2005-2006 DePaul Program Preview

DEPAUL BLUE DEMONS

2005-2006 Team Roster from Official Team Site: ROSTER.

The DePaul Coaching Staff: DEPAUL STAFF.

Home Court: Allstate Arena: Allstate Arena.


OVERVIEW: It is a new era at DePaul in more ways than one with a new coach and a new conference. Jerry Wainright, the suburban Chicago native, returns to his roots to take over the Blue Demon program. Wainright previously headed the programs at UNC-Wilmington for 8 seasons and was the head coach at Richmond the last three years. He has guided his teams to 3 NCAA tournament appearances, in 2000 and 2002 with UNC-W and 2004 with Richmond. Wainwright also spent several years at Wake Forest under both Bob Staak and Dave Odom prior to his head coaching experience with UNC-W.
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DePaul leaves Conference USA along with South Florida, Marquette, Cincinnati and Louisville to join the Big East conference for the 2005-2006 season and the players will have to adjust to their new surroundings and their new coach. They will also have to adjust to losing their top 2 scorers and 3 of their top 4 overall in Quemont Greer, Drake Diener and Lavar Seals. The cupboard is hardly bare for Coach Wainwright, but that is a tough group to replace from a team that competed in last season’s NIT under Coach Dave Leitao. DePaul will bring in some talented newcomers to go with some interesting returnees that will have to take on new roles and their search for a reliable inside game could be the major subplot to this season.

NICE TO MEET YOU: A lot of that is happening around Lincoln Park these days as not only the fans of the Big East are getting acclimated to the newest members of the conference, but Coach Wainwright is also getting to know his new players and they are learning about their new mentor. Wainwright brings assistants Ramon Williams, his son, Scott Wainwright and Gary DeCesare with him from Richmond, so they will have some cohesion among the staff. DeCesare is well known along the east coast with his 15+ years as head coach of St Raymond’s HS in the Bronx. He was very involved in the NYC basketball AAU scene and should really help the Blue Demon recruiting prospects. DeCesare will also have familiarity with three New Yorkers on the roster that could make up the starting backcourt in Cliff Clinkscales, Sammy Mejia and Karron Clarke. These could ease some of the getting to know you process.

RETURNEES: Sammy Mejia is their top returning player and the junior guard is coming off a solid sophomore season that saw him average nearly 12 PPG and 5 rebounds while leading the team in assists and steals. Mejia did struggle from 3-pt land, shooting less than 30%, but overall managed to hit a respectable 44% from the field. The other returning starter is BF/C Marlon Brumfield, never much of an offensive threat previously, the Blue Demons will be counting on him to increase his 5 PPG and 6 rebounds a game productivity. Brumfield is a strong post defender that gives a great effort on the floor. Other returning players hoping to contribute upfront are Wes Green, Lorenzo Thompson and Marcus Heard. None of the three have lived up to the high hopes they entered DePaul with, so Coach Wainwright and staff will work on tapping their potential, especially from the very big Wes Green. Green was believed to have left the program following the season, but has reconsidered and decided to give it another go with the new staff at DePaul. His size (6’9 and 260 lbs) will be a great asset in the Big East and if he can dedicate himself to keeping that size under control and improving his conditioning and stay healthy, this former top 30 recruit (per Rivals.com) and Florida native could be a major plus to their program. Lorenzo Thompson was also a top 100 recruit out of High School and the local Chicago product also has the size (listed at 6’8 260 lbs) to make an impact, but that impact has not been felt very much while at DePaul as he averaged just 10 minutes a game last year with 3 PPG and 2 rebounds. Marcus Heard is a forward that prefers to play away from the basket and saw his playing time nearly completely disappear last year and will have to work to be in the mix this year at the small forward spot. Also returning to the backcourt will be PG Cliff Clinkscales and Draelon Burns. Clinkscales is a player we profiled in an earlier article on players we expect to make a big step-up this year and taking over for Drake Diener at the point should give him full opportunity to show what he has. Clinkscales is a NYC native and he comes to DePaul with the NYC flare with the ball. A tremendously quick player with an exceptional handle and ability to drop dimes, Clinkscales could very easily be one of the top assist men in the conference. He will need to improve his perimeter shooting (1-21 from 3-pt land, yes, 1-21!), but in just 15 minutes a game last year he handed out 104 assists against 45 turnovers and was 2nd on the team with 23 steals. Burns should be an important contributor after having a solid freshmen season last year averaging over 3 PPG and seeing increased time as the season went on. He will garner important minutes off the bench in their guard rotation.

INCOMING: Everyone is looking at the recruits the DePaul signed and they could be overlooking one important player in the mix for the 2005-2006 season for the Blue Demons and that is Karron Clarke. Clarke was a highly recruited player out of NYC that opted for Miami and the Big East out of high school. After appearing in every game as a freshmen, he decided transferring to DePaul was a better fit and joining fellow NYC players and friends Sammy Mejia and Cliff Clinkscales was an important part of his decision. He has had a full year to get acclimated to DePaul and this impressive athlete should be ready to fly from the wing this season. Improved perimeter skills will be the key this year to his game and how much of an impact he makes right away, but with his athletic ability, he will impact the game early on. Coach Wainwright also was able to hold onto all three of Coach Leitao’s early signings and that is very important because it is three very good players that will be joining the Blue Demons and each should fight for an immediate spot in the rotation. Houston, TX native Rashad Woods is an exciting wing player that will team with Karron Clark to form an exciting duo at the wing. Woods can play either wing position and will bring length and athletic ability. Jabari Currie comes from famed Pershing HS in Detroit and brings excellent size and offensive potential to the perimeter. The third scholarship freshmen is 6’8 210 lb F Wilson Chandler from Benton Harbor in Michigan. Chandler could find himself in the starting line-up very early due to the questions Depaul has upfront. He will need to get a little stronger, but brings length and athleticism to the F position that could team very well with some of the big bodies DePaul could line-up at C. Another player many people are probably unaware of is Drew Gladstone from Cardozo HS in NYC has joined the program as a high caliber walk-on. Although he will probably have a limited impact this season, he will provide solid depth to the program as he turned down scholarship opportunities to some impressive mid-major programs to play in the Big East.

LOSSES: Quemont Greer was Mr. do-everything for the Blue Demons last year and replacing the all-conference performer is going to be very tough. Tough PG Drake Diener was also a very consistent source of perimeter offense that will be very hard to replace and Lavar Seals started every game at the wing. Jamal Nichols was a post player that left the program that provided depth and shot blocking and if he was doing all that he should have been, could have been a starter this season.

SCHEDULE: The Blue Demons and Coach Wainwright definitely caught a break in their first year in the Big East. They do not have to face contenders such as Connecticut or West Virginia at all and their mirror opponents are Marquette, Providence and Notre Dame. Marquette and Providence are in very similar positions as DePaul heading into the season and their road slate is not overly taxing compared to what some teams have to face.

OUTLOOK: The new Big East Basketball Conference, from top to bottom, is very impressive and looking at the potential a team like DePaul has and then projecting them against other conference teams, you really begin to see how tough the conference is. Depaul has some major question marks in perimeter shooting and interior offense. They will be breaking in a new point guard and head coach all in a new, tougher conference. The challenges are there and hope for the future is there as well. I am excited to see the NYC trio of Clinkscales, Mejia and Clarke play together and that should help settle the team down as they seem to be very close to each other and if they can get a couple of the freshmen to get up to speed quickly and get someone to step up in the interior to score some points, they could be a team that surprises. Their conference schedule will help them out, but they seem to be among the gridlock of teams like Rutgers, St John’s, Marquette, Providence, Seton Hall and South Florida that will fight and claw for every conference win to get to the Big East Tournament in March. Most likely, only three in that group makes it and it is going to be interesting to see how it shakes out, several, DePaul included, have some promising signs that they could surprise, but it is a tough challenge to do so with the players they lost and all the new surroundings for the entire program.