Louisville basketball adds a familiar foe to the 2021-22 non-conference schedule.
You smell that? That’s the musky, yet glorious scent of DePaul Day. The *soon to be holiday (just waiting on Mike Rutherford to run for city office) is set to return this winter as Jon Rothstein reported the Louisville basketball program and DePaul came to an agreement on a home-and-home series.
It’s been 3,053 days since the last time these two teams squared off, as Louisville walked away victorious for the 38th time in 59 tries back on February 27th of 2013. The Cards will be hoping that a win against DePaul this season catapults them to a National Title like it 100% definitely did back in 2013.
Despite the gap in matchups, Louisville fans haven’t forgotten about the glory days. From Chane Behanan sending a DePaul defender to his death, to the 45 point blowout in 2009, to Cardinal fans packing the arena in Chicago back in 2013.
This year’s matchup, as mentioned, will take place at the KFC Yum! Center. The Louisville basketball program will then return the favor by visiting Chicago during the 2022-23 season. Like Louisville basketball and its fanbase, Chris Mack is also familiar with the Blue Demon program – albeit not under new head coach Tony Stubblefield. During his run at Xavier after joining the Big East, Mack’s squads went 10-1 against DePaul winning by an average margin of 12.7 points (they won by 10+ on 8 occasions).
It’s a new day for DePaul
DePaul will be entering the 2021-22 season with a glimmer of hope. After another rough season under Dave Leitao last year, the program made the move to bring in Stubblefield, a long-time Dana Altman assistant at Oregon. His connection to the city basketball scene and community of Chicago as well as his strong recruiting background have fans hoping a brighter day is ahead.
It’s not been pretty for the program since Leitao took over, going a not-so-nice 69-102 in six seasons. However, a strong offseason which included landing three four-star recruits and multiple power five transfers, has Stubblefield already sitting pretty. When DePaul comes to the Yum! Center, they’ll have just two pieces from last year’s team back, including leading scorer Javon Freeman-Liberty and backup guard, Courvoisier McCauley. They’ll be joined by transfers Jalen Terry of Oregon (a one-time Louisville target), Yor Anei of SMU, Tyon Grant-Foster of Kansas, and Brandon Johnson of Minnesota. As well as incoming four-star freshmen Ahmad Bynum, David Jones (who redshirted last season), Kok Yat, and unranked guard Brett Hardt Jr.
DePaul day celebration > DePaul day basketball
Louisville will certainly have the upper hand with box experience and overall talent, though I expect DePaul to put up a fight. This game will be more about the celebration of DePaul day returning as well as following Mike on Twitter.
The outcome is by no means guaranteed, but if history has told us anything it’s that the Cards don’t lose on DePaul Day at the KFC Yum! Center.
I’m not sure what he’ll do to celebrate; Name his first son DePaul. Get a tattoo of Chane Behanan blowing kisses to Chicago. Or maybe use that day to officially launch his run for office. Regardless, DePaul Day will be a win for us all.
The only question remains, how will Chris Mack support the cause?
