How about showing a little love for my alma mater? Where the hell does that term come from anyways? It’s a latin phrase meaning “nourishing mother”; we use it to describe a school we attended and/or graduated from. For me, I have my kindergarten, grammar school, high school, and the topic of today, college. DePaul University is where I went; they weren’t half bad this year in college basketball.
OK, well, 14-19 isn’t even 500 ball; 4-16 in the Big East is even worse. However, when looking at this season through the lens of “did we improve from last season?”, the answer is a resounding YES. Last year, the Blue Demons went 3-29… yeah… 3 fricking wins all year. Our Big East record? 0-20. So yeah, we didn’t do half bad this year. In fact, we improved by almost 500%; not too shabby, especially considering first year coach Chris Holtmann. He definitely had a hand in this improvement, along with some better players, duh. However, in the current college basketball landscape, who knows who will be back next year… who knows the number of players we can add… the transfer portal is open, things are looking up at DePaul, roll out the bucks basically… and see who wants to come to Chicago.
Back in the day, DePaul was a powerhouse; I guess consistency at the coaching position helped? Ray Meyer coached DePaul for 42 years; the Blue Demons made the NCAA tourney 14 times… 33% of the time isn’t that bad, isn’t that great, but… the 2 Final Four appearances in 1943 and 1979 were the pinnacles. Having George Mikan around for that 1943 Final Four run helped a bit… He ended up in the NBA Basketball Hall of Fame when it was all said and done; one of the original big men. Ever heard of the “Mikan Drill”… yeah, it’s named after him. In 1979, it was Mark Aguirre leading the charge on the court, unfortunately, we ended up in the Final Four with a couple other guys you may have heard of… Earvin “Magic” Johnson from Michigan State and Larry Bird from Indiana State. Of course, there have been many other great players over the years. One of the first I remember was Dallas Comegys. Rod Strickland and Kevin Edwards were quite the backcourt. Then there was Quentin Richardson, Bobby Simmons, and Lance Williams. Others that did well in the NBA were Dave Corzine, Terry Cummings, and Tyrone Corbin.
Since Ray Meyer retired to today, in the past 40 years, DePaul has made the NCAA tourney a total of 9 times. Since 1990? A total of 4 times. Since 2000, the past 25 years, twice. Things have to get better… at least in about 5-6 years they will have a lefty PG from Chicago leading the charge… haha.
It was a step in the right direction this year; look forward to trending in a positive way. They even won a Big East tourney game against Georgetown AND took Creighton to OT in the 2nd round; more positives in this 2024-2025 season. They even got invited to a postseason tourney where they will face Cincy on April 1st; no joke! We didn’t make it out to any games this year, but it’s definitely on the to-do list. Be nice to wear my Mark Aguirre jersey out somewhere. Hoping for brighter days ahead…
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