DePaul About To Get De Paul Harris Treatment (Sorry)

The SU Women's team did what they had to do last night, now it's the men's turn.  The Orange host 8-7 (0-2) DePaul tonight at 7pm EST.

The Blue Demons are off to a rough start in what is sure to be a very rough year in the Big East for them.  With losses to Notre Dame and Providence so far, the Demons don't really have a quality win to their name.  Chances aren't looking good that they'll add one tonight.  They won just one of their last nine conference road games and haven't beaten a ranked team on the road since 2005.

Sophomore Dar Tucker is 3rd in the conference in scoring with a 19.6 average.  Of course that could be because there aren't very many other players on the team doing much scoring at all.  Only three Blue Demons average in double digits, compared to Syracuse's five.  They'll be relying on Tucker's 3-point shooting to give them a spark.  If it's not there, there's not much else they can do. (Oh and you might remember Dar from this dunk last year).

There's a few questions for the Orange tonight.  First up,.will Eric Devendorf play?  Last we heard he was leaving practice early due to pains in his hip,.  Second, will Arinze Onuaku actually hit a free throw?  Onuaku leads the Big East in field goal percentage but is abysmal from the line and it's only a matter of time until that bites us in the ass.  Will Paul Harris be back to his usual self after the finger injury?  Outlook is good.  Finally, will Jonny Flynn start returning to form?  Andy Rautins has done the heavy lifting on the scoring side and Flynn hasn't played terrible.  But he hasn't been his usual self.  Hopefully the mini-slump is over.

Finally, it's worth noting this game does have some significance.  If the Orange lose, they may just be responsible for the end of a relationship.  Or worse.  Don't tell the SU Judicial Board about this...

Get some more thoughts at the links below.  GameThread as always will be here when the game starts.

• StatSheet.com's Game Preview.
• Mike Water's Scouting Report.
• CuseOrange's Game Preview.
• The AP Game Preview.