Back-to-Back Games Open Men’s Basketball Season

CHICAGO – DePaul opens the 2019-20 season and the third year of the Wintrust Arena era with back-to-back games. The Blue Demons host Alcorn State on Tuesday night before facing the University of Chicago on Wednesday evening.

Both games will be televised on FS2. Tuesday's broadcast team consists of Wayne Randazzo and Tarik Turner while Chris Vosters and Stephen Bardo call Wednesday's game. Both games can also be seen online at FoxSports.com and the FOX Sports app. DePaul's radio tandom of Zach Zaidman (play-by-play) and Jeff Blanzy (analyst) can be heard on WYLL (1160 AM) for the Alcorn State game and WIND (560 AM) for the Chicago game. Live audio for both contests can be heard online via DePaul All-Access. In-game updates can be followed on Twitter at @DePaulHoops and live stats are available at depaulbluedemons.com.

Alcorn State posted a 10-21 record last season while going 6-12 in the Southwestern Athletic Conference. The University of Chicago is a NCAA Division III program that went 15-10 overall and 8-6 in the University Athletic Association. The Blue Demons are coming off last season that finished with a 19-17 overall record and 7-11 mark in the BIG EAST.

Anderson to Lead Program in First Three Games: DePaul assistant coach Tim Anderson will be the head coach this week while Dave Leitao serves a three-game suspension following findings by the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions announced in July. The three-game suspension covers DePaul's games this week against Alcorn State, Chicago and Fairleigh Dickinson on Friday. Leitao's first game on the sidelines will be next Monday when the Blue Demons play at Iowa in the Gavitt Tipoff Games.

Season-Opening Notes: DePaul is 83-13 all-time in the first game of the season following last season's 80-58 win against Bethune-Cookman... that game was the start of the 96th recognized season of DePaul basketball (since 1923-24)... DePaul competed in basketball prior to the 1923-24 season, but season records and results are incomplete... DePaul has won 10 of its last 11 season openers.

Home-Opener Notes: DePaul is 88-8 all-time in the first home game of the season... the Blue Demons have won 12 of the last 13 following the win over Bethune-Cookman... DePaul has posted opening wins in 51 of the last 54 home openers.

Busy Blue Demons: DePaul faces a busy start to the 2019-20 season with three games in the first four days and four games in the first seven days of the 2019-20 campaign. Overall, the Blue Demons will play eight games between Nov. 5-29 and the eight contests are the most in program history for the month of November. The Blue Demons played seven games in November 2012 and six each in November 2013 and 2006.

What's Back: Entering the 2019-20 season, DePaul returns nine players including two starters from a year ago. Headlining the returners are Jaylen Butz, Jalen Coleman-Lands, Devin Gage and Paul Reed. Reed was the BIG EAST's Most Improved Player last season after averaging 12.3 points per game and leading the league with 8.5 rebounds per game.

Coleman-Lands played nine games in 2018-19 before a season-ending hand injury. He averaged 9.6 points per game while Devin Gage averaged 9.1 points per game with a team-high 130 assists last season. Butz chipped in 6.9 points and 5.7 rebounds per game with 13 starts.

Overall, the Blue Demons return just over 42 percent of the scoring and nearly 54 percent of the rebounding from last season.

What's New: A total of eight newcomers are on the 2019-20 DePaul roster including two transfers, a sophomore and five freshmen. The freshmen class includes Markese Jacobs, Oscar Lopez, Sullivan Menard, Nick Ongenda and Romeo Weems while the transfers are Darious Hall and Charlie Moore. Hall sat out last season after transferring from Arkansas while Moore returned to Chicago in April after playing last season at Kansas. Moore received a waiver for immediate eligibility on Oct. 4. Sophomore Brendan Favre joined the program at the start of Fall quarter. Favre was a team manager in 2018-19.

Reed Named Second Team Preseason All-BIG EAST: Junior Paul Reed was picked by the league's head coaches as the league unveiled its preseason selections at media day. Reed was the 2019 Most Improved Player in the league after nearly averaging a double-double in conference play last season. He averaged 13.3 points and 9.0 rebounds in 18 BIG EAST games a year ago and returns as the league's top rebounder after averaging 8.5 boards per game overall in 2018-19.

Challenging Schedule Awaits: DePaul's 2019-20 non-conference schedule features opponents from the Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC. A total of three Big Ten opponents are scheduled with games at Iowa (Gavitt Tipoff Games) and Minnesota along with a home game against Northwestern.

The Blue Demons face NCAA runner-up Texas Tech at Wintrust Arena on Dec. 4 with additional home games against Central Michigan and Buffalo from the Mid-American Conference and local foe UIC from the Horizon League.

DePaul's conference schedule opens with home games against Seton Hall (Dec. 30) and Providence (Jan. 4) before a two-game trip to St. John's (Jan. 11) and Villanova (Jan. 14).

A three-game homestand in mid-January features Butler (Jan. 18), Creighton (Jan. 22) and St. John's (Jan. 25). The first month of 2020 concludes with DePaul making the return trip to Seton Hall (Jan. 29).

February opens with a trip to Milwaukee to face Marquette (Feb. 1) followed by a home game against Xavier (Feb. 4) to start the second half of the conference schedule. Road games at Georgetown (Feb. 8) and Creighton (Feb. 15) precede consecutive home games against Villanova (Feb. 19) and Georgetown (Feb. 22) to continue the February schedule.

DePaul plays three of its final four games on the road starting at Xavier (Feb. 25) and Butler (Feb. 29). The final home game of the season is set for Tuesday, March 3 against Marquette before the Blue Demons conclude the regular-season schedule on March 7 at Providence.

Wintrust Arena in Year Three: The new home of DePaul basketball opened its doors in the 2017-18 in Chicago's McCormick Square neighborhood. The 10,387-seat facility near McCormick Place in the South Loop area of the city is a joint project between the City of Chicago, the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, and DePaul University. It features state-of-art amenities for the DePaul men's and women's basketball programs as well as fans in attendance with over 400 club seats and 22 suites.

The arena was honored with the prestigious American Architecture Award that also included U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. In December 2017, the facility hosted both the No. 1-ranked women's and men's teams in the country as the Connecticut women visited Wintrust Arena on Dec. 8 followed by the Villanova men's team on Dec. 27. Other major basketball events at the facility include the annual BIG EAST Women's Basketball Tournament, the 2019 NCAA Women's Basketball Regional and when the 2020 NBA All-Star Game visits Chicago, Wintrust Arena will host the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game along with practices for the Rising Stars and All-Star Game squads.

Back-to-Back Games Open Men’s Basketball Season

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Jaylen Butz

Jalen Coleman-Lands

Brendan Favre

Devin Gage

Darious Hall

Markese Jacobs

Sullivan Menard

Charlie Moore

Nick Ongenda

Paul Reed

Romeo Weems