Butler takes aim at Blue Demons as DePaul targets rare Big East bye

Since DePaul joined the Big East in 2005, it has experienced just one winning record in league play.

The Blue Demons finished alone in last place 10 times in their first 20 Big East years and shared the basement two other times.

With that as the backdrop, there’s more on the line than the records suggest when DePaul (16-14, 8-11) hosts Butler (15-15, 6-13) in a regular-season finale Saturday morning in Chicago.

If the Blue Demons win, they’ll clinch the No. 5 seed and a first-round bye in the Big East tournament. They’ve never had a bye or such a high seed. They’d also clinch the school’s first winning season since 2018-19.

“This program was once good,” said DePaul guard Brandon Maclin, one of four Senior Day honorees. “And then it dropped from being good. We’ve got to rebuild it back up and I believe we are the foundation to the program getting right back where it needs to be.”

Second-year boss Chris Holtmann, among the 20 finalists for the Jim Phelan Award that goes to the national coach of the year, has rebuilt the Blue Demons on defensive effort and unselfishness.

Per KenPom, DePaul entered Friday’s action ranked No. 39 in defensive efficiency (100.6 points allowed per 100 possessions) and 27th in assists per field goal (60.8%).

One area of concern? The Blue Demons have played so hard to get where they are, they might be wearing down. They made just 2 of 16 from 3-point range in Wednesday’s 19-point home loss to Villanova.

“It’s crossed my mind that do we have some guys out there that have logged a lot of minutes throughout the course of the season and it’s caught up with them a little bit,” Holtmann said. “We’ve got to figure out a way to keep them fresh, which is why I kept some of those guys on the bench a little bit more (Wednesday night).

“The clean looks that we’ve had, that some of our guys have had, that they’re missing is a little bit uncharacteristic.”

Butler enters Saturday after a similarly disappointing Wednesday result at home. The Bulldogs suffered a 17-point loss to Creighton while hitting just 4 of 24 from 3-point range. Head coach Thad Matta suggested it was a new low for his squad, which has dropped eight of their last 10 games.

“It was one of those games where we didn’t have it,” Matta said after the 76-57 loss to Creighton. “The thing that bothers me most is that, you know, you sit at home and watch games at night, like, whoo, that team, there’s one that got drilled (and) they got drilled (and) they got drilled. I told my wife, ‘We haven’t done that yet. We’ve continued to fight. We’ve continued to scrape. We’ve continued to claw.'”

On an individual basis, Butler’s Michael Ajayi (16.4 ppg, 11.1 rpg) and Finley Bizjack (17.0 ppg) and DePaul’s CJ Gunn (13.5 ppg) and NJ Benson (11.3 ppg, 7.5 rpg) have their last chance to put up numbers and improve their all-Big East candidacies.

–Field Level Media