DePaul Basketball Loses To Butler: 3 Takeaways

DePaul basketball suffered another conference loss, this time to the Butler Bulldogs. The final score was 86-69. 

N.J. Benson led the Blue Demons at Hinkle Fieldhouse with 20 points and 9 rebounds.

This was his biggest scoring performance since DePaul’s victory over Loyola Maryland. He shot 10-15 (66.7%) from the floor. This loss gives them a 10-11 overall record and a 1-9 conference record.

The Bulldogs improved to a 9-11 overall record and a 2-7 conference record. They were led by Pierre Brooks II, who scored a career-high 29 points and 13 rebounds. He shot 10-20 (50%) from the field, 4-8 (50%) from beyond the arc, and 5-5 (100%) from the charity strike.

Here are three key takeaways from this DePaul basketball loss.

Takeaway #1: DePaul was aggressive in the paint, but couldn’t shoot from downtown

The Blue Demons outscored the Bulldogs in the paint 42-38. Much of that was catapulted by Benson. A lot of his scoring came when he attacked inside against Butler’s tallest player Andre Screen. Screen is 7 feet 1 inches whereas Benson is 6 feet 8 inches. For him to beat out one of the tallest players in the conference would boost Benson’s confidence.

However, DePaul basketball did not shoot well from downtown, only shooting 5-21 (23.8%) in Hinkle Fieldhouse.

Head coach Chris Holtmann said in the post-game press conference that he believed the team did well offensively but hasn’t been shooting as well as it did previously.

“I thought we were really good, really good all night offensively,” Holtmann said. “For the most part, I thought we were really good. We still did not shoot it like we have, but we were really good offensively.”

Jacob Meyer has struggled to score and consistently shoot from downtown in these last few games compared to earlier in the season. Against Butler, he scored 4 points while shooting 2-5 (40%) from the field but didn’t score from downtown in a pair of shots.

Against Creighton and Marquette, he didn’t make a three-pointer in either of those games. Saturday night’s game against Butler was the third straight game that Meyer hasn’t made a three-pointer.

When asked of the cause of Meyer’s slump, Holtmann said it was due to him getting more attention as conference play began to continue and that a lot of film goes into helping him fix his slump.

“It’s a lot of film right now, I think he’s got to play to his strengths,” Holtmann said in the post-game press conference. “He’s getting a lot of attention. I think he went from going into the year, earlier into the year being this kind of unknown player who scored a lot at Coastal (Coastal Carolina), then he becomes our leading scorer going into Big East play so he gets a lot of attention.”

Holtmann then said that if Meyer can take good shots with confidence that he knows he can play with, he can get back to where he was.

Takeaway #2: Pierre Brooks II and free-throws

Brooks took over the entire game for Butler. He was an unstoppable force, and no immovable get in his way.

For Brooks, this was an improvement. In Butler’s overtime loss to UConn, Brooks only scored 2 points. Saturday night, he flipped the script.

He could not be stopped on any part of the court. Whether it was mid-range, from downtown, or the free-throw line, DePaul basketball had no answer for him.

He, along with the whole Bulldogs squad, aggressively attacked DePaul in the paint or on the perimeter and drew many fouls.

DePaul basketball only shot 4-9 (44.4%) from the free-throw line. Butler shot 17 free throws, completing 16-17 (94.1%) of their attempts.

Takeaway #3: DePaul basketball limited their turnovers

One glaring issue this season that the Blue Demons have had to work around is turnovers. Currently, they are among the top four teams in the Big East in turnovers, averaging 12.7 turnovers per game this season.

Against Butler, DePaul basketball only committed six turnovers, as did the Bulldogs.

While the team didn’t get a win, this is a sign that they are improving in one of their biggest weaknesses this season. If they can play dominant basketball while limiting turnovers, this team could claw a few more wins this season.

Next up for DePaul basketball (10-11, 1-9): at #19 UConn (14-6, 6-3) – Jan. 29 at 7 p.m. CST

Next up for Butler basketball (6-14, 2-7): vs. #10 Marquette (17-3, 8-1) – Jan. 28 at 7:30 p.m. CST