CHICAGO, ILLINOIS (PSF) - As the clock expired at the end of the first half, 10 seed DePaul found themselves up nine points to 2 seed Xavier in the second round of the Big East tournament. Go back a week, and they had just lost their twelfth game in a row to a difficult Creighton opponent. The reality is, DePaul was so close so many times. On Valentine’s Day, they gave up a late-game lead to a St. Johns team that ended up winning in two overtimes. They went to Milwaukee and nearly came back from down 20 against the eventual Big East champion Marquette. And in the Big East tournament on Thursday, fans watched helplessly as Xavier, a team that fell to DePaul at Wintrust Arena in January when they were the 8th ranked team in the nation, decimated the nine-point halftime lead that DePaul maintained.

Still, knocking off Seton Hall and taking Xavier to the final seconds was an impressive end for such a disappointing team. In any normal season, fans would be looking forward to next year, that is, until they remember Senior Night in Chicago.

As you can see from the photo above, at least 7 players (half of the team) just played their last game for the Blue Demons on Thursday. With the rocky end to the regular season, there is naturally talk of transfers. This summer, there is much pressure from Head Coach Tony Stubblefield and his staff to bring in highly ranked recruits like last year’s Top 100 recruit Zion Cruz.

The end of the season for the Blue Demons was disappointing, and the second half of the Xavier game reminded fans of what they had been watching all season, but there was still a glimmer of hope for DePaul during the tournament. It was clear that this team could compete with any team in an elite conference, and the players and coaches reminded DePaul fans that they are still a high-major college basketball program. Recruits will come, and the organization itself needs to stay cool and take advantage of the near-clear slate they are working with.