DePaul Preview, 2024-25

DePaul Blue Demons

January 14th, 2025 at Wintrust Arena / February 11th, 2025

Head Coach: Chris Holtmann (251-171 overall, 0-0 at DePaul)

Three-Year NET Average: 195.3

Three-Year kenpom Average: 180.7

Projected 2023-24 T-Rank: 128

Chris Holtmann is back in the Big East with the Blue Demons

Photo by Jeff Hanisch | USA Today Sports

State of the Program

The kenpom database goes back to 1997. In that time, less than 2% of Big East teams finished ranked 200 or worse, bottoming out at #234 Virginia Tech all the way back in 2001. Hopefully that illustrates just how bad DePaul finishing #304, by far the worst rank in league history, was in 2024. That 3-29 (0-20) season got Tony Stubblefield fired. DePaul turned to former Ohio State and Butler head coach Chris Holtmann, who cleaned house, bringing back zero minutes from last year's roster. He added 10 transfers and three freshmen. The good news for DePaul is when you were the worst team in Big East history, there's nowhere to go but up.

Rotation

Holtmann landed a solid point guard in Conor Enright, who started 32 games for a Drake team that went to the NCAA Tournament last year. He's a knockdown shooter from deep, can find the open man, and was well schooled in a winning system. He's joined in the back court by Layden Blocker, a high-upside transfer from Arkansas who was ranked in the top-100 coming out of high school. Blocker struggled to break through with the Razorbacks but is lightning quick, excels at driving to the rim, and is a better playmaker than his freshman year stats indicate. Isaiah Rivera comes to DePaul from across town at UIC, where he was an excellent shooter and high-volume scorer, but he started his career at Colorado State so he should be better acclimated to compete at this level. J.J. Traynor joins from a Louisville program that was a disaster, but as a player there's a lot to like. He is a dominant rim finisher, making 76.7% of his shots this past year (top-10 nationally) after converting on 76.3% the year before. He also added a three-point shot, connecting on 36.8% from deep. Louisville was better on both ends with Traynor in the game and he is one of the gems of Holtmann's massive transfer class, though he did only play 8 games last year. David Skogman comes from Davidson and is the epitome of a stretch 5. He took 94.6% of his shots from three or at the rim (evenly split at 47.3% each) and was great in both regards, making 46.8% from deep and 62.9% ATR. He's a much better offensive than defensive player, so don't be surprised to see him platoon with Missouri State transfer N.J. Benson. Jacob Meyer (Coastal Carolina), Troy D'Amico (Southern Illinois), C.J. Gunn (Indiana), and David Thomas (Mercer) provide depth and experience off the bench while all four are capable long-range shooters. Don't expect freshmen Chris Riddle or Sekou Konneh to contribute much yet.

Style of Play

Historically, Holtmann loves a balanced attack that excels in the spots other teams leave open, such as mid-range. In the past, he has run a slow-tempo offense that often uses the big as a hub for inside out or post-up actions. While there will likely be some elements of that, I don't think that's what Holtmann is planning for this DePaul team. DePaul's ten transfers combined to make 286/728 three point shots last season. If you compared that 39.3% clip to the rest of the country, Holtmann's roster would've ranked 6th nationally in three-point percentage last year. I expect the pace will stay slow, but Holtmann will use his team's three point lethality to keep them close and try to pull upsets. They have the ability to routinely put four and sometimes five long-range specialists on the floor at the same time. Holtmann likes to use motion offense so expect a lot of movement designed to open up the arc.

The biggest question will be on the defensive end. Holtmann has done great when he inherited defensive players, but his high-major stops seem to decline as he gets his own players in place. He had the 8th ranked defense his first year at Butler, followed by #97 and #49. At Ohio State, his first three years were 15/25/19, then the Wesson brothers (recruited by Thad Matta) left and he followed that with 82/111/106. Further, when he was fired at Ohio State on February 14th, their defense according to kenpom was ranked #124 but it finished at #63, a massive improvement. According to T-Rank, Ohio State's defense ranked #24 from the time Jon Diebler took over through the end of the season.

Holtmann's defense starts on the offensive end. They typically send three offensive rebounders to follow the shot while two players drop back to cut off transition opportunities. One player, the fullback, goes into the back court to take away easy dunks or layups while also calling out defensive sets. The halfback is there to slow runners and buy time for the rest of the defense to get back. Once everyone is back, the first big goes retreats to the post, pushing the fullback to the wing and they set up in man-to-man.

2024-25 Outlook

When you clear out the worst roster in league history, it's safe to say DePaul will be improved. Holtmann added experience with Rivera and Skogman, upside with Blocker and Meyer, and tournament pedigree with Enright. There are more offensive weapons than DePaul had in the past, a clear offensive vision built around shooting, and even with defensive questions Holtmann's worst defensive rank in 10 years as a high-major coach was better than Tony Stubblefield's best. The Blue Demons might still be the worst team in the league, but thanks to the roster overhaul and having a competent coach at the helm, there's actually a debate as to whether that will be the case. Their roster may be better than Georgetown or Seton Hall and while they'll still be around the bottom of the league, there's reason to believe they could fight their way out of the cellar. 

One Man's Opinion

It's entirely possible this whole thing collapses, it is DePaul after all, but I'm picking the Blue Demons #10 in the Big East. It's not the best roster, but there's a clear vision and plan, which I can't say for everyone on this end of the standings. This team is going to get into some shootouts and just might have the firepower to win some of them. More often than not, the defense will give up too much to keep up, but they have a competent, Big East level coach and a roster designed to mop up their soft non-con before pulling a few shocking upsets in league play. There's more work to be done, but Holtmann at least laid a foundation.