They were tooling down Desperation Drive, rushing toward that fork in the road where a decision would have to be made. Turn right and some hope still remained. Turn left and only oblivion beckoned.
That was the stark situation DePaul faced Thursday night at Allstate Arena, where all its dreams for this season and all its aspirations for the postseason rode on its performance against Notre Dame. Pull off an upset and some hope still remained. Stumble, and only oblivion beckoned.
“We knew. We know what time of season we’re in,” guard Sammy Mejia said after his Blue Demons survived 67-66. “We came out the way we did because of the time of season we’re in and how much these games mean to us right now. We’re at that point where we can’t keep giving up games.”
That didn’t surprise Irish coach Mike Brey.
“It figured to be exactly [what it was],” he said. “A knock down, drag out . . . we knew we were going to get the Kansas effort tonight and we did. I thought, intensity-wise, they were coming after us all the time.”
DePaul coach Jerry Wainwright knew the situation.
“We had 240 minutes left (six games) in the season,” he said. “I didn’t really write anything basketball on the board [before the game]. First time I haven’t done it all season. I talked more of the specifics of where we’re at. I told the kids, `I’ve been part of what-if seasons and they’re really hard to live with in the off-season.'”
Often, in his 21 months at DePaul, Wainwright and I have discussed a sense of urgency and just how you imbue that feeling into a team. The best ones, the most successful ones, the ones that run off long winning streaks play with it always, yet it has not always been part of these Demons.
Viewed at their season opener at Bradley, we watched them get jumped by the Braves and surrender meekly. Viewed just less than a month ago against Pittsburgh, we watched them let a winnable game slip away through moments of lethargy. Viewed three weeks ago against Louisville, we watched them give another away through fundamental errors.
They also would make errors Thursday against the Irish, but here they always played with that sense of urgency the moment demanded. When they fell behind 11 points early, they did not buckle and fall. They flurried instead. When they fell behind five with the end rushing toward them, they did not panic and flee. They rallied.
They made the crucial shots and grabbed the crucial rebounds, made the crucial stops and got the crucial steals, and so much of that resulted from a relentless effort.
“I think a lot of people gave up on us,” Wainwright said afterward, but here his Demons never gave in and never gave up.
This was the first of the six games that would close out their regular season. They knew that. This was the first of six games they were capable of winning. They knew that as well. But any kind of streak had to start here, against the Irish, and it would start only with a tempered will.
“You have to give DePaul credit,” Brey said. “They can get out and really physically guard you when they want to.”
And on this night they wanted to. That accounted for so much of their victory. But consistency has not been the Demons’ calling card this year and so now a challenge even greater than the Irish confronts them. It is the challenge of performing an encore.
F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote: “There are no second acts in American lives.” But there is a second game and a third game and more remaining on DePaul’s schedule, and each must be approached and played out with the sense of urgency it displayed on this Thursday night.
“The way we played together as a team, although we made a lot of mistakes, we found a way to win,” Mejia said, defining just what that means. “That’s what’s most important. We stuck together and didn’t let the down moments get the better of us.
“We fought.”
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smyslenski@tribune.com
