Defense, rarely exhibited at DePaul during the Pat Kennedy years, blossomed into a reality in Dave Leitao’s debut as the Blue Demons’ basketball coach Saturday night.
DePaul throttled Northern Illinois 63-48, using a stifling defense to steal the spotlight from the Huskies’ brand new $35.8 million Convocation Center, which was hosting its first men’s game.
The largest on-campus crowd in NIU history, 8,041 fans in the 9,100-seat arena, saw the Blue Demons outrebound the Huskies 45-29 and frustrate the home team by switching from man-to-man to zone defenses.
“We worked from Day One on defense, and the players surpassed my expectations,” said Leitao, a former Connecticut assistant. “Our changing defenses kept them back on their heels.”
Joe Tulley, a senior guard who scored 14 points for the Demons, said he took his first charge Saturday night since his high school days at Rockford Boylan.
The Demons not only muzzled the Huskie players; they also muzzled the “Dog Pound,” the student section expected to provide noisy support for the home team.
“I think we took the crowd out of the game,” said point guard Drake Diener.
DePaul’s defense blanked the Huskies for seven minutes late in the first half and held NIU to four points in an eight-minute stretch late in the game.
When the Huskies managed to slip a pass inside against the Demons’ zone, DePaul doubled down on the opponent with the ball. Four hands flailed around him and prevented him from kicking passes to open teammates.
“Coach told us in practice to `get big,'” said Sam Hoskin, DePaul’s 6-foot-9-inch, 250-pound center. “To stand up, raise our hands and stand up to them chest to chest. That’s what we did.”
Led by Diener’s eight points and Tulley’s seven, DePaul took a 30-19 lead at the half.
P.J. Smith, untimately the Huskies’ high scorer with 13, popped in three three-point baskets to keep the score close in the early minutes of the second half. Then the Demons clamped on the “D” and hiked the spread to 61-37 with four minutes left.
“DePaul gave us a lot of trouble with its zone,” said NIU coach Rob Judson. “We weren’t a good shooting team tonight, but we will grow and become a good shooting team.”
Northern made 16 baskets on 48 shots, for a .333 percentage. Only nine of the baskets came from two-point range. NIU hit 7-for-25 on three-pointers.
DePaul’s Delonte Holland led all scorers with 16 points.
Judson said he knew the Blue Demons, especially some of the Chicago-area natives he tried to recruit when he was an assistant at Illinois.
“But they changed,” he said. “They didn’t play tonight the way they’ve played before at DePaul.”
Tulley explained the difference the new coach has meant in DePaul basketball his senior year: “Our confidence is amazing. He teaches in mind and body together to reach our dreams.”
