Behind DePaul’s shocking 3-0 start in the Big East

How do you change the culture around a program that has finished last in the Big East for six straight seasons? How do you make people care in a city that loves basketball but hasn’t seen a nationally relevant college team in 30 years? How do you build excitement at home games when 80 percent of the arena is empty?

These are the challenges DePaul basketball faces on an annual basis. It’s a puzzle coach Oliver Purnell has been unable to crack heading into his fifth season in Lincoln Park. At this point, it would be considered progress if DePaul could get back to being like any other middling program instead of the biggest punchline in college basketball. It’s a low bar to clear.

College hoops season comes and goes in Chicago without anyone really noticing. The city’s five Division 1 teams -- DePaul, Loyola, Chicago State, Northwestern and UIC -- combined to finish 55-106 last season. Winter and spring are typically reserved for the Bulls after the Bears have depressed the city into hibernation while baseball delusion slowly builds. College basketball isn’t even on the map.

In reality, DePaul’s 3-0 start in conference play this season to earn sole possession of first place in the Big East isn’t going to change any of that overnight. It definitely counts as progress, though, and that’s about as much as anyone around the program could have hoped for. With a cutting-edge system and a roster that has finally tapped into a proud local hoops scene, DePaul is becoming compelling in its own way.

The five-out system Purnell has used to catch opponents on their heels during this 3-0 start isn’t possible without the players, so we’ll start with the players first. Five of the eight guys in the rotation are from Chicago Public Schools and one hails from the suburbs. DePaul has gotten back to being a distinctly Chicago team, and the results are impossible to argue with. It hasn’t been this way for a while.

Over the last four seasons, Brandon Young and Cleveland Melvin have been the team’s two leading scorers. Both players were from Baltimore. While Young and Melvin were big and talented players, their output never matched their potential. Both put up numbers offensively but didn’t defend, pass well or make their teammates better. It was a problem at the heart of all of DePaul’s issues, and it simply wasn’t a winning brand of basketball.

Melvin was dismissed midway through last season and Young has graduated. In their place, DePaul has a group of Chicago kids who had quality high school careers in the city. It’s one way to make people start to care.

DePaul has talent. It begins with Billy Garrett Jr., the sophomore point guard and reigning Big East Newcomer of the Year. Garrett was a top-100 prospect coming out of Morgan Park on the city’s south side and committed to the Blue Demons after they hired his father on staff.

As a 6’6 point guard shooting nearly 44 percent from three-point range, Garrett gives DePaul a matchup advantage every night. He can shoot over the top of any opposing lead guard and has developed into a reliable perimeter threat in his second season. He’s been money from the free throw line and has upped his assist rate while averaging over 13 points per game.

The second focal point of the team is Mychael Henry, a 6’6, 220-pound junior forward who transferred from Illinois. Henry was another top 100 prospect coming out of Orr Academy on the west side of the city, and he gives DePaul an inside-outside threat it hasn’t had for years. Henry scored 29 points as DePaul beat Stanford -- a Sweet 16 team last year -- on Nov. 30 to score the program’s most notable win in a decade. He’s the team’s leading scorer and is shooting nearly 50 percent from the floor.

From there, you can go to center Tommy Hamilton, who started alongside Jahil Okafor and Ohio State’s Sam Thompson in high school at Whitney Young. You can look at scorer Aaron Simpson from North Chicago or newly eligible rebounder Rashaun Stimage from Farragut Academy or wing Jamie Crockett, who hails from suburban Crete-Monee.

DePaul started 6-1 including that win over Stanford to begin the year, but then hit a six-game slide. How have the Blue Demons turned it around to start 3-0 in conference play? One simple coaching move changed everything.

On the brink of its first Big East game against Marquette, Purnell benched all 6’11, 260 pounds of Hamilton in favor of Forrest Robinson. Robinson is one of the few players from out of area by coming to campus via Eastland, Texas, but his perimeter shooting ability gives DePaul a completely different dimension than they have with Hamilton. With Robinson in the game, DePaul is a five-out team. It’s a style they’ve found a lot of success with so far.

At 6’10, 225 pounds, Robinson is big enough to man the middle. He hit 4-of-9 three-pointers in DePaul’s shocking win over Xavier (who just beat No. 19 Seton Hall) Saturday and then hit 6-of-9 threes against Creighton in another win Wednesday. Robinson is a senior who has barely made an impact during his career, but he’s finally found a role that suits him and makes DePaul so much tougher to defend.

Finding a replacement for Robinson next season and beyond might be the biggest key to keeping this thing going, because Garrett, Henry and Hamilton all have another year or two of eligibility left. DePaul is still prone to massive defensive lapses and won’t actually be a quality team until it starts playing hard on that side of the ball every game. Still, there’s no denying that Purnell is at least taking baby steps this year.

When you consider that DePaul has only won 10 Big East games over the last six seasons combined, a three-game winning streak to open up conference plays starts to feel a little more meaningful. This was a proud program in the ‘80s and could easily win over a sports-crazy city again in the future; all it takes is a little sustained success. For now, DePaul is finding a way to win, and even more importantly, is giving Chicago a team full of hometown talents worth watching.