WARNING: don't read until or unless your attention span is ready - just close out and move on to something else...
APOLOGY: I'm sorry in general, but also for the chart. Maybe somebody could host it somewhere? Maybe TJ could make the whole post look better?
As you all know I'm a long-suffering DePaul fan. Believe it or not I did live through a period of time where they were perennially ranked in the Top 10 and were a national force. Of course, those days are long, long gone - about 35 years, during which time they didn't just sink into mediocrity - they all but fell off the map completely. ...35 years, huh? Boy, that number sounds familiar... Hey! That's us! We didn't experience anywhere near that kind of decline, but we certainly did sink and consequently settle into mediocrity during that time, save for a handful of joyous seasons.
But then DePaul, out of nowhere, got serious. They somehow were able to wrangle Chris Holtman who had been put out to pasture by Ohio State halfway through the season before. Holtman, who, after a good year at Gardner-Webb, three very good years at Butler and five, more less, good years at Ohio State, suddenly lost it in 2022-23 going 16-19. When his 23-24 team got off to an uninspiring 14-11 start Ohio State decided to pull the plug. Holtman had to rebuild the DePaul roster from scratch, and it was just as well. DePaul had gone an even-worse-than-it-sounds 3-29, 0-20 the year before. You'd think Holtman cleaned house, but no, every player had either exhausted their eligibility or hit the transfer portal on their own. Holtman moved quickly to hire former Southern Illinois coach Bryan Mullins and former Butler coach LaVall Jordan, both of whom helped him secure commitments from mostly mid-majors: one from the A10, one from the Sun Belt, one from the Southern and then four from the Valley. Those six were joined by a few two- and three-star freshman recruits but the big additions were really cast-offs from major programs. Kids that were once highly thought off but didn't pan out at their first stops: CJ Gunn from Indiana, Layden Blocker from Arkansas and JJ Trainor from Louisville.
The team played ridiculously hard and tried to play fast. They did really well in the non-conference portion of their schedule going 9-2 against a mishmash of teams you never heard of that would ultimately comprise a non-con SOS of 338. Of the 11 games out of conference games they played, only three came against anyone with a pulse. They were able to run past Wichita State by 21 but were handled easily at Texas Tech and Northwestern by 14 and 20, respectively.
Then, they got into Big East play. They went 4-16 but they literally blew big late leads and lost in overtime three times to Providence, Seton Hall and Marquette. They were pretty competitive except for four or five games (two against St. John's) and they wound up bowing out of the Big East tournament in the second round (a double OT loss to Creighton). But, to do what they did they had to lean very heavily on Gunn, Blocker and Trainor, all of whom had, walking in, the athleticism to play in the Big East.
It took nearly the whole conference season for guard Isaiah Rivera, an excellent shooting guard out of Illinois-Chicago, to adjust to the speed and physicality of the league to be able to get free *and* get off his threes.
Jacob Meyer, a sophomore blur of a guard from Coastal Carolina, did great in the non-conference before being swallowed up whole in the Big East. He went from starting in the beginning of the year to hardly playing by the end.
David Thomas, a nice little guard out of Mercer, never got much playing time until the end of the season when Connor Enright went down with a shoulder injury but was able to get going, a little bit, by the time the season ended.
The size, speed and athleticism were too much for DePaul. Their kids played their hearts out - their effort was something to be proud of whether you're a DePaul fan or, much more likely, not. They were simply overmatched. Holtman cited the need to get a lot bigger, longer, stronger across the board going into the portal season.
This past season for DePaul, to me, has served as a case study for IU. IU is in the same position having to restock their entire roster with a new, highly anticipated head coach. So far, they've followed a similar blueprint as DePaul - getting quality to very good mid-major guys and taking a chance on some low-major guys who did well. Because the similarities struck me right away, I decided to put together the following chart for your perusal. It shows the production of DePaul's mid-major kids the season before they got there and then what they did for DePaul. Included is conference RPI, SOS and non-conference SOS. Take what you may from it. What I take away from it, combined with watching DePaul's season unfold, is that I think Enright will be OK, Wilkerson will be good, Bailey will be decent, and I'd wait and see with Conerway and Miles.
Anyway, I hope you're able to read it and find it useful.
APOLOGY: I'm sorry in general, but also for the chart. Maybe somebody could host it somewhere? Maybe TJ could make the whole post look better?
As you all know I'm a long-suffering DePaul fan. Believe it or not I did live through a period of time where they were perennially ranked in the Top 10 and were a national force. Of course, those days are long, long gone - about 35 years, during which time they didn't just sink into mediocrity - they all but fell off the map completely. ...35 years, huh? Boy, that number sounds familiar... Hey! That's us! We didn't experience anywhere near that kind of decline, but we certainly did sink and consequently settle into mediocrity during that time, save for a handful of joyous seasons.
But then DePaul, out of nowhere, got serious. They somehow were able to wrangle Chris Holtman who had been put out to pasture by Ohio State halfway through the season before. Holtman, who, after a good year at Gardner-Webb, three very good years at Butler and five, more less, good years at Ohio State, suddenly lost it in 2022-23 going 16-19. When his 23-24 team got off to an uninspiring 14-11 start Ohio State decided to pull the plug. Holtman had to rebuild the DePaul roster from scratch, and it was just as well. DePaul had gone an even-worse-than-it-sounds 3-29, 0-20 the year before. You'd think Holtman cleaned house, but no, every player had either exhausted their eligibility or hit the transfer portal on their own. Holtman moved quickly to hire former Southern Illinois coach Bryan Mullins and former Butler coach LaVall Jordan, both of whom helped him secure commitments from mostly mid-majors: one from the A10, one from the Sun Belt, one from the Southern and then four from the Valley. Those six were joined by a few two- and three-star freshman recruits but the big additions were really cast-offs from major programs. Kids that were once highly thought off but didn't pan out at their first stops: CJ Gunn from Indiana, Layden Blocker from Arkansas and JJ Trainor from Louisville.
The team played ridiculously hard and tried to play fast. They did really well in the non-conference portion of their schedule going 9-2 against a mishmash of teams you never heard of that would ultimately comprise a non-con SOS of 338. Of the 11 games out of conference games they played, only three came against anyone with a pulse. They were able to run past Wichita State by 21 but were handled easily at Texas Tech and Northwestern by 14 and 20, respectively.
Then, they got into Big East play. They went 4-16 but they literally blew big late leads and lost in overtime three times to Providence, Seton Hall and Marquette. They were pretty competitive except for four or five games (two against St. John's) and they wound up bowing out of the Big East tournament in the second round (a double OT loss to Creighton). But, to do what they did they had to lean very heavily on Gunn, Blocker and Trainor, all of whom had, walking in, the athleticism to play in the Big East.
It took nearly the whole conference season for guard Isaiah Rivera, an excellent shooting guard out of Illinois-Chicago, to adjust to the speed and physicality of the league to be able to get free *and* get off his threes.
Jacob Meyer, a sophomore blur of a guard from Coastal Carolina, did great in the non-conference before being swallowed up whole in the Big East. He went from starting in the beginning of the year to hardly playing by the end.
David Thomas, a nice little guard out of Mercer, never got much playing time until the end of the season when Connor Enright went down with a shoulder injury but was able to get going, a little bit, by the time the season ended.
The size, speed and athleticism were too much for DePaul. Their kids played their hearts out - their effort was something to be proud of whether you're a DePaul fan or, much more likely, not. They were simply overmatched. Holtman cited the need to get a lot bigger, longer, stronger across the board going into the portal season.
This past season for DePaul, to me, has served as a case study for IU. IU is in the same position having to restock their entire roster with a new, highly anticipated head coach. So far, they've followed a similar blueprint as DePaul - getting quality to very good mid-major guys and taking a chance on some low-major guys who did well. Because the similarities struck me right away, I decided to put together the following chart for your perusal. It shows the production of DePaul's mid-major kids the season before they got there and then what they did for DePaul. Included is conference RPI, SOS and non-conference SOS. Take what you may from it. What I take away from it, combined with watching DePaul's season unfold, is that I think Enright will be OK, Wilkerson will be good, Bailey will be decent, and I'd wait and see with Conerway and Miles.
Anyway, I hope you're able to read it and find it useful.
| Conf | Non Con | ||||||||||||||||
| Name | HT | Pos | Year | School | Conf | RPI | SOS | SOS | G | GS | MPG | PPG | REB | APG | 3PT% | 3PT M | 3PT ATT |
| DE PAUL: | |||||||||||||||||
| David Skogman | 6-10 | F | 23-24 | Davidson | A10 | 8 | 83 | 126 | 17 | 17 | 24.9 | 13.3 | 4.9 | 0.8 | 0.471 | 1.9 | 4.0 |
| 24-25 | DePaul | Big East | 4 | 125 | 338 | 20 | 14 | 17.6 | 6.4 | 5.1 | 1.2 | 0.370 | 1.0 | 2.7 | |||
| Isaiah Rivera | 6-5 | G | 23-24 | Illinois-Chicago | MVC | 9 | 130 | 224 | 33 | 33 | 33.5 | 15.4 | 4.2 | 1.8 | 0.416 | 2.1 | 5.0 |
| 24-25 | DePaul | Big East | 4 | 125 | 338 | 37 | 23 | 27.7 | 10.8 | 3.8 | 5.1 | 0.414 | 1.8 | 3.5 | |||
| Jacob Meyer | 6-2 | G | 23-24 | Coastal Carolina | Sun Belt | 17 | 237 | 234 | 31 | 31 | 33.9 | 15.7 | 5.1 | 2.6 | 0.402 | 1.5 | 3.8 |
| 24-25 | DePaul | Big East | 4 | 125 | 338 | 33 | 16 | 19.4 | 8.9 | 2.6 | 0.7 | 0.333 | 1.3 | 3.8 | |||
| NJ Benson | 6-8 | F | 23-24 | Missouri State | MVC | 9 | 144 | 299 | 32 | 23 | 21.8 | 8.6 | 7.9 | 0.7 | - | - | - |
| 24-25 | DePaul | Big East | 4 | 125 | 338 | 28 | 11 | 21.9 | 9.0 | 6.2 | 0.9 | - | - | - | |||
| Troy D'Amico | 6-7 | F | 23-24 | Southern Illinois | MVC | 9 | 160 | 315 | 32 | 32 | 32.4 | 9.3 | 3.7 | 2.6 | 0.425 | 3.1 | 7.3 |
| 24-25 | DePaul | Big East | 4 | 125 | 338 | 32 | 29 | 26.5 | 6.1 | 2.7 | 1.7 | 0.379 | 1.8 | 4.4 | |||
| Connor Enright | 6-0 | G | 23-24 | Drake | MVC | 9 | 50 | 38 | 33 | 33 | 26.2 | 6.9 | 3.2 | 3.2 | 0.439 | 1.3 | 3.0 |
| 24-25 | DePaul | Big East | 4 | 125 | 338 | 23 | 23 | 30.0 | 7.5 | 3.3 | 6.2 | 0.325 | 1.1 | 3.5 | |||
| David Thomas | 6-2 | G | 23-24 | Mercer | Southern | 12 | 171 | 223 | 31 | 8 | 22.9 | 11.0 | 2.4 | 2.3 | 0.402 | 1.1 | 2.8 |
| 24-25 | DePaul | Big East | 4 | 125 | 338 | 27 | 2 | 15.1 | 4.0 | 1.4 | 1.4 | 0.441 | 0.4 | 1.5 | |||
| INDIANA: | |||||||||||||||||
| Connor Enright | 6-0 | G | 24-25 | DePaul | Big East | 4 | 125 | 338 | 23 | 23 | 30.0 | 7.5 | 3.3 | 6.2 | 0.325 | 1.1 | 3.5 |
| 24-25 | Indiana | Big Ten | 2 | 16 | 43 | ||||||||||||
| Reed Bailey | 6-11 | F | 24-25 | Davidson | A10 | 6 | 148 | 271 | 33 | 33 | 33.3 | 18.8 | 6.1 | 3.8 | 0.415 | 0.5 | 1.2 |
| 24-25 | Indiana | Big Ten | 2 | 16 | 43 | ||||||||||||
| Lamar Wilkerson | 6-4 | G | 24-25 | Sam Houston State | CUSA | 7 | 104 | 132 | 32 | 32 | 34.9 | 20.5 | 4.0 | 2.1 | 0.445 | 3.4 | 7.7 |
| 24-25 | Indiana | Big Ten | 2 | 16 | 43 | ||||||||||||
| Tayton Conerway | 6-3 | G | 24-25 | Troy | Sun Belt | 18 | 162 | 94 | 34 | 34 | 30.4 | 14.2 | 4.6 | 4.8 | 0.270 | 1.1 | 4.0 |
| 24-25 | Indiana | Big Ten | 2 | 16 | 43 | ||||||||||||
| Jasai Miles | 6-6 | G | 24-25 | North Florida | A-Sun | 24 | 266 | 66 | 32 | 32 | 31.7 | 15.4 | 6.8 | 1.9 | 0.335 | 2.4 | 7.3 |
| 24-25 | Indiana | Big Ten | 2 | 16 | 43 |
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