The Holy Land of Hoops

DePaul has played 2 games so far, winning at home to Western Michigan, and losing at Penn State. But in that small sample size, i see huge differences for the better with Dave Leitao in charge compared to Oliver Purnell. So I'm pretty high on Leitao.

First off, rebuilds, or transitions to new coaches always have setbacks and disappointments. I think they had more talent than Penn State and could've won. But programs are built brick by brick, and players take time to adjust and learn a new system. In the case of DePaul, their program couldn't have been any more undisciplined than they were under Purnell (unless they had Keno Davis, yikes)... lazy absolutely zero defense, poor rebounding, an offense that consisted of chucking up threes, no adjustments, no improvement or player growth, terrible body language.

So far under Leitao i think it's clear that top priorities include defense, rebounding, and driving to the hoop and working the ball inside. Drawing fouls. Being conscious of the clock. Not taking crazy threes. Defense is active, though they have to tighten up vs 3-pointers. In both games so far, they've gotten off to slow starts, but in each they chipped away at the deficit with discipline.

Their line-up has been solid:
1 Garrett Jr.
2 Eli Cain (freshman Purnell recruit who has some talent).
3 Myke Henry.
4 Hamilton IV.
5 Stimage.

Garrett Jr is excellent, and i expect him to play better going forward.
Cain has some height and nice moves.
Henry is a good scorer, and looks to be active on defense (last year was weak on D).
Hamilton is good and is getting a lot of minutes.
Stimage has no offense, but is a reliable rebounder and has some size.

The bench is kinda weak. Ryscksboch (sp) is limited but gives maximum effort. Simpson is still a little undisciplined but he can occasionally make things happen. Wood is similar.

So it looks like Leitao will ride his starting five a lot, and try to win with defense and high percentage shots. And they need Garrett to stay healthy and focused. Their next game coming up is vs South Carolina, which is winnable. At a minimum though, they need another game where they stay close. The way they've improved their defense, i think they will stay in most games.

Billyjack,

Very nice assessment of DePaul from a non-DePaul fan. Right on.

What DePaul is really missing is low-post scoring threats. Hamilton, Stimage are not that at all. Henry is a scorer but not a shooter.

Also, I believe they gave Penn State too many open 3-point shots. However, their game plan was that Penn State was not a good 3-point shooting team and to make them beat DePaul from outside. Some of their threes were way out there. And DePaul did not adjust enough when they starting hitting those.

DePaul has a tremendous amount of pressure to improve this program QUICKLY....due to the new stadium coming soon. I expect their recruiting to change as they start learning how to "play the game" much better than they do now.

Don't ask that Nova punk his opinion though.

Line up is solid. No excuse for losing to Penn State.

I had them pegged as a bubble team this year. They have good enough players. The loss to Penn State changed my mind.

NovaBall wrote:Line up is solid. No excuse for losing to Penn State.

I had them pegged as a bubble team this year. They have good enough players. The loss to Penn State changed my mind.

You HONESTLY had DePaul as a bubble team?? Leitao isn't a miracle worker. Every new coach (even if it's his 2nd stint at the school) needs at least 2-3 years to get their jimmies and joes into the program. DL may not have been that "home run hire" that everyone wanted but it's clear he's already a BIG upgrade over Purnell. I'm sure OP would've lost to Western Michigan and they would've gotten blown out by Penn State.

Yes. I think DePaul has enough experience and talent to be a 35-50 RPI team this season.

Saw Raf's interview with Leitao and one of the issues touched upon was that Leitao is not walking into a complete rebuild. There are some building blocks for his foundation already on campus. I agree with that sentiment.

I am very bullish on Seton Hall this season and was also bullish on DePaul entering the season. The Penn State loss was very disappointing.

There have always seemed to be "building blocks" on DePaul, whether it's Cleveland Melvin, Brandon Young, Billy Garrett, Dar Tucker, etc. I'll believe it when I see it for DePaul. Hopefully, the new arena and a new coach leads to a turnaround, but I'm not holding my breath.

I did expect them to be better than they have been the last few years. But that really isn't saying much. Curious how they look against South Carolina tomorrow. SC is a solid team, but they are beatable if DePaul is hitting shots.

Ok - can I address one thing that I see mentioned a lot on here and in the media. Billy Garrett as excellent. That is high regards to me, and I do not think it is truthful. He is a good player, a solid player, but I do not think he is a great player.

So I did this quick stat yesterday; in the past 33 games, he has had 11 games where he took more than 10 shots. His shooting % in those 11 games? 31.1%. Defensively, he struggles because he does not have ideal lateral quickness. Is he clutch from the line? Yes. Does he do well at limiting turnovers? Yes. But two are the two attributes I believe he does great and the rest is average or less.

Yeah, Garrett doesn't seem very aggressive. When the game is on the line, he seems to disappear...

The kid is clutch when he is on the line. He needs to penetrate more to draw in fouls but the problem is he doesn't have a quick step to get past his defender.

My thoughts on DePaul are that they are DePaul.