Returning to prominence will be tough for DePaul

For a few minutes Sunday afternoon, basketball in Chicago was as exciting as it has been all winter.

That isn't saying much. Local colleges range from bad to worse and the Bulls are the worst.

But suddenly entertainment emerged at the Allstate Arena.

There Notre Dame was, a nationally ranked team, trying to hold off DePaul, a team as frustrating as it is disappointing.

The Irish led by 28 points in the second half … the Blue Demons closed to within 7 … DePaul fans awoke … the Demons began funning … Big East player-of-the-year candidate Luke Harangody responded for the Irish … Dar Tucker answered for DePaul …

Finally the Irish made enough free throws to survive 98-91.

"You knew a run was coming from them," Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said of the Demons.

Expanding the notion, local basketball fans can only hope the DePaul men's program can make a longer run back into national prominence.

The Demons-Irish game indicated exactly how strong the pulse is when DePaul is relevant. It provides the Chicago landscape with a heartbeat distinctive to the college game.

This once was a pretty good spot for NCAA basketball. Loyola won a national championship. Chicago Stadium doubleheaders drew the nation's best teams. DePaul made the Final Four.

Now it's pretty much flat-lined. Unless something odd happens in a conference tournament this month, no school here will reach the NCAA Tournament.

Only the Demons can lead the locals back into prominence because they play in a big-league conference and this is a big-league market.

If UIC and Loyola dominate the Horizon League, they become a bigger-city Butler. If Northwestern gets good in the Big Ten … well, that isn't going to happen, is it?

But if DePaul can compete with the Big East's elite, we're talking about the best college basketball has to offer.

"It's very hard," Brey said of getting to that level. "It's a very unforgiving league. When you look up at the people above you in the standings, who are you going to jump?"

Connecticut? Georgetown? Louisville? Syracuse? Now Notre Dame and Marquette?

The Big East brings traditional powers to Allstate Arena, along with potential All-Americans like Harangody, along with crowds like Sunday's 16,934.

That doesn't even get into premier coaches like Rick Pitino, Jim Boeheim, Jim Calhoun and Bob Huggins.

For now, DePaul is just trying to land the 12th spot in the 16-team Big East and qualify for the conference tournament.

Long term, DePaul hopes to be a perennial qualifier, then good enough to earn first-round byes, then a legitimate NCAA Tournament player, then dare we say a Final Four contender.

"We just gotta get a lot better," DePaul head coach Jerry Wainwright said. "We just don't have enough now to beat Notre Dame. We gotta get bigger."

In other words, it'll take a world of weights to muscle Georgetown's Roy Hibbert out from under the basket.

During Wainwright's first two recruiting years he built a foundation with current freshmen Tucker and Mac Koshwal and sophomore Will Walker.

That isn't nearly enough to compete with the big guys in the Big East, but it's a start and worth pursuing further.

Chicago could stand having basketball return to town for more than a few minutes.