On the day in early February when DePaul beat Marquette at Allstate Arena in front of 16,693 fans, Blue Demons coach Dave Leitao said he appreciated the noise, the support and the size of the crowd.
He also said that filling the building becomes a regular occurrence when a program grows into a self-sustaining winner. A program is what the second-year coach is trying to fashion at the North Side school that has suffered through hard times lately.
More than once this winter, as the Demons jelled, Leitao has called his team a work in progress.
That’s some progress. With a surprisingly difficult 12-point win at South Florida Saturday night, the Blue Demons (19-8, 12-4) finished in a five-way tie for first place in the conference and grabbed the No. 1 seed in the Conference USA tournament, which begins Wednesday in Cincinnati. DePaul faces the winner of Marquette- Texas Christian at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday.
Cincinnati, with its thrilling win over Memphis earlier Saturday, enabled the five-way tie and earned a first-round bye in the conference tournament because of tiebreakers. Memphis and UAB have the other byes, but Charlotte must play Wednesday because of the tiebreakers involved.
By any measurement, a year after Leitao’s inaugural team finished 16-13 and played in the National Invitation Tournament, the 2003-2004 Demons have taken a giant step. They have exceeded last season’s victory total and are anticipating postseason play.
But Leitao does not pretend that DePaul is all the way back to the level attained in the final heyday of coach Ray Meyer, when top-five national ratings were frequent.
“We’re less than 18 months into a process that still has residue of negativity,” Leitao said. “We’re still finding out what success is about.”
Once before, DePaul could boast of being Chicago’s college basketball team, the one team in the area that fans not affiliated with the school cared about out of local pride. Who fills that role right now? Not Northwestern, Chicago State, Loyola, Notre Dame or even consistent winner Illinois-Chicago. Only the Big Ten’s Illinois can contemplate staking such a claim, but the Illini are headquartered 145 miles away.
In the seven seasons from 1977-78 to 1983-84, Meyer’s last years, DePaul won at least 26 games six times and made regular appearances in the NCAA tournament. The Demons had some very good years under Joey Meyer, and even had a 21-victory season under Pat Kennedy. But there were also some horrible years, like the 3-23 campaign that was Joey Meyer’s last in 1996-97 and the ugly 9-19 season of 2001-02 that was Kennedy’s last.
Leitao does not say DePaul is on the verge of reclaiming its previous eminence on the local sports scene. But he does think it could happen again.
“I’ve heard continuously that if you give [Chicago sports fans] a reason to come, they’ll come,” Leitao said. “You build it and they will come. The opportunity to become Chicago’s team? People tell me that. The difference with us is because we have a history of winning, not a day or two goes by that people don’t connect to the past.”
Leitao believed players he inherited had a mind-set more bogged down in losing than in embracing winning, and that a shift had to be made. He knows that until a team shows its stuff at crunch time, it is all talk. But in recent weeks DePaul twice has persevered in difficult situations for victories. The Demons beat St. Louis by a basket after trailing by 21 points on the road and beat nationally ranked Louisville by two points in Louisville. Thursday night, they avenged a 25-point loss to Cincinnati with a 68-65 victory.
“When the game’s on the line, what’s ultimately going to be on their minds?” Leitao said.
Lately, what’s on DePaul players’ minds is winning. Winning games and championships. Senior center Andre Brown, who played under Kennedy and with highly-touted DePaul players who left early for the pros or because of unexpected difficulties, said it is gratifying this team still can accomplish big things.
“We’ve had a lot of growth,” Brown said. “We have a lot more we want to do. We want to put DePaul back on the map.”
As Leitao noted, it is not a one-season project. A new coach recruits and builds in layers of classes, with newcomers at first supplementing holdovers, then taking over. Certainly, the quick maturation of freshman point guard Sammy Mejia was a critical development for this season as well as for the long-term. Still, bringing in former Illinois high school stars such as Marlon Brumfield, Lorenzo Thompson and Marcus Heard makes a statement locally.
Heard, a 6-foot-7-inch forward from Springfield, said the attraction of DePaul was not only proximity to his family, but also a feeling that he would be a part of a rising program.
“I got a good feel from the coaches,” Heard said. “I wanted to be part of [the players who turned DePaul around]. This is the group. Everything [Leitao] said is coming to pass.”
The excitement this DePaul team has generated, offering glimpses of what might be, transcends the players. Athletic director Jean Lenti Ponsetto said the thought of DePaul becoming Chicago’s team is “on my mind every day.”
The first step is rekindling the faith of the 100,000 DePaul alums, she said, as well as capturing the attention and support of students, staff and faculty. Then comes the rest of Chicago.
“That’s what we’re striving to do,” she said. “We’re never going to stop recruiting the Chicago college basketball fan. Chicago has a strong work ethic, city pride. DePaul is a microcosm of that. I’d like for us to be the flagship college program in the area.”
The first time DePaul hit it big, the Blue Demons were blessed with a beloved coach and a pre-Michael Jordan Bulls basketball market. Rather than imagine that history can be replicated nearly three decades later, DePaul wishes to approximate it.
“I’d like to think we’re starting to build the same sort of momentum,” Ponsetto said. “Dave certainly has put us on a course pointed in the right direction for all good things to happen.”
One of those good things would be an invitation to the NCAA tournament for the first time in four years and only the second time since 1992. These days, college programs are defined almost completely by appearances in and performances during the NCAA tournament.
“I want the program to take that next step,” junior guard Drake Diener said. “It gets you out there [with fans and recruits]. No one fills out an NIT bracket. Getting in the NCAA would be just huge for us. One game can make or break the way people look at you in the off-season.”
One NCAA game, or more, also may mean more and more fans will be looking.
DePaul earns top seed With its 78-66 win Saturday at South Florida and Cincinnati’s 83-79 win over Memphis, DePaul earns a five-way share of the conference title and the top seed in the upcoming Conference USA tournament.
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DePaul game-by-game
DATE OPPONENT RESULT
11/21 Loyola W 73-61
11/25 Northwestern W 65-53
11/29 Indiana State W 78-66
11/30 At Michigan State L 89-81
12/7 Bradley W 77-74
12/9 At Ohio W 63-60
12/14 Notre Dame L 82-69
12/20 Toledo L 93-81
12/27 At Seton Hall L 76-62
12/31 SE Missouri State W 57-50
1/3 Chicago State W 81-74
1/6 Charlotte L 75-70
1/10 At Cincinnati L 90-65
1/13 Memphis W 82-73
1/17 UAB W 75-64
1/20 At TCU W 61-54
1/24 At Marquette L 70-62
1/31 At East Carolina W 70-65
2/3 Tulane W 72-58
2/7 Marquette W 84-78
2/11 At St. Louis W 70-68
2/14 At Houston W 66-54
2/21 St. Louis L 69-62
2/25 At Louisville W 60-58
2/28 Southern Miss W 80-51
3/4 Cincinnati W 68-65
3/6 At South Florida W 74-65
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