Better Know a Team: DePaul Blue Demons

Last Year’s Record: 3-29 (0-20)

Preseason Metrics (last season finish):
Torvik: 118
KenPom: 163

Coach: Chris Holtmann, 1st Season.
Ding dong the Stubbs era is mercifully dead. After the Leitao era—which once saw Leitao somehow miss the NCAAT with a team that included future NBA players Paul Reed and Max Strus and future National Champion Jalen Coleman-Lands—which ended with the ‘mons limping to the end of the 2020-21 season with a 5-14 (2-13) record with a team that featured future NBA player Javon Freeman-Liberty and future Final Four starter Charlie Moore (at Miami (FL)), DeWayne Peevy had seen enough, and he made the call to Dana Altman’s bag man at Oregon, Tony “Stubbs” Stubblefield.

Pictured: The 3 Saviors of DePaul Basketball

It seems like just yesterday the Stubbs era started with so much promise, as he rode JFL and future traitor David Jones to a respectable 15-16 (6-14) record, good for a 103 KenPom (just the 3 sub-110 KP since 2008), with wins vs. Rutgers, at Louisville, vs. #20 Seton Hall, at #21 Xavier, and vs. Marquette. Things were looking up. As seen above, the program had plenty of talent coming through. Clearly the facilities and the venerable Second City were a draw. DePaul just needed a coach, and it looked like maybe they had found him…

Alas it was not meant to be. As it turns out, Stubbs is just a bag man. And that’s OK. He is not a basketball coach. He followed-up that promising first season with a 10-23 (3-17) season, good for a KP of 135, and put the exclamation point on his downfall, leading DePaul to a 3-29 (0-20) season last year, good for what I believe to be the lowest high-major KenPom ranking of all-time, 304. In the KenPom era (beginning in 1997) DePaul’s previous low was 234 under Joey Meyer in 1997, when they were still in CUSA. That was also the only other time in that stretch that they had only 3 wins. The best player Stubbs was able to land…I don’t even know, let’s just say Da’Sean Nelson cause I think it’ll make everyone happy. While the Leitao era was bad, the Stubbs era was catastrophic, and sadly took the Demons to new lows.

But sometimes you gotta hit rock bottom before you can pull yourself up…

Enter Chris Holtmann. Chris is a legitimate basketball coach, highly experienced, and really knows the game. He is a far cry from the Bagman. Holtmann is a perfect fit for the Blue Demons in this writer’s humble opinion. He has the experience. He knows the Big East, putting up 3 straight 20+ win seasons at Butler, and a Sweet 16 before getting the Ohio St. gig. As with many big football schools, patience was not the strong suit in Columbus, and some bad luck hurt Holtmann along the way, as his best team per KenPom was in 2019-20, coming in at 8th, and looked poised to make some noise from the 4-6 seed line range. The other 4 of his first 5 seasons at Ohio St. saw him make the tournament and never make the second weekend. One middling 16-19 (5-15) season in 2022-23 and he was on the hot seat in 2023-24. Ohio St. opened league play 4-10, Holtmann was fired, Ohio St. slapped the interim tag on assistant Jake Diebler who put up an 8-3 record the rest of the way, making the NIT quarterfinals, enough to land him the permanent job.

Holtmann is someone who knows the BIG East from his time at Buttler. While this may anger some Buttler fans, I think the two jobs are fairly similar. Smaller program. Smaller brand (although Buttler was still riding the high of the Stevens era when Holtmann took over). Less resources. Requires a lot of energy and a holistic approach to success. Which is why I think the Holtmann era will go well for the ‘mons.

Rotation:

PG: Conor Enright (Jr.), 6’1” 180 lbs.
SG: Jacob Meyer (So.), 6’2” 195 lbs.
SF: Isaiah Rivera (Sr.), 6’5” 210 lbs.
PF: JJ Traynor (Gr.), 6’8” 190 lbs.
C: David Skogman (Gr.), 6’10” 235 lbs.

Bench:
Layden Blocker (So.), 6’2” 175 lbs. (G)
David Thomas (so.), 6’2” 195 lbs. (G)
Troy D’Amico (Gr.), 6’7” 210 lbs. (F)
NJ Benson (Jr.), 6’8” 225 lbs. (C)
CJ Gunn (Jr.), 6’6” 198 lbs. (F)
Sekou Konneh (Fr.) 6’9” 180 lbs (F)
Chris Riddle (Fr.) 6’5” 185 lbs (G)

Big Non-Conference Games:

12/4, 8pm, ESPNU - at Texas Tech
12/21, 3pm, B1G Network - at Northwestern

Two big road games for the ‘mons in the non-conference slate. Winning in Lubbock is a tall order, but that game vs. Northwestern is very winnable. These are the types of games DePaul needs to win this year for the good of the conference. I think they’ll get that win at their suburban rivals. They also have some quality mid-majors on the schedule, with Duquesne and Wichita State coming to Wintrust.

What’s Old: ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

What’s New: ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING. We discussed the head coach above. The ‘mons open the season with 12 new scholarship players, and 1 open scholarship. 10 transfers, and 2 freshmen. If there’s one thing about this roster that pops, it’s the shooting. Jacob Meyer, a sophomore transfer from Coastal Carolina shot 40% from 3 last year. Troy D’Amico shot 37% in 3 years as a Saluki. David Thomas shot 40% for Mercer and came on late, scoring 17 ppg on 50/45/80 shooting down the stretch and through the SoCon tournament. CJ Gunn shot 34% on limited reps in the B1G. JJ Traynor shot 37% for a bad Louisville squad. Isaiah Rivera is a 40% shooter across 3 seasons at Colorado St. and 1 at UIC. David Skogman, the starting 5, can really stretch the floor, shooting 47% from 3 last year on 4 attempts per game. At 6’10” he should create some matchup problems on offense. And of course Conor Enright shot lights out for Drake during their stellar season last year, posting 42% on 3 attempts per game.

Rounding out the likely rotation are the only 2 non-shooters in the rotation: NJ Benson and Layden Blocker. Benson is a PF from Missouri State. He shot 63% from the field (all 2’s, no 3-pt attempts), putting up 9 & 8, and adding in a block and a half in just 22 mpg. He’ll be asked to fill in as an undersized 5 when Skogman heads to the bench. Nelson will also look to be the ying to Skogman’s yang, picking up Skogman’s slack on defense. That said, he is undersized for the 5, which could create issues in a Big East that features some high quality big men.

A lot of DePaul’s hopes will ride on Blocker’s athletic shoulders.

Layden Blocker is the most intriguing piece on the roster. Blocker averaged 13 mpg in 27 games, with 5 starts for an Arkansas team that massively underachieved amid rumors of locker room strife. 247 Sports’ composite ranking had him 35th in the class of 2023. He’s immensely talented, is the most athletic guy on the roster, and certainly has the highest upside of anyone on this roster. He’s also likely to be one of the better defenders on this roster, averaging 2 steals and 5 boards per 40 minutes. Calling him a “non-shooter” is probably a bit harsh. He’s not going to be a lights out shooter, but I think he will shoot better than the 12% from deep that he shot last year.

Holtmann also added two HS recruits, both 3-stars, neither of whom are likely to contribute this year. Neither player had much high-major interest, although PF Sekou Konneh did take a visit to Louisville. Given the lack of depth in the front court, it’s certainly possible Konneh sees some time this year, but big minutes would be surprising. SF Chris Riddle held offers from Illinois and Texas Tech, but neither were particularly serious in their pursuit. It’ll be interesting to see if these guys are fringe high major players, and if so, whether Holtmann can develop them into contributors in subsequent years or if we see them transfer down in competition next off-season.

Frankly, given where DePaul was, needing a whole new roster, and the limited resources on hand at this moment, it’s not surprising that the roster is lacking in high-end talent. However, it’s clear to see what Holtmann was thinking , and he put together a coherent, if flawed, roster. The clear plan for Holtmann’s ‘mons: “we don’t have the athletes, but we’ll try to shoot you to death.” In other words, Make DePaul Fun Again! #MDFA. I picture the whole season looking something like that time that Max Strus murdered whatever slim hope SJU had of a tournament bid by shooting something like 18/24 from deep (don’t fact check that, that’s how I remember it. That’s my truth. I don’t care what your “numbers” say).

The thing I like most about this roster is that despite having 10 Transfers, this team is young. Holtmann was a pretty good player developer at Ohio St., helping guys like EJ Liddell and others improve year over year. Six of the 10 transfers on this roster are eligible to return next year: Blocker, Enright, Meyer, Gunn, Thomas, and Benson. The odds of keeping all of them is slim in this day and age, but if you can keep and develop 3-4 of them, you have a nice core to build around. Add in a couple of quality transfers—particularly defensive guys—and suddenly this is a team that could make waves in 2025-26.

The Optimist’s Take: The shooting and offense translates to the Big East for those making a jump. Layden Blocker lives up to the potential of a top-40 player out of HS, and DePaul wins a bunch of games of the 95-90 variety, climbing into the top-7 in the Big East.

The Hater’s Take: This is still DePaul, the lack of high-end talent kills them, the shooting regresses for players making a jump up in competition, and the defense is every bit as bad as we expect it to be. I mean just look at these abysmal 2023-24 D-Ratings per Sports Reference, worst to best, 100 is average, lower numbers are better for defense:

Traynor - 115.4
Meyer - 111.7
Thomas - 111.6
Blocker - 110.9
Gunn - 107.7
D’Amico - 107.3
Skogman - 106.2
Rivera - 105.5
Enright - 101.9
Benson - 98.0

For those keeping track at home that’s 1 above-average defender (Benson) and one only slightly below average (Enright), and the rest are a mess. Holtmann’s best teams have all been great defensively. Of his 3 best teams at Ohio State , plus his Butler Sweet 16 team, the worst defensive figure was 23 in Holtmann’s first year at Ohio St. It will be very hard to replicate that defense this year, even though I think Holtmann is a very good coach. They simply don’t have the defensive horses.

So if we know the defense will be lackluster, if DePaul’s offensive talent doesn’t click, it could be another long year for DePaul.

Fan Pulse:

“DePaul is a work in progress. They have some pieces that if you sleep on them will hurt you big on the right night. They’re not going to be a pushover by any means but remain a verifiable big away from making real noise. Offensively they’re going to challenge teams because they can shoot from anywhere on the floor. Defensively they have holes that can be taken advantage of, namely in the paint. That said, DePaul is on their way to being on their way-they win a few they shouldn’t and could lose a couple they should win. But in a close game, they’ll definitely fight to the end.” - John Maniantis (@dibsemeritus on Twitter; host of The DePaud podcast)

Bottom Line: This blogger believes in the DePaul renaissance. I’m rooting for the DePaul renaissance. I think the DePaul renaissance happens under Chris Holtmann…

…it just won’t be this year. DePaul will be 1000% better. But sadly, that says more about last seasons depressing results, than the success they’ll see under Holtmann this year. The ‘mons will be the quintessential frisky team. When the shooting is at its best, they’ll hang with almost anyone. When the shooting isn’t there, they’ll struggle offensively due to a lack of athleticism. They’ll struggle defensively whether the shooting is on or not.

Prediction: 10th Place, 14-17 (5-15)