Original Source: Daily Herald

DePaul wins and the words tumble out
Posted by Lindsey on Thu, 01/21/2010 - 01:14

DePaul vs Marquette at the Allstate Insurance Arena
I love numbers. I love stats. They make it easy to tell you how many consecutive times DePaul wound up on the short end of a Big East regular-season game (24).

They provide the shorthand to tell you the Blue Demons went into Wednesday’s game against Marquette having lost their LAST 14 BIG EAST HOME GAMES.

That’s 14 consecutive losses by a total of 215 points -- making the average loss 15.4 points. The numbers also show eight of those 14 losses came against Top 25 teams. Two of them came against teams that went on to the Final Four…two of them against Elite Eight teams…one against a Sweet 16 team…and two others against teams that won their NCAA first-round games.

Why bring up all these negative numbers on a night like this, when DePaul stunned Marquette 51-50 on Mike Stovall’s 20-footer with seven-tenths of a second to go?

Because the sheer weight of these numbers and losses have buried the Demons and their fans for so long, it was unbelievably refreshing to watch the coaches and players and fans cut loose at Allstate Arena. Especially with regards to the players, who always try to pretend as if the losses roll off their backs.

Sophomore forward Eric Wallace, who has made a habit of texting inspirational quotations (from such bards as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Mark Twain) to his teammates and coaches after losses this year and last, used every bit of his 39-inch vertical leap to chest-bump with teammate Devin Hill at midcourt once the final horn ended. Sophomore guard Jeremiah Kelly, who kept attacking the rim and hitting crucial runners and floaters to keep DePaul alive, kept screaming toward the roof in the midst of the celebration madness.

Then there was senior guard Will Walker, who played all 40 minutes because he and the Demons have no choice. He entered the night shooting 27 percent in Big East play, which makes some sense when you realize he also led the Big East with 36.4 minutes played per game. He started strong with 16 points in the first 24 minutes, but he started to run on fumes. He committed bad turnovers on back-to-back possessions, then fired up a 3-pointer from the top of the key that clanked off the glass well right of the rim.

Finally, with 2:21 to go, an exhausted Walker tried to drive and dish to a teammate, but his weak pass went to disappointed interim head coach Tracy Webster, who tried to slap the ball back into play. Walker lay on the ground out of bounds for several seconds catching his breath before two teammates helped him up.

Fittingly, after the game when Webster was asked to describe everyone’s feelings, he clapped Walker on the back and said he felt the best for the team’s only senior – the only guy who played in all 24 consecutive Big East regular-season losses and all 14 consecutive Big East home losses.

“It gets tiring, but Coach doesn’t give me any breaks in practice and that helps a lot,” Walker said. “I try to stay on the floor as much as I can in practice to try to get me ready for these types of circumstances. I’ve just got to keep fighting. All I keep thinking in my mind is we’ve got to get a win. Every time I feel like I’m getting tired, I just try to lead by example. I feel like if I start looking tired, then the other guys are going to start feeling tired. I try to keep all of that out of my body language as much as I can and just keep pushing.”

While it might have felt weird to everyone that DePaul won a game, Webster and Walker tried their best to keep one foot on earth. After getting one rivalry win, the Demons must travel Saturday to Notre Dame to try to get another one.

“I want these guys to enjoy this win,” Webster said. “But at the same time, we have practice tomorrow and we have to come in and take care of business. You know what? There’s where (Will’s) leadership is going to have to come into play again. Because the guys are going to be excited, but now how do we channel this victory? In what direction do we go in?”

“All I want to do is make sure that everyone knows that we don’t have to be surprised to get a win,” Walker said. “We can go in and feel like we’re going to win every game we step on the floor.”

LW
Lindsey Willhite has been covering college and pro sports for the Daily Herald since 1995.