Friday, February 01, 2008

DePaul Preview

The Blue Demons of DePaul come to the Joyce Center tomorrow. Jerry Wainwright's squad is 9-11 and 4-4 in the Big East with a RPI ranking at 123.

Starters:

#3 Draelon Burns- 17.5 PPG, 3.6 RPG, 32% 3PA
#13 Mac Koshwal- 6'10" Freshman- 11.5 PPG, 8.0 RPG
#5 Karron Clarke- 9.7 PPG, 5.0 RPG, 39%
#12 Cliff Clinkscales- 2.6 PPG, 3.7 APG
#30 Will Walker- 8.4 PPG, 2.2 RPG, 43%

Bench-

#2 Dar Tucker- 12.8 PPG, 5.3 RPG, 22.5 MPG, 29%
#4 Wesley Green- 6'9", 300 lbs.- 4.9 PPG, 4.7 RPG, 20.3 MPG
#1 Jabari Currie- 4.8 PPG, 2.8 APG, 44%

Clarke is the only really efficient player on the team. Six ND players score more points per 100 possessions than anyone in the DePaul lineup.

As a team, DePaul boasts one of the least efficient defenses in the country (272nd). Defensive effective field goal %, turnover %, and rebound % all rank below 200. On offense, the only main statistic in which DePaul ranks well is turnover percentage. The Blue Devils are 30th in the country with one in 18.3% of possessions. To contrast, Notre Dame ranks in the top 100 in 7 of the 8 most important team statistics (low statistic- forcing turnovers on defense).

What does that mean? DePaul will not turn the ball over a lot, due to solid ballhandling and a Notre Dame defense that does not generate a lot of steals. Other than that, Notre Dame should shoot a higher percentage than the Blue Devils, win the rebounding battle, and get a lot of points from the line (like last night's game).

There you have it. DePaul ranks 70 spots below Providence in the RPI, so look for the Irish to have an easier time getting the win. Hopefully the guys can get out to another good start and avoid the letdowns that they suffered against the Friars.

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