Creighton vs. DePaul: 2021-22 college basketball game preview, TV schedule
By Dylan Kelly
The DePaul Blue Demons will look to even the season series against the Creighton Blue Jays tonight at Wintrust Arena.
These two teams squared off against one another back on January 22nd. Creighton emerged victorious at home, winning the game 60-47. DePaul struggled mightily to contain Ryan Kalkbrenner in that game. The sophomore center recorded a double-double. He tallied 18 points and 10 rebounds (including 6 offensive rebounds). It will be critical for them to keep Kalkbrenner off of the glass tonight as much as possible.
DePaul enters this game with a 3-11 conference record, meanwhile, Creighton is 8-5 in Big East play. Despite the record disparities between the teams, I believe the Blue Demons has a slight edge in tonight’s game.
When evaluating and predicting college basketball games it is important to focus on four key factors; offensive rebounding, free throw percentage, guard play, and defensive efficiency.
According to KenPom, DePaul has an offensive rebounding percentage of 31.40%. A few percentage points about Creighton who come in at 28.30%. The Blue Demons also have the advantage over Creighton when evaluating the backcourt play of each squad.
While they don’t do a fantastic job of protecting the ball, DePaul has a turnover percentage of 18.40%. Creighton, who ranks worst in the Big East in turnover percentage, comes in at 22.0%.
Although they rank behind Creighton by quite a bit in free throw percentage, I am overlooking it because I believe that homecourt advantage will be enough for the Blue Demons to overcome this.
The one cause for concern that I have with betting on DePaul tonight is that Creighton ranks no. 1 in defensive efficiency in the entire Big East. They are the much stronger defensive team in this matchup and could pose serious problems for Javon Freeman-Liberty and David Jones.
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With that being said, I will be backing DePaul tonight on the moneyline to even the season series against the Blue Jays. I will also be taking the under 140 in this one, as I am predicting a low-scoring affair.
Official Picks: DePaul ML (-140) & Creighton/DePaul u140 (-110)