DePaul men’s basketball coach Chris Holtmann had been riding his players hard.
So, before the last day of the team’s summer conditioning program, in mid-August, he put the pedal down and made it even worse.
“When does the sun rise tomorrow?” Holtmann asked his director of basketball operations.
The answer was 5:57 a.m.
Holtmann insisted all his players show up to the gym at 5:15. Oh, the moans. And the groans. Not to mention the eye rolls and sighs.
But show up, they did, and waiting for them was a phalanx of bicycles. The whole team pedaled to the lakefront to watch the sun come up. It was glorious.
“You should’ve seen the guys taking pictures with their phones,” Holtmann recalled. “I was like, ‘Weren’t you guys just complaining?’ ”
The lot of them biked from there to the Original Pancake House on Diversey Pkwy. and ate like kings, completing a picture-perfect and memorable Lincoln Park morning.
Two and a half months later, the sun rises on a new season for the Blue Demons and all of college basketball. What awaits second-year coach Holtmann and his crew? Will they steer their way to the first NCAA Tournament for DePaul since 2004? It might still be too soon for that at a school whose record in Big East games since joining the league for the 2005-06 season is a brutally bad 70-291. But this very well could be when DePaul rises to the middle of the conference pack — and that’s saying something, considering its best-ever finish was a tie for seventh place (out of 10 teams; there are 11 now) in the 2014-15 season.
Holtmann has the Blue Demons on the move, whether or not casual fans have taken notice. Last season’s team made the biggest jump in the KenPom ratings of any team in the country — 182 spots, from 304th to 122nd. This season’s team, led by returnees CJ Gunn, NJ Benson and Layden Blocker and bolstered by transfer Kaleb Banks and freshman Kruz McClure, will take the floor for Monday’s opener against Chicago State as the nation’s No. 72 team, according to KenPom.
Big East coaches picked DePaul to finish in ninth place, which doesn’t sound like much until you look back and find it’s the highest opinion they’ve had of DePaul going in since 2015. Holtmann’s top priorities for this team are to be more efficient on defense and rebound better at both ends, and roster additions have made both things likely. There remains a large gap in NIL strength between DePaul and the Big East powerhouses that are “almost untouchable,” as Holtmann put it, but hopelessness has exited the equation.
A panel of six experts on CBS Sports’ website had more encouraging views of the Blue Demons, with one pegging them for eighth place and another for sixth. Whoa, sixth? That could be Big Dance bubble territory. Then again, the same season preview package also referred to the Blue Demons as the Demon Deacons.
“It’s still a work in progress,” Holtmann said.
Every coach undoubtedly feels that way.
Champs and contenders
Defending national champion Florida goes into the season ranked No. 3 in the AP poll and will try to match what Billy Donovan and the Gators did in 2006 and 2007 — winning it all back-to-back. With three returning frontcourt starters and transfer guards Boogie Fland and Xaivian Lee, the Gators have a shot at it.
In this transfer-portal era, continuity of top teams is rare and precious. Florida has a good deal of it. A few others that have as much of it or more:
Purdue: Say hello to Braden Smith, Fletcher Loyer and Trey Kaufman-Renn, yet again. Smith and Kaufman-Renn are the best outside-inside combo in the country. The Boilermakers have the No. 1 ranking and deserve it, though the Big Ten still hasn’t had a national champion since Michigan State in 2000.
Houston: How, again, did the Cougars blow that 12-point lead in last season’s title game? Goodness, it must still sting. But guards Milos Uzan and Emanuel Sharp are back, and coach Kelvin Samson still has the ol’ touch.
UConn or St. John’s? You want to pick which of these Big East big boppers is better? Because I can’t.
Who’s the man?
One of these guys will be the national player of the year:
Smith: Purdue’s point guard is in range of Bobby Hurley’s Division I career record for assists.
JT Toppin, Texas Tech: Last we saw him, he was putting up back-to-back-to-back games with 20-plus points and 10-plus rebounds in the NCAA Tournament. What a player.
Yaxel Lendeborg, Michigan: At UAB last season, he became the second Division I player with at least 600 points, 400 rebounds and 150 assists in a season. The first? Some cat named Larry Bird.
Who’s the frosh, man?
Three freshmen who will take the college game by storm (and maybe become the top three picks in the 2026 NBA draft):
Cameron Boozer, Duke: Say hello to pops Carlos for us, kid.
Darryn Peterson, Kansas: Bill Self swears he’s never had a better incoming player than this long, strong, dynamic guard.
AJ Dybantsa, BYU: You looking for a new favorite player? Nobody is more fun to watch than this 6-8 possessor of a 40-inch vertical.
Purdue vs. the transfer monsters
Three teams that could win the Big Ten:
Purdue: But you knew that already.
Michigan: With Lendeborg, Morez Johnson Jr. (from Illinois) and Aday Mora (UCLA) on the floor all at the same time, the sheer size will be like something out of a sci-fi novel.
Illinois: It might be a bit of a reach to talk top of the league, but this roster is fascinating. It’s also a challenge to spell and pronounce, with twin 7-footers Tomislav and Zvonimir Ivisic, scoring guard Andrej Stojakovic — Peja’s son — and fellow newcomers Mihailo Petrovic and David Mirkovic all together. The size and skill levels are not to be taken lightly.