DePaul Basketball: 2019-2020 season preview for Blue Demons
By Bryan Mauro
Other Rotation Players
Darious Hall – Sophomore
The sophomore forward enters his second season at DePaul after sitting out for a year as a transfer from Arkansas. Hall did gain valuable experience in his first year at Arkansas. He was able to play in all 35 games for an average of just over 14 minutes per game. The forward is a good shooter from deep and after the redshirt year should be a more efficient scorer for the Blue Demons. Hall has the ability and the athleticism to be a good rebounder and he will get early minutes for the DePaul team.
Markese Jacobs – Freshman
Jacobs is the second of the highly decorated Freshman to play for DePaul this season. Jacobs is a Chicago kid who played his high school basketball at the Uplift Community. Jacobs scored over 30 points per game to go along with four rebounds, four steals, and three assists during his senior year. He scored 46 points against powerhouse Whitney Young and hold the Chicago High School record for consecutive free throws made with 22.
The top-100 recruit tore his ACL during his senior season of high school. The guard did not attend the summer trip overseas for DePaul and just recently started working out again per his twitter page. The tweet showed Jacobs dunking. It has yet to be confirmed if he has been fully cleared for practice. Once Jacobs returns, he is only going to make DePaul that much stronger, especially when he can score at will. Once he gets up to speed, he much like Weems, has legitimate one and done potential.
Jalen Coleman-Lands – Senior
The guard began his career at Illinois. While at Illinois he was a three-point specialist and huge part of the Illini offense. After the sit out year a season ago he started the season in the Blue Demon starting lineup. He was one of the key contributors to DePaul for the first nine games of the season. The guard then broke his hand and missed the rest of the season.
The consensus former top-50 recruit from one of the premier prep schools in the country in La Lumiere gets one last shot in College. Coleman-Lands is going to be a key contributor for DePaul again this season. The guard did not shoot the ball well out of the gate last year, looking to get back to his lethal three-point shooting. If he does that DePaul can go a long way.
Lyrik Shreiner – Senior
The former Cal St. Northridge Matador and TCU Horned Frog is slated to play the final season of his college career. The guard did play in every game a season ago, but has shown he is strictly going to be used as a depth piece going forward. He is the one player who enters the year without a defined role. He played last year due to a lack of depth in the backcourt.
Shreiner is a senior and is experienced. This is the third team he has played in his allotted six years in college. It is hard for any coach to keep a senior off the floor. While the guard is not going to provide much in the way of counting stats he is a leader, who the younger players can learn from.
Oscar Lopez Jr – Freshman and Nick Ongenda – Freshman
These are less talked about Freshman for the Blue Demons. Lopez was one of the top 50 players in California and a top-75 shooting guard nationally. With the backcourt situation the way it is. Lopez may be in a fight for quality minutes. Ongenda is the last player to sign with DePaul, he reclassified to 2019. The big man was a top-60 recruit, and the top player for the state of Arkansas in the 2020 class. He may find some minutes as he plays a position of need for DePaul.