Results tagged “DePaul” from Jays Blog

2008-09 Game #12: Jays 83, DePaul 75

By
Max Univers
on December 24, 2008 7:29 AM |
...or should I say DEPAUL 38 17:21 CREIGHTON 50?

That's a little inside joke, never mind. On Tuesday in Vegas, the Jays played an athletic Big East team (and I use the word "team" loosely) in DePaul, and were murdered so violently on the boards that the authorities are going to have to call in Gil Grissom to survey the damage for DNA samples to determine just what went wrong.

None of this would be necessary if A) the Jays didn't allow Mac Koshwal to nearly outrebound them ALL BY HIMSELF and B) the webcast showed time and score, and live stats were available.

I don't know about you, but I love it when I'm watching a webcast and I have to bust open a text document on screen to manually keep track of the score. I mean, I just LOVE (sic) it when that happens. In the first half, the webcast with no radio or TV announcers was quaint, and I actually kinda dug it. I've always wanted to watch games on TV with judge the PA and ambient crowd noise, and for 20 glorious minutes, I got my wish. You could hear the roar of the 1,100 people in attendance, most of them Jays fans. You could hear the PA guy announce fouls and points scored. It was grand.

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Gameday: DePaul

By
Max Univers
on December 23, 2008 1:09 PM |
I've made no secret of the fact that I'm no fan of the Findlay Toyota Las Vegas Classic. See here and here. Oh, and here. But since we can't change the tourney or its participants, at least the Jays opponent this evening in the title game is DePaul. While neither the Blue Demons or the Billikins are great opponents, playing a third A-10 school wouldn't necessarily be a huge boost to the RPI. Meanwhile, if they can beat DePaul, they'll at least have the benefit of the Big East's likely #1 conference RPI on their schedule strength. Granted, DePaul might be one of the worst teams in the Big East, but still, its better than beating Southern. Or playing Southern. Or having to watch Southern. In fact, lets just change the topic, shall we?

When last the Jays saw DePaul, they were a "potential" sleeper team in the Big East, coming into the Qwest Center for a rare Friday night game. I use the word potential loosely, because it was really only DePaul fans who believed they were a sleeper team, but someone believed it, which doesn't technically make saying it now a false statement. Right? Right. The Jays fell behind big early, before a huge rally led by P'Allen Stinnett's virtuoso scoring performance: 9-12 from the floor, 5-5 from behind the arc, 23 points, all in the second half. After that game, Blue Demons fans watched in horror as their team went 11-19 and 6-12 in the league.

Back is Mac Koshwal, who averages a double-double and grabbed 11 rebounds last year in Omaha. Also back is Dar Tucker, who averages 18 points and 6 boards. Tucker was in foul trouble most of the night last year, and fouled out with just 8 points, although he did grab 6 boards. DePaul outrebounded the Jays 41-38 in last year's game, and their best Windex men from that contest will be playing tonight. Sounds like a good test of the Jays improvement on the boards to me.

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2007-08 Game #1: Jays 74, DePaul 62

By
Max Univers
on November 11, 2007 5:39 PM |
I was talking to someone last week about Creighton's season opener. This guy had made up his mind to be a negative nancy, predicting a double-digit DePaul victory. His reasoning seemed sound enough: experienced guard play. Namely, DePaul had it and Creighton did not.

I found it tough to argue with, because I've always subscribed to the theory that experienced guards are a huge advantage, an advantage that is magnified early in the year. When crazy upsets happen in November every year, there is usually (not always, but usually) a common denominator: the winning team had experienced guards. And these days, its the mid-major teams who are more experienced in November because they generally don't lose players to the NBA as often as their major-conference breathern. Hence, crazy upsets.

Yet here I was, going against my own theory. So much for sticking to my guns! Something told me that even though the edge in backcourt experience went to DePaul, they weren't winning this game. My defense was, admittedly, weak at best:

"The Jays backcourt inexperience would bother me a lot more if this game were in Chicago, or even on a neutral court. As it is, I think DePaul's young players will play a bit faster than Coach Wainwright would like due to the intense heat the Friday Night Rowdies will put on them. I think they'll turn it over enough to cancel out any experience edge they might have."

Well well well, looky what we have here. Turnovers:

DePaul: 23
Jays: 12

You bet.


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Gameday: DePaul at Creighton

By
Max Univers
on November 8, 2007 5:41 PM |
Creighton only plays two quote-unquote BCS teams this year. I abhor that term; BCS stands for Bowl Championship Series, after all, which is a College Football classification and has nothing whatsoever to do with College Hoops. But national media use it as an easily-defined method of classifying schools into nice little groups. Makes their jobs easier.

Like it or not, that's the way the system works. A win over a "BCS" team carries more weight in the court of public opinion than a win over a superior mid-major. For instance, in 2004 Creighton defeated a decent Ohio State team on a neutral court, and a pretty damn good Xavier team on the road. Guess which game got more attention nationally? Ohio State, because "Creighton upsets Ohio State" is a better story than "Creighton defeats Xavier", even though Xavier was the superior team.

Which brings us to DePaul. The Blue Demons are picked to finish anywhere from 10th to 14th in the Big East, depending on which prognosticator you believe. Its entirely possible that future Creighton opponents such as Drexel, Xavier and St. Josephs could all wind up with better teams than DePaul. But a win over DePaul carries more weight, because they're in the Big East.

"Oh, they beat DePaul? Wow!"

Right. You bet.


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Max Univers (not his real name) is a graphic designer and author of two books, neither of which you’ve probably heard of. A 2001 graduate of Creighton University’s Journalism program, Max takes time out of his busy nightlife to share his thoughts on Jays hoops here during the season.

Why Univers? Its his favorite font, plus it just sounds really cool as a surname.

Why Polyfro? Years and years ago, Max had a giant afro wig that he wore as part of a Halloween costume. Not wishing to retire its giant fro awesomeness after the holiday, he began wearing the wig out in public as part of his everyday ensemble. One night at a dance club, the DJ called out the moniker over the soundsystem. Max thought it sounded cool, and purchased the URL shortly thereafter.

More questions? Send me an email: max-at-polyfro-dot-com. I like jokes, story tips, and generally all correspondence involving Bluejay athletics. Emails that point out how stupid I am and/or where I should go after I die are not encouraged.

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