DePaul Hosts Montevallo in Exhibition Game at Wintrust Arena

Thursday, November 4

Chicago, Ill.

7:30 P.M. CT

DePaul University

Montevallo

DePaul Hosts Montevallo in Exhibition Game at Wintrust Arena

11/3/2021 3:13:00 PM | MEN'S BASKETBALL

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Blue Demons take on the Falcons in lone exhibition game prior to Nov. 10 season opener at Wintrust Arena

CHICAGO – DePaul hosts Montevallo on Thursday night in the lone exhibition game of the preseason for the Blue Demons. The game is the second half of a DePaul basketball exhibition doubleheader with start time scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at Wintrust Arena. DePaul's women's team takes on Lewis at 5 p.m. to open the evening of exhibition basketball in the South Loop.

The University of Montevallo is located in Montevallo, Ala., which is just south of Birmingham. The Falcons are a NCAA Division II program and member of the Gulf South Conference. DePaul Vice President and Director of Athletics DeWayne Peevy is a 1996 graduate of Montevallo and member of the school's Hall of Fame.

Montevallo went 8-9 overall and 8-8 in the GSC last season and were picked to finish seventh in the 2021-22 GSC preseason poll. The GSC also features Alabama-Huntsville, Auburn-Montgomery, Christian Brothers, Delta State, Lee University, Mississippi College, Shorter, Union, Valdosta State, West Alabama and West Georgia.

Following Thursday's exhibition game, the Blue Demons open the 2021-22 season on Wednesday, Nov. 10 against Coppin State. Start time against the Eagles is scheduled for 8 p.m. on FS1. The game is the first of eight straight home games at Wintrust Arena for the Blue Demons between Nov. 10 and Dec. 7.

Preseason Notebook

Tony Stubblefield was named head coach of the men's basketball program in April 2021. He spent the last 11 seasons at Oregon and helped the Ducks to 10 postseason appearances that included eight NCAA Tournament berths. The eight NCAA berths saw Oregon reach the Final Four once and Elite Eight once along with three other Sweet 16 appearances. Prior to Oregon, Stubblefield spent four years as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator in the BIG EAST Conference at the University of Cincinnati. He also was on the staffs at New Mexico State (2000-06), UT-Arlington (1996-00), UT-San Antonio (1995-96) and at his alma mater Nebraska-Omaha (1992-95).
Entering the 2021-22 season, DePaul returns six players including one starter from a year ago. Headlining the returners are Javon Freeman-Liberty and Nick Ongenda. Freeman-Liberty is the lone returning starter after starting 14 games a season ago and averaging 14.4 points per game. Ongenda played in 17 games with four starts with averages of 5.7 points, 4.0 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game. Other returners include Brendan Favre, David Jones, Courvoisier McCauley and Max Williams.
Stubblefield welcomes seven newcomers that includes six transfers and one true freshman. The group of transfers includes two graduate transfers, three undergraduate transfers and one junior college transfer. Brandon Johnson (Minnesota) and Shaheed Medlock (Georgia Tech) are enrolled at DePaul as graduate students. Yor Anei (SMU), Tyon Grant-Foster (Kansas) and Jalen Terry (Oregon) are immediately eligible this season under NCAA guidelines while Philmon Gebrewhit (South Plains CC) played his first two seasons at the junior college level. Ahamad Bynum played at Chicago's Simeon High School before enrolling at DePaul.
The Blue Demons open the season with eight straight games at Wintrust Arena. Among the early-season games to watch are Nov. 18 against Rutgers as part of the Gavitt Tipoff Games and Dec. 4 against Loyola Chicago. DePaul also hosts the Blue Demon Classic during Thanksgiving week with matchups against Western Illinois, Northern Kentucky and Eastern Michigan. The non-conference slate ends with three straight road games at Louisville (Dec. 10), UIC (Dec. 14) and Northwestern (Dec. 18). BIG EAST play starts Dec. 20 when Creighton visits Wintrust Arena. The conference slate starts with three of the first four games at Wintrust Arena between Dec. 20 and Jan. 1. The league's round robin schedule features home and away games with every member for a 20-game schedule that concludes for DePaul at Connecticut on March 5. All 11 programs convene at Madison Square Garden starting March 9 for the BIG EAST Tournament.
DePaul enters its fifth season at Wintrust Arena in Chicago's South Loop. The award-winning facility features 10,387 seats including 22 suites and 479 premium club seats. The state-of-the-art facility hosted NBA All-Star Weekend festivities in February 2020 and is also the home of the WNBA's Chicago Sky.