DePaul Basketball: Loss to Georgetown makes Blue Demons worst in the Big East

DePaul basketball has been near the bottom of the Big East for a long time. After a home loss to Georgetown, the 2017-18 season looks to be more of the same.

After becoming the head coach of DePaul in 2015, Dave Leitao (who previously coached the Blue Demons from 2002-05) had been part of some seemingly positive headlines. Between the school being part of a $200-million new arena project that will have the team play just a few miles from its main campus and a few highly-regarded transfers and local recruits committing, it seemed like DePaul was gaining momentum for their program.

But the results haven’t been there, with a ninth and a last-place finish in the Big East in Leitao’s latest two seasons. Due to the overall strength of the conference, the Blue Demons were likely to finish at the bottom again this time around. But the saving grace was going to be a Georgetown team who, under first-year head coach Patrick Ewing, was going through a complete rebuild.

Both teams came into this game having lost their first two Big East games. With the game being in Chicago, DePaul had the advantage and should’ve won the game.

That, unfortunately, did not come to fruition, with Georgetown 11-3 (1-2) coming away with a 90-81 win behind Jessie Govan‘s 25 points and 12 rebounds.

The offense wasn’t the problem for DePaul 7-8 (0-3), with Max Strus leading the team with 19 points, which is around his season average. Marin Maric and Tre’Darius McCallum each had 18 points while Eli Cain had 10 assists. But the team couldn’t stop fouling the Hoyas, who were +17 in free throws made.

While it’s true that DePaul is currently under .500, the team has been more competitive than the record shows. None of the eight losses would be described as “bad” and four of those came against ranked teams, including leading by double-digits on the road at No. 5 Xavier before losing at the end.

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But, ultimately, those moral victories don’t mean anything for a program that hasn’t gotten much traction since the new millennium. Wins need to start to occurring before another generation of Chicago kids forgets about this school as well. But for at least this season, DePaul looks to be staring up at everyone else, and that includes a rebuilding Georgetown.