NCAA Basketball: 7 players vital for their teams in 2018-19

John Diener – DePaul

The Diener basketball family is one of legends in Wisconsin and the surrounding area. Travis starred at Marquette, while cousin Drew played at St. Louis and Drake went to DePaul where he played for head coach Dave Leitao. Now another Diener is set to join Leitao this season, John joins the Blue Demons for the 2018-19 season.

The Blue Demons haven’t been to the NCAA Tournament since 2004 and that isn’t likely to change this season, and since winning 20 games in 2007 the team hasn’t won more than 12 games in a season. They are however looking to take steps to get back to some of the success they saw in the early 2000s and Diener could help the process of getting them there.

Like Travis and Drake, John comes with a reputation of being an outstanding outside shooter, as evidenced by the state record 46 points he scored in the state semifinals as a junior, when he averaged almost 21 points and pulled down nearly seven rebounds per game.

The 6-3 native of Cedarburg, Wisconsin was not highly recruited out of high school, the only other Division I offers he received was from Horizon League schools Green Bay and Milwaukee. He will join a bevy of returning guards including leading scorer Max Strus and Eli Cain who together combined for 28.5 points, 9.3 rebounds, and 7.4 assists last season.

Where Diener could really help the Blue Demons is improving their offensive perimeter numbers. Last season they ranked 271^st in field-goal percentage at just 42.8% and were even more futile from three-point territory, connecting on just 31% of their attempts, 333^rd best in the country.

DePaul won’t be challenging Villanova any time soon but a familiar name to basketball fans could help them begin to climb out of the doldrums of the Big East.