of the Cardinals’ wrath.

Steve’s pick: Louisville -21.5

Seton Hall vs. DePaul

Free Pick: Seton Hall -2.0—Tue. Feb. 10 '09 9:00p

Visit Touthouse.com for current basketball odds and more college basketball betting picks.

Seton Hall enters into this tilt against DePaul in red-hot form, having won four straight games after starting their Big East conference schedule with a 0-6 mark. Wins are never easy to come by in this conference, as is evident by their host's 0-11 SU conference record.

That is why when the opportunity presents itself, teams like the Pirates must be prepared to answer the bell against inferior foes like the Blue Demons. I know the Pirates have a big game against Connecticut on deck for Saturday and are an undersized group that could be taken advantage of by a top tier coach like Jerry Wainwright, who has three players at 6'10" or better.

Despite having a good coach on the sidelines and a size advantage, the Blue Demons' talent base is lacking cohesiveness and is less than stellar, as is their propensity to end up on the wrong side of the scoreboard.

As mentioned above, DePaul has lost 11 straight games SU and continues to dump money hand over fist for their betting backers against the all important spread, as is evident by failing to cover 15 of their 19 games this season, which includes an extended 0-8 ATS L/8 home mark. It must also be noted that DePaul owns a nasty 1-11 ATS record as a home underdog or a pick dating back to last season.

It's obvious these two teams are operating at the proverbial opposite end of the performance spectrum, making taking the Pirates on a short line a viable wagering option. Yes, even here on the road in a look ahead situation.

Play on the Seton Hall—Courtesy of Alex Smart

Seton Hall Pirates (4-6, 13-9) at DePaul Blue Demons (0-11, 8-16)

Tuesday, Feb. 10—9:00 PM EST

Preview

The Blue Demons (0-11, 8-16) are still looking for their first Big East win and hope to find it when they host Seton Hall (4-6, 13-9) on Tuesday.

DePaul's chances of finding a Big East win are dwindling. Seton Hall is currently 10th in the Big East, and they only have two other opponents who are beneath them—St. John's at the end of February (currently 14th) and Georgetown to end their season (currently 11th). Their lack of success hasn't come from a lack of any talent, but rather a lack of depth. The top three Blue Demons average 45 of the team's average 65 points.

Seton Hall's Big East season started off exactly the same as the Blue Demons'—they lost their first six games, and it didn't look like they were going to stand a chance of being in the top half of the Big East. But they have since won four games—at home against Georgetown, Rutgers, and St. John's, and on the road at Rutgers. The Pirates are looking to string together a five-game win streak before hosting UConn on Saturday.

By The Numbers

Stat Leaders

Prediction

Current Line: Seton Hall -2.0

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*All statistics for this article have come from StatSheet.com*