DePaul Basketball: Key 2020 offseason storylines for Blue Demons

1. Who will replace Paul Reed and Jalen Coleman-Lands?

DePaul will be losing a few players this offseason, but by far the most notable is Paul Reed and Jalen Coleman Lands. Let’s look at both and who could replace them.

Paul Reed was a dominant frontcourt presence that averaged 15.1 PPG and 10.7 RPG, and is forgoing his last year of eligibility to go pro. Reed also dominated defensively averaging 2.6 Blocks per game.

In terms of direct replacements, Romeo Weems comes directly to mind. The freshman forward averaged 8.0 PPG 4.9 REB and 1.3 BLK, and had the same foul troubles that Reed has (both averaged over 2.9 per game). But Weems was already a starter last year and played almost the same amount of minutes as Reed, so instead, we look at freshman center Nick Ongenda. In a crowded frontcourt, Ongenda only played 9.9 minutes per game, but still managed to put up 2.7 PPG 2 RPG 0.9 BLK and have the same foul problems as Reed and Weems (with 2.1 per game). I’d expect these 2 to fill in as an interior presence.

Meanwhile, Jalen Coleman Lands got a waiver for a 6th year of eligibility and decided to transfer to Iowa State. Coleman-Lands averaged 11.1 PPG and was more of a pure scorer. While the Blue Demons have Charlie Moore, he’s already the star and more of a facilitator (15.5 PPG 6.1 APG).

Instead, freshman guard Markese Jacobs could be the one to take over as the scoring guard. He averaged 3.2 PPG in just 9.3 minutes and shot 35% from the field and 32% on 3, with two-thirds of his shots being three-pointers. Coleman-Lands also took significantly more three-pointers than two-pointers, and the pair shot a similar percentage from 3 (both 32%). Overall, it looks like Jacobs would be a more than a satisfactory replacement for Coleman-Lands.

Next up, we look at some of the new faces in Chicago next season.