Faber ejected, then a fan during DePaul's loss
For the first time since its pre-Thanksgiving trip to the Virgin Islands, DePaul had all 11 scholarship athletes ready to go Tuesday night.
With that portion of the Blue Demons' hoops universe restored, everything else opted to spin out of orbit during No. 9 West Virginia's 62-46 Big East win in Rosemont.
Four starters scored 14 points apiece to lead the Mountaineers (16-3, 5-2). DePaul (8-12, 1-7), which fell behind 20-4 and never led, got 17 from senior Will Walker.
With the game never truly in doubt after the teams jogged to their locker rooms at halftime, there remained lots of room for nuttiness to occur.
It started when the Allstate Arena clocks and scoreboard went dead just as the officials tried to start the second half.
That 10-minute delay, which featured several West Virginia players laughing at a fan's friendly hazing of point guard Darryl Bryant, segued perfectly into a physical, herky-jerky second half that needed 55 minutes to play out.
The night's pinnacle came with 7:59 to go and West Virginia up by 11. The officials used a media timeout to review DePaul sophomore center Krys Faber's elbow to Da'Sean Butler's face and deemed a flagrant foul worthy of ejection.
"I haven't seen it," said DePaul interim head coach Tracy Webster. "I'm not 100 percent sure (what happened) because I haven't watched the tape over again, but I'm sure I'll probably watch it tonight."
Faber's dismissal capped a 90-second stretch where Walker, Mac Koshwal and Faber each picked up their fourth fouls.
Not long after that angering spree, the referees ordered a DePaul official to eject one of the team's biggest boosters from her front-row seat.
As for the game? Webster actually came away feeling better about it than West Virginia coach Bob Huggins.
"We missed a lot of shots that we should've made," said Huggins, whose thin bench provided just 2 points.
Meanwhile, Webster enjoyed being able to play Koshwal and sophomore point guard Mike Bizoukas for the first time since taking over for Jerry Wainwright.
"Now we can really, really continue to try to get better as a team," Webster said. "Eventually, I truly believe we'll be fine."
Koshwal missed the previous four games with an injured right foot. The junior power forward entered with 15:15 left in the first half and fought limited endurance and multiple Mountaineers in the post to finish with 7 points and 7 rebounds in 25 minutes.
Bizoukas, making his first appearance in nine games, contributed 5 points, 4 rebounds and 6 assists in 24 minutes while wearing a brace to protect his strained right knee. He also pressured the ball all the way upcourt defensively.
"For some reason, I didn't get tired," Bizoukas said. "I should have died."