DePaul’s men’s basketball team had hung 97 points on Coppin State, 99 on Central Michigan and 101 on Eastern Michigan and, most encouraging of all, outfought Rutgers from the Big Ten over 40 intense minutes of brawlball. Hot dang, the Blue Demons were 6-0 — praises for old DePaul U. — with Loyola coming in for a visit to Wintrust Arena.
It was early December of 2021, and coach Tony Stubblefield’s debut season was off to a bang-up start.
Yada yada … here we are.
The Blue Demons lost that game to Loyola and have dropped 47 of their last 68 in all, right up to an ugly 56-46 outing against Northwestern on Saturday in which they made one field goal over the final 13:12 of the game.
They are 2-8 in Stubblefield’s third season. Yet another bleak experience in the nether reaches of the Big East almost certainly awaits them. As for Stubblefield, one betting site has installed him as the second-likeliest coach in the country — at +450 odds — to be the next one fired. Perhaps only Louisville’s Kenny Payne, who has very close ties to DePaul athletic director DeWayne Peevy, is on a hotter seat.
The brickfest against Northwestern couldn’t have helped. After it was over, Stubblefield was asked to describe his morale.
“It’s challenging, you know?” he said. “It is what it is. I’ve never been in this situation as a coach. I want to do it for these guys in the locker room, so my morale is I’ve got to keep fighting. I’m the one that’s got to stay positive. I’m the leader of this. And we will figure it out.”
As Peevy surveys the scene, DePaul’s players must try to keep their own morale from cracking. That’s an all-too-familiar-theme in Lincoln Park. Transfers Jeremiah Oden, from Wyoming, and Elijah Fisher, from Texas Tech, say they aren’t having second thoughts about what — or whom — they signed up for.
“Coach has been great to play for,” Oden said. “I want to give credit to him. He’s doing a great job of keeping his poise and keeping us positive.”
“He’s giving us motivation to keep on fighting every day,” Fisher said. “He’s giving us something to do the next day to keep our heads up. … I feel like he’s just a great coach. Right now, it doesn’t show up, but in the future it will.”
If there is a future for Stubblefield at DePaul.
“We’ll get there,” Stubblefield said, “but, obviously, it is challenging. I could’ve never envisioned the situation that we’re in right now.”
