Some perspective on then and now for DePaul basketball.

From 1948-72, DePaul had the highest winning percentage of any Catholic independent--over 70%.

In 16 seasons from 1976-1992, DePaul made the NCAA 14 times, NIT twice.

Since November 2000, DePaul has never been ranked in the AP top 25. It has one NCAA berth (2004) and one NIT berth (2007)

DePaul has finished last in the Big East standings 10 of the last 12 years and is 34-146 (.188) in the last ten seasons.

I remember watching as the early days of superstation WGN coincided with Ray Meyer's best teams at DePaul. Guys like Mark Aguirre and Terry Cummings were beasts. They played at tiny Alumni Hall on campus, before the Rosemont Horizon (now Allstate Arena) was built and they started playing home games there.

They're a long way from that now.

Hard to believe DePaul was still in C-USA the last time they went to the NCAAT.

Given their location and membership in a P6 league, you might think they could do better. Didn’t they build a new arena recently?

(06-05-2020 07:16 PM)UTEPDallas Wrote:  Hard to believe DePaul was still in C-USA the last time they went to the NCAAT.

Given their location and membership in a P6 league, you might think they could do better. Didn’t they build a new arena recently?

Wintrust Arena is a palace. Here’s DePaul’s scanned ticket attendance the first year.

(06-05-2020 08:30 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  Here’s DePaul’s scanned ticket attendance the first year.

This, for a school of 22,000 students in a city of 2.6 million people.

(06-05-2020 10:09 PM)DFW HOYA Wrote:  

(06-05-2020 08:30 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  Here’s DePaul’s scanned ticket attendance the first year.

This, for a school of 22,000 students in a city of 2.6 million people.

That's a little off, a third of that are grad students who couldn't care less about the Blue Devils. Your point still remains though, DePaul men's basketball (the women's team is pretty solid) has been a complete joke for over a generation.

Wintrust is a beautiful arena, but imo the idea of replacing off-campus Allstate Arena with another off-campus facility was inherently flawed. Yes the South Loop of Chicago is a much better location than Suburban Rosemont and is more accessible from campus by public transit or for alums who live or work near the loop, but spending $170 million on a new arena that normally takes close to an hour to get to during rush hour wasn't the way to go. The Lincoln Yards soccer stadium was shot down pretty quickly, but I think Depaul could've found a way to get something done at that location instead. They went with a flashy building instead of fixing the fundamental issues involved.

DePaul and the other local programs are always going to have an uphill battle in getting support with how many Chicagoans have preexisting loyalties to Big Ten schools and Notre Dame. Northwestern was up for a hot second then flamed out, UIC is a mess even if they could become a solid mid-major one day, and Loyola doesn't have the resources or location to be a really big presence. If the right admin gets in place Depaul could rise up under a good coach but it'll be a decade or so before it truly happens.

Seems like she should have been fired a good 10 years ago. Amazing how she kept her job for so long.