Rogowski, DePaul aim to exorcise tournament demon

It nagged at Megan Rogowski all summer.

Her DePaul teammates were bothered by it, too. They didn't like the way they were bounced from the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament last spring by Texas A&M.

They had worked so hard to get there, defeating No. 2 Duke on its own floor in the second round. DePaul was certain the momentum would carry over into the Sweet 16.

But the final margin against Texas A&M was 19 points, and the loss denied the Blue Demons their first trip to the Elite Eight in program history.

Rarely does a rematch come so soon, but DePaul opens its season Nov. 14 vs. Texas A&M at McGrath-Phillips Arena in Lincoln Park.

It will give the Blue Demons, picked to win their second straight Big East title, a good barometer to see if they're ready to turn that corner against the nation's elite.

"That Texas A&M game still bothers us," said Rogowski, the former Hersey star who is now a senior at DePaul and is known as the team's hotshot from 3-point range. "Now we play them again and we're hoping that can give us a nice start to our season, and hopefully this can be our year. We're returning a lot of talent; I don't see why it couldn't be.

"We all talk about this a lot. Why not us? Why can't we be the team that makes the difference and takes DePaul to another level?"

DePaul welcomes back four starters from a team that went 29-7, won the Big East championship outright with a 15-3 record and finished ranked No. 16 in the national polls.

Besides Rogowski, who averaged 15.7 points per game, electrifying point guard Brittany Hrynko returns. She was an honorable mention All-American selection last season after averaging 12.5 points and 5.6 assists per game. Chanise Jenkins and Megan Podkowa also are back after solid sophomore campaigns last year, and those four give DePaul one of the strongest perimeters in the country.

"Now, we have to establish an inside game," DePaul coach Doug Bruno said. "We have to score inside."

DePaul graduated its most consistent interior threat last season in forward Jasmine Penny. But at 6-feet-1, Penny was undersized, so DePaul often looked like a team that was playing with five guards.

And sometimes, the up-tempo, run-and-gun Blue Demons actually played with five guards.

"In a perfect world, you want size with guard skills," Bruno said with a laugh. "Every year, the big players are becoming more guard-skilled. So everyone is looking for those players.

"You still need size. The teams that are there at the Final Four every year are all loaded with size."

Bruno is still trying to develop sophomore big girls Meri Bennett-Swanson, a 6-3 forward out of Vernon Hills, and Brandi Harvey-Carr, a 6-4 forward who didn't start playing basketball until high school.

DePaul also welcomes 6-5 freshman Elri Liebenberg out of South Africa and Mart'e Grays, a 6-2 freshman from Detroit.

"We have the chance to be very good," Bruno said. "And I'm sure this group is thinking about (unfinished business) from last season. That's good. You want to allow something like that to fuel you, for sure. But you also still have to stay in the moment. We've got a lot of tough basketball coming up in November and December."

DePaul also faces Northwestern in November and takes on nationally ranked Notre Dame and defending national champion Connecticut in December.

Big East predictions:

At Big East media day this week, DePaul was picked to win the league championship by nine out of the 10 coaches.

Rogowski and Hrynko were also named to the preseason all-Big East team.

Rogowski slowed:

Rogowski spent most of the summer taking care of nagging tendinitis in her lower legs. She has missed some of the Blue Demons' early practices but is hoping to be back to full speed by the start of the season.

Follow Patricia on Twitter @babcockmcgraw and contact her via email at pbabcock@dailyherald.com.