What Happened to DePaul Men’s Basketball?
DePaul men’s basketball head coach Tony Stubblefield walks off the court after a loss last season. Picture courtesy of TheDePaulia.
Heartbreak. Disappointment. Frustration.
A collection of words that could encapsulate the past 20 years of DePaul men’s basketball.
Losing 12 straight games after beating No. 8 ranked Xavier at home in mid-January. Blowing a double-digit lead in the second half against St. John’s at home. Blowing a 13-point, second half lead against second-seeded Xavier in the Big East Tournament quarterfinals.
Those are all just from last season alone, and this season hasn’t started any better, with a 1-5 record and four of those losses to low-major programs.
Since it joined the Big East conference in the 2005-06 season, DePaul has finished last or second-to-last in the conference standings in 16 out of 18 seasons, including a winless 0-18 campaign in the 2008-09 season.
DePaul’s conference win total every season since the program joined the Big East in 2005.
The program has not sniffed an NCAA tournament appearance since 2004. 19 years ago. It is the longest drought out of any high-major Division I men’s program.
Given this lack of success over the last two decades, some observers don’t see a bright future ahead.
“[People] feel like it’s kind of a bottom-tier Big East school that’s most likely not going to be relevant nationally every year, no matter who the coach has been,” said Jeff Goodman, The Messenger and Field of 68 college basketball analyst. “They might pull off an upset or two, but there’s just no chance they’re going to be a factor in the Big East right now.”
Despite their current decades-long struggles, DePaul used to be one of the best programs in the country in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s.
“They were bigger than the Bulls,” said Laurence Holmes, 670 The Score radio host and DePaul adjunct professor. “The world was much smaller then, but DePaul would routinely outdraw the Bulls in the late 70s and early 80s. The Rosemont Horizon was the place to be.”
DePaul games used to draw huge crowds at Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois. Picture courtesy of DePaul Athletics.
The program’s past popularity and success begs the question, what happened to DePaul basketball?
The Glory Days
“It seems like an eternity ago that DePaul was legitimately, nationally relevant,” Goodman said.
Underscoring Goodman’s point, the program hasn’t been dancing since 2004.
However, DePaul men’s basketball was not always known for losing. In fact, it was known as a powerhouse program under legendary head coach Ray Meyer in the late 1970s and early 1980s. DePaul made the Final Four in 1979 and, in the two seasons immediately following, was ranked as high as No. 1 in the polls.
Chicago sports media personality David Kaplan was a former high school basketball coach when DePaul basketball was ranked No. 1 in the country. He echoed Holmes’ sentiments.
“They were bigger than the Bulls…That program was absolutely one of the gold standards in college basketball,” Kaplan said. “It was awesome back then.”
Led by future No. 1 overall NBA Draft pick Mark Aguirre and a strong supporting cast, the Blue Demons reached heights not even fathomable from the current program.
The following years were successful as well, with Ray Meyer’s son, Joey Meyer, taking over the head coaching position in 1984 after Ray retired. The younger Meyer led DePaul to NCAA tournament appearances in his first five seasons as head coach, with the team reaching the Sweet 16 in 1985-86 and 1986-87.
DePaul had three NCAA tournament appearances in the 1990s, never making it out of the first round in all three trips. The program made another NCAA tournament appearance in 2003-04, winning their first-round game, but have not made it back since, causing people to reminisce on what times used to be like.
“When DePaul was winning, they were humongous,” Kaplan said. “TV ratings, excellent. Crowds, go look at what they were drawing. 17,000 [fans] a game at Allstate Arena. They were tough to beat.”
The Current State of DePaul Men’s Basketball
Since its glory days, the program has turned almost irrelevant in some ways. There is no current history for potential recruits to think of in comparison to schools like Duke or Kansas. Even Big East conference rivals are more successful, with Villanova having won two national championships in the last eight seasons, and Connecticut winning last season’s national championship. These schools all have more name recognition and notoriety and receive more national TV games than DePaul due to their success.
DePaul is in a difficult financial situation for their men’s basketball program. They do not have the resources necessary in comparison to other Big East schools, according to athletic director DeWayne Peevy.
“We had the national champion in our league in the Big East last year and we’re last in funding in basketball in the Big East conference,” Peevy told Fox 32 Chicago in September.
Peevy’s admission of a lack of funding for the program compared to other conference schools can make it challenging to spend on new resources like upgraded facilities.
“When you’ve got to go up against [Connecticut head coach Dan] Hurley, who has an unlimited budget, and these other schools can spend whatever they want, it’s a tough situation to be in,” Kaplan said.
Another major difference in success between these other universities listed is DePaul's location. Chicago has other professional and collegiate sports teams that are popular. Therefore, it is easy for a college team to get lost in Chicago fans’ minds, especially when they are not winning.
“It’s been tough sometimes being in a major city,” Goodman said. “[Chicago] is a pro-sports town. Obviously, they’ve had tradition there, but it dates back a long time ago.
“The history at DePaul, nobody remembers,” he continued. “No kids remember. They’re not going to DePaul because of any history.”
The play on the court has been troubling for DePaul as well. They have not had much talent to work with due to frequent losing, often leading to top Chicago-area recruits going to well-known Midwest schools like Illinois, Michigan State, and others.
In the 2021-2022 college basketball season, there were 87 Division 1 players from Chicago playing on teams across the country. However, DePaul only had two scholarship players from Chicago on their roster that same season, according to ncaa.com.
Top blue-blood schools changed their recruiting style in the past by traveling across the country to get the best players, which meant DePaul no longer had an inside track to the best recruits and has struggled ever since, according to Holmes.
“Some of the big-time college basketball programs like Kansas, Kentucky, Duke, North Carolina started to change their recruiting footprint,” Holmes said. “They were coming to places like Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis, [Washington] D.C. and getting the best players. It was an arms race that DePaul quickly started to fall behind in.”
DePaul has also circled through many different head coaches in the last several seasons. Oliver Purnell, Jerry Wainwright, and even bringing back former head coach Dave Leitao for a second stint did not work. Since 2021, the program has been in the hands of former Oregon assistant Tony Stubblefield. He knows there is work to be done for turning DePaul back into a winning program.
Stubblefield spoke in October at Big East Media Day about his expectations for the team this season.
“I think our depth is really going to be the strength of this team,” he said. “That’s one thing we really focused on during the recruiting process, getting a little bit more depth, athleticism, guys that can play multiple positions.”
He also talked about how his team will have to be committed defensively this season to finally establish a winning culture.
“We’ve got to hang our hat on being able to get stops,” Stubblefield continued. “We’re not going to go out there and get 80-90 points night in and night out, but if we can go out there and get stops, get consecutive stops, we’re going to give ourselves a chance when that ball isn’t going in the basket.”
DePaul men’s basketball head coach Tony Stubblefield is entering his third season leading the program. Picture courtesy of bigredlouie.com.
According to Goodman, this season could define the Stubblefield era for DePaul basketball. A winning season or a postseason berth could spark hope for the future, while a losing season could put the third-year coach on the hot seat.
“I think the key for Stubbs is, year three, take a step and be average,” Goodman said. “Can you somehow finish to where you’re in the NIT this year? That’s the goal if you’re DePaul. You’re not looking to make a jump to the NCAA tournament this year, but if you’re taking a step and going to win eight or so league games in the Big East next year, you’re an NIT team.”
The Big East is a daunting league as it currently stands, so DePaul could struggle again record-wise given they’ve already started this season 1-5. It is still possible to show progress in competitiveness with an influx of new talent brought in from across the globe this past offseason, however, even current students have trouble seeing progress in the near future.
“Tony Stubblefield has done what he can, but with an astronomically low budget and being at the bottom of the conference, it’s going to be difficult to turn on the switch and be relevant again,” said Tom Gorski, DePaul senior and DePaulia Men’s Basketball Beat Reporter. “It’s going to take multiple years of success before they can turn it around. They have to finish in the top 6 of the Big East to get people to believe.”
DePaul men’s basketball has the second-smallest budget in the Big East conference.
With DePaul’s budget being 80th in the country and second-to-last in the Big East according to basketball website The Resource Nexus, it may be hard for Stubblefield to bring in elite transfers or freshmen with how prevalent name, image and likeness (NIL) is in college basketball today.
Although DePaul has tried to increase NIL funding and spread awareness about it to student-athletes, the lack of success as a program makes it challenging to persuade people to donate their own money for it, according to Holmes, who is a DePaul alum himself.
“I was impressed with how DePaul jumped out in front on NIL,” he said. “But those opportunities are going to be headed up by alums and right now the sense I get from other alums is that they don't have anything to get excited about.”
Despite these challenges, Goodman said DePaul still has positive things to sell in comparison to other schools.
“If you’re DePaul, you’re selling playing time. You’re selling the Big East and that you’re gonna be on TV every day playing big-time teams and you’re in the city of Chicago,” he said. “Those are all three really good things to sell. Think about it, there are a lot of schools out there with kids who would like to be in the city instead of being on a campus.”
The Future of DePaul Basketball
It will take multiple things going right for DePaul to become good again, including creative recruiting and finding players that care about playing for the program, according to Holmes, but their supporters will be rewarded for at least 20 years of patience.
Kaplan doesn’t know when DePaul’s tournament drought will end, but that won’t stop his support for the team.
“I grew up a DePaul fan,” he said. “I will die a DePaul fan. I root for them all the time. I want them to do well because it’s in my blood. It’s where my father went.”
Despite their struggles last season and current record, the team’s conference tournament play did provide some potential optimism for the future. DePaul beat Seton Hall in the tournament’s first round, highlighted by a game-winning blocked shot as the buzzer sounded. The Blue Demons then played second-seeded Xavier in a very competitive and back-and-forth game, ultimately falling after being up by 13 points in the second half.
“I'm forever hopeful,” Holmes said of DePaul’s future. “It would be phenomenal if DePaul could be competitive. I was encouraged by how well they played in the Big East Tournament. It would be nice if that type of effort was sustained over a 30-game schedule.”
Although Holmes can’t exactly pinpoint when the Blue Demons will eventually make the tournament again due to the program’s struggles, his optimism and sense of hope will always remain.
“My hope is that it happens in the next couple of years, but hope is the only thing that I'm basing that on,” he said.