Column: This is a new era of DePaul men’s basketball that started with a no-nonsense mentality

In the past, DePaul would struggle to beat Louisville on the road after going down nine twice in the game.

Shots don’t fall. It was a bustling crowd on their first road test. Only seven scholarship players are available. The reason would be there for the Blue Devils why they couldn’t defeat the Cardinals.

Those excuses will be used in the past. But not now. Not when the program is looking to build something new.

This year marks a clean slate for DePaul’s men’s basketball, featuring a new coaching staff and an almost entirely new roster.

The Blue Demons, under first-year head coach Tony Stubblefield, face their first away game of the season on Friday. DePaul didn’t have his best shooting night, his offense had several goalless streaks, however, the team came home with a 62-55 win over Louisville — snapping a 10-game losing streak to the Cardinals.

Second-class forward David Jones leads with a career-high 33 points, including 23 points in the second half and 14 rebounds. He is the only Blue Devil who shoots better than 50 percent of the field at night.

“Give credit to DePaul, especially 32 [David Jones],” Louisville head coach Chris Mack told reporters after the game. “He just took over the game. He wanted more games. He came with 50-50 balls which really cost us our goal. He’s a one-man destroyer crew. We don’t have an answer for him, whether it’s because his iso drive hits the rim and finishes or if it’s the cherry on top in the end shooting the threes. He made some big games with loose balls and broke our backs.”

This game would not be considered one of the most efficient DePaul games. Sometimes, bad basketball from both teams. DePaul had two four-minute stretches in the half where he couldn’t buy a basket. It went down nine in the first half and in the second.

And none of that matters in the end. The look didn’t have to be pretty, it just had to be good enough to beat Louisville’s stingy army—and it was.

Senior guard Javon Freeman-Liberty, who broke into the country’s top 10 game in points per game, struggled with his shots all night, finishing with just eight points on 2 of 15 shots.

Again, that proved to be no problem as Jones put his team on his back. He constantly came up with big plays in the second half to keep his team in the game and then put the Blue Devils ahead.

Jones stretched in the second half when he scored 12 straight points to put DePaul 46-44. Then, with the Blue Demons trailing 50-49 with 5:16 remaining in the game, the tier two forward scored seven straight points to give the visitors the lead once and for all.

DePaul has a motto this season that embodies this team: “FindAway.” That doesn’t mean the team has to be perfect in every game, but one way or another, find a way to get the win.

On Friday, the Blue Demons found a way to win in a way that would not have happened in previous years. The defense continues Louisville to its lowest point total this season. At times, DePaul shifts his defense from man-to-man to zone.

“We’ve been playing against the zone,” said Mack. “This quickly turned into a man-to-man switch, so we kept running our man stuff… Give DePaul a lot of credit, they played big around the basket. We didn’t break the line enough to apply enough pressure to get to the free-throw line.”

That’s indicative of the preparation DePaul put into this game to give the Cardinals a different look throughout the night. One of the criticisms of DePaul’s previous team was the lack of preparation and not adjusting well to the opponent.

It didn’t happen on Friday. Stubblefield and his coaching staff ensured that the Blue Demons had a proper defensive plan in place to withstand the Cardinals’ attacks.

It also helped junior striker Nick Ongenda lead the game like young Dikembe Mutombo, blocking eight shots and converting several other attempts. With scoring in the paint not an option for most of the night, Louisville was forced to jack a shot from behind the arc, which resulted in a 7-of-33 shooting performance.

DePaul’s in-progress foul, ranking 110 in adjusted offensive efficiency, according to KenPom.com. However, the Blue Demons improved to 8-1 on Friday, jumping to No. 50 in the NET rankings and grabbed a first quadrant one win of the season.

It wasn’t always perfect this season. It won’t always be perfect, but this team did what the previous DePaul team had struggled to do — find a way to win when different situations weren’t ideal.