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DePaul Basketball: 2019-2020 season preview for Blue Demons

By Bryan Mauro

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - FEBRUARY 12: DePaul Blue Demons cheerleaders perform against the Marquette Golden Eagles at Wintrust Arena on February 12, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Quinn Harris/Getty Images)
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - FEBRUARY 12: DePaul Blue Demons cheerleaders perform against the Marquette Golden Eagles at Wintrust Arena on February 12, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Quinn Harris/Getty Images) /
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK – MARCH 13: Head coach Dave Leitao of the DePaul Blue Demons reacts in the first half against the St. John’s Red Storm during the first round of the Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden on March 13, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – MARCH 13: Head coach Dave Leitao of the DePaul Blue Demons reacts in the first half against the St. John’s Red Storm during the first round of the Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden on March 13, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) /

Schedule Overview

The Blue Demons enter the year in the precarious position of making sure their schedule is hard enough to be viewed as an at large team, but not hard enough so they will lose the games. They have a nice mix of games and most of them are at home. When you are in the heart of one of the biggest and most exciting cities in the country, it is not hard to get teams to come play you.

Aside from the normal Big East games which are going to be extremely challenging, DePaul has games against many NCAA tournament qualifiers from a year ago. They play Iowa in the annual Gavitt Tip Off games. That game is in Iowa City, which is going to pose a challenge for both teams. It is never easy to go play a team like Iowa for your first road game. The Blue Demons also play Boston College in Chestnut Hill. The Eagles do not appear to be very good this year, so if DePaul plays well they should win that game.

The home slate of non-conference games has some big-name opponents. The Blue Demons host Minnesota, Texas Tech and Buffalo. They also have their annual games against other Chicago schools the Illinois-Chicago Flames and the Northwestern Wildcats. If DePaul does well in the non-conference portion of the schedule, they will set themselves up nicely for a postseason bid provided they don’t fall flat on their face in the conference.

DePaul gets tested right out of the gate in conference play. They get two of the better teams in the league in Seton Hall and Providence at home. One thing to keep in mind is that Seton Hall lost twice to DePaul last year, so they are going to be looking for revenge. The Big East is not going to have a night off. The conference is loaded from top to bottom again.

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