Thoughts on DePaul...

[xsteve1]

My thoughts on DePaul are that they are DePaul.

Yeah. They look a lot like they have the past few years. When they get their arena they need a young hungry coach to jumpstart that program.

[Jet915]

Yeah, the culture there just stinks and doesn't look like Leitao has changed anything so far...

[OmahaGuy]

Meh, it looks like it's just growing pains in my eyes. Those are inevitable when you have a new head coach. Too much season left to hit the panic button on them.

[DemonLS]

Lighten up, everyone! This program will still be going through its changes. No perimeter shooting and no inside post offense. DePaul does not have the pieces in place yet to compete.

Stop acting like you know this program. Just ask me and I will share what you need to know.

[Freshjive2103]

He typically gets to the line when DePaul is down by double digits. He is not, what the media says, one of the best backcourt players in the nation. He is a solid player. Nothing more.

And I know this program. It is missing many components, and don't see it improving with the 2016 class.

[DemonLS]

Nova,

FreshJive knows this DePaul program and team as well as anyone too.

[billyjack]

DePaul hasn't played since a week ago Monday on the 23rd.
This week they're at UIC on Wednesday and home to Chicago State on Saturday.

I'm hoping that we see good trend lines in their upcoming games, among the most important being FG% Defense and Rebounding. From last year there has been a significant improvement, as stever pointed out recently.

Under Purnell, they gave up a ton of layups, and struggled rebounding. Then of course there was the ridiculous undisciplined shot selection and poor clock management. They also displayed a Jekyll and Hyde personality, getting hammered by Lehigh one day, and turning around and blowing out Stanford. They also had a win vs Northwestern recently, so maybe it's just that they own Coach K's coaching tree.

So, a tendency for DePaul under Purnell was to lose to some poor OOC teams. But not just lose, but get hammered, with huge halftime deficits. This made comebacks almost impossible.

Looking at Leitao's small sample size of games, the results have been:
W by 6 vs Western Michigan... halftime losing by 11.
L by 6 vs Penn State... halftime losing by 6.
L by 15 vs South Carolina... halftime losing by 9.
L by 16 vs Florida State... halftime losing by 17.
W by 4 over Norfolk State... halftime winning by 7.

So the first 4 games they started slow.
A key I think is that in the first 3, they rebounded to make it a game or better by mid-2nd.
I think vs South Carolina they cut it to 2 or 4 mid-2nd before Myke Henry made a couple of poor decisions to mess things up.
Against FSU they got walloped throughout. Is that the game Hamilton was benched for poor decision-making?
Against Norfolk they had their first halftime lead, and had a 14 point lead, but barely held on for the win.
Their losses were vs major conf teams, albeit weaker ones.
I think another key for Leitao as the program improves is that they cannot lose vs teams outside of the P5, A-10, AAC, MVC, MWC or WCC.

I looked at Purnell's DePaul teams also:
In 5 years, they had 25 OOC losses.

Of those 25 losses:
7 were vs the P5.
2 were vs Wichita State.
1 was vs Indiana State.
1 was vs George Washington.
1 was vs Loyola Marymount.
13 were from weak conferences.
In the 25 losses, they were losing in 21 of those at the half, 2 were tied, and 2 they had leads.

Anyway, I had compiled this a while back, and figured I might as well post the information:

In 2015, they lost 7 OOC games:
L by 12 vs Lehigh (down 11 at half).
L by 13 vs George Washington (down 20 at half).
L by 6 vs Illinois State (down 3 at half, blew game late on asinine shot by Crockett and terrible clock management).
L by 31 vs Oregon State (down 20 at half).
L by 14 vs Colorado (down 3 at half).
L by 21 vs Ohio U (down 14 at half).
L by 3 vs Loyola Marymount (winning by 2 at the half).
beat Stanford from P5.

In 2014, they lost 5 OOC games:
L by 7 vs Southern Miss (down 5 at half).
L by 18 vs Wichita (down 18 at half).
L by 18 vs Texas (down 16 at half).
L by 22 vs Arizona State (down 3 at half).
L by 5 vs Illinois State (down 3 at half).
beat Oregon State and Northwestern from P5.

In years prior to those, DePaul racked up a bunch of games vs weak teams where they dug themselves into huge halftime deficits.

In 2013, lost 4 OOC games:
L by 12 vs Gardner Webb (down 10 at half).
L by 13 vs Wichita (down 5 at half).
L by 9 vs Western Kentucky (down 14 at half).
L by 8 vs Loyola Chicago (tied at half).
beat Auburn and Arizona State from P5.

In 2012, lost 3 OOC games:
L by 1 vs Minnesota (winning by 10 at half).
L by 2 vs Ole Miss (down 14 at half).
L by 11 vs Milwaukee (down 20 at half).
beat Texas Tech and Arizona State from P5.

In 2011, lost 6 OOC games:
L by 5 vs Western Carolina (down 12 at half).
L by 4 vs Oklahoma State (tied at half).
L by 22 vs Cal Northridge (down 24 at half).
L in OT vs Stanford (down 2 at half).
L by 22 vs Indiana State (down 18 at half, 32-14).
L in OT vs Ball State (down 3 at half).
No wins vs P5.

Not sure what all this means, but like I said, I had compiled this awhile ago and wanted to get it down at the HLoH.
It would be helpful if I looked at all their halftime scores for all their OOC games, but I don't have the time right now.

[hoops22]

I still wonder what would have happened, had Depaul hired Ben Howland, as was rumored for awhile. He's gotten some unbelieveable talent to commit to Miss St. Have to believe he could have gotten some similar guys for Depaul. It's early in Leitao's reign, but so far the results have been underwhelming, considering he does have some talent to work with.

[NJRedman]

36 conference wins in 10 years with 20 of those wins in the first 3 years in the league. Just gonna leave that tidbit here for your own personal reflections.

[GoldenWarrior11]

I still wonder what would have happened, had Depaul hired Ben Howland, as was rumored for awhile. He's gotten some unbelieveable talent to commit to Miss St. Have to believe he could have gotten some similar guys for Depaul. It's early in Leitao's reign, but so far the results have been underwhelming, considering he does have some talent to work with.

Wouldn't have happened. Howland didn't want Garrett Sr. on staff, and administration mandated to candidates that he needed to stay on as an assistant and recruiter. It's the same reason Hurley said no thanks and removed his name from consideration.