De Paul`s basketball course appears set, at least through this week`s home games against Dayton and Marquette, and perhaps through the season.
This means coach Joey Meyer`s Blue Demons, as they struggle to climb back from a 3-6 start, will continue to shoot the ball, hope it goes in and shuffle different combinations of players into the game.
”We`re better off with fresh bodies in there,” said Meyer after Saturday`s 70-51 whipping at North Carolina. ”Nobody`s that much better than the others. Nobody`s come out and proved he deserves to play 30 minutes or more.”
One Demon who should be slated for additional playing time, off his showing at Chapel Hill, is James Hamby. The 7-foot-1-inch, 250-pound graduate student clogged up the lane well enough on defense to help De Paul outscore the Tar Heels by one point over a 15-minute span in the second half.
Hamby started the game on the bench as Stephen Howard again opened at center. Howard struggled, got in foul trouble, hurt his leg, scored only six points and played 22 minutes.
Hamby, a starter in the NCAA playoffs last year, blocked four shots and made 10 rebounds in his 23 minutes Saturday.
”It hurt them when Howard went out with three fouls,” observed North Carolina coach Dean Smith. ”He`s maybe their steadiest scorer. But Hamby gave them some good minutes, especially on defense.”
The Howard-Hamby situation in the post mirrors the problem facing Meyer as the coach of several players with one-dimensional skills. Hamby is virtually no scoring threat. Howard, averaging 15 points per game,is still learning on defense.
Does Meyer concede his players can`t shoot and go with his strongest defensive lineup? Does he play the best of a bad group of shooters to try to improve the team`s sickly 40 percent shooting average? Does he write off the season and go with the kids who will play in 1991 and later?
”We can`t use our poor shooting as a crutch, and think of next year,”
said Meyer, after the Carolina loss. ”We took good shots. They just didn`t go down (23 of 67, 34 percent).”
Deryl Cunningham, the 6-7 freshman from St. Joseph High School, probably will play more in upcoming games than his 11 minutes at North Carolina. Another fine defensive player, Cunningham snapped a long dry spell when he hit two baskets in Chapel Hill.
