DePaul Basketball: Umoja Gibson and Caleb Murphy forms a solid new backcourt

After a fairly quiet offseason, DePaul Basketball was able to land a pair of guards in Umoja Gibson and Caleb Murphy. What do they offer to the Blue Demons?

Last season, the backcourt for DePaul Basketball was all about Javon Freeman-Liberty. The senior guard led the team with 21.7 ppg, 7.3 rpg, and 3.2 apg and was the key reason why they were able to finish with 15 total wins and was competitive in Big East play.

The lead guard for the Blue Demons has since gone pro this offseason, leaving a giant hole of production for the team to fill. And after forward and second-leading scorer David Jones transferred to conference foe St. John’s, DePaul was in big need of some newcomers to replace the lost offense.

And good news finally came in the past week for the program with a pair of solid commitments, with the first being Umoja Gibson from Oklahoma.

After starting his career at North Texas (redshirted his freshman year after playing just 2 games in 2017-18), the 6’1 combo guard transferred to the Sooners, where he split time between the bench and starting lineup in what proved to be a crowded backcourt in 2020-21. Still, Gibson averaged 9.1 ppg and shot better from three-point range (41%) than he did from inside the arc (36%).

But as a full-time starter this past season, Gibson became an all-around scorer, averaging a team-leading 13.3 ppg at Oklahoma. He shot 39% from deep but improved inside the arc to 53%. Some key performances included a career-high 30 points in a win over Texas Tech, as well as three games with 26+ points in the final seven games of the season.

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Gibson’s new backcourt teammate is Caleb Murphy, who isn’t as experienced as the former Sooner but gives DePaul a true point guard to work with. The 6’4 playmaker and former top-100 prospect comes from South Florida and led them with 11.4 ppg and 3.4 apg this past season. Murphy wasn’t a prolific scorer but was fairly consistent, reaching double figures in 24 of 31 games with a high of 19 points against Auburn.

Murphy is a different kind of guard compared to Gibson, as he isn’t much of a shooter. In fact, he made just 6/30 shots from deep in his sophomore season. He can create in different ways and is a true ball-handler so this new backcourt for the Blue Demons actually is a fit, as Murphy can have the ball in his hands while Gibson can play off the ball more and remain a threat as a shooter. And there’s still Jalen Terry, who averaged 8.2 ppg and 3.1 apg as a sophomore for DePaul and likely see his own role expand without Freeman-Liberty around.

Will the newly formed backcourt of Gibson, Murphy, and Terry be good enough to move up the ladder? Not likely if the frontcourt on paper doesn’t improve. But compared to a week ago, this roster was in bad shape. These two pickups, if nothing else, stabilizes the backcourt for DePaul Basketball and that in itself is a good situation.