From now until Villanova’s first game in Rome on November 1 against Notre Dame, WBR’s Andrew Kresin will run down the 10 other Big East programs as a MISE EN PLACE series. You can check out the rest of the series here.
General Information
- Head Coach: Chris Holtmann (Third season at DePaul, 30-36 in Chicago, 281-207 overall)
- 2025-26 Record: 16-16 (8-12)
- 2025-26 Postseason: Lost to Georgetown in First Round of Big East Tournament, no other postseason
- Coaches’ Poll Placement: Eighth (32 points)
- Media Day All-Big East Members: Third Team All-Big East member Layden Blocker
- 2026-27 Scoring Retention: ~30.9 percent of scoring across five players
Key Returners
DePaul returns five players who played last season, four of whom I believe will see an increased role going into 2026-27. The biggest one of those returners is Third Team All-Big East member Layden Blocker. A 6-foot-2 senior guard, Blocker was productive as DePaul’s leader in assists with 112 and steals with 52 across 32 games, 29 starts and around 930 minutes. He applied significant pressure to the opposing defenses with a team-leading 122 foul shots. He was also sixth in the Big East in free throw percentage at 82.8 percent from the stripe.
Creighton fans might specifically remember Blocker from the 2025 Big East Tournament Quarterfinals against DePaul, where he led the Blue Demons with 25 points over 40 of the total 50 minutes. Blocker’s scoring average increased from his sophomore to junior campaign, but he never had more than 20 points in any one game as a junior. What Blocker lacked in scoring capacity he makes up for in scoring consistency, scoring in all 32 of his appearances and scoring at least five points in 27 of 32 contests.
Blocker is joined in the backcourt by sophomore guard Kruz McClure, who appeared in 28 games with four starts for DePaul last season. Where Blocker wasn’t the most prolific scorer, McClure could score in bunches more often but was far more erratic. He scored 22 against LSU, eclipsing Blocker’s season high, but failed to score in nine separate games, most of which were away games for DePaul in conference.
This ending tidbit was a problem for McClure last season. In hostile road environments, McClure scored just 1.9 points per game, lower than both his home average of 5.5 and his season average of 5.0. Additionally, McClure shot significantly worse in road games, going from 36.1 percent at home to a putrid 13.5 percent across 10 true road games. McClure will need to gain confidence shooting and scoring outside of Wintrust Arena to make an larger impact for the Blue Demons.
Neither Blocker nor McClure shot particularly well from deep last season—Blocker shot 31.8 percent and McClure shot 29.9 percent—but players like junior forward Theo Pierre-Justin will help to keep DePaul spaced. Last season, across 30 games and 20 starts, Pierre-Justin averaged just 4.0 points per game but shot 39.7 percent from three. Granted, 63 attempts and 25 makes is a relatively small sample size, but it is a better shooting percentage than his much smaller freshman year sample by over 16 percent and was completed over basically quadruple the minutes played.
To have a successful season, Pierre-Justin just need to continue doing what he did last season while also playing more minutes. He grabbed 2.6 rebounds per game, a good amount for a spot-up shooter, and passed the ball for assists surprisingly well. If he can continue to build these skills while also maintaining a strong shooting percentage from three, Coach Holtmann will be happy with the production out of Pierre-Justin.
The last key returner is junior center Fabian Flores, a late addition to the DePaul roster last season. He played 28 games, one start and about 300 minutes, proving in the process that he was a solid rebounder. Averaging 2.9 points and 2.9 rebounds per game in just 10.6 minutes per game, he had a rebounding rate of 16.4 percent, third in the conference behind Josh Clark and Owen Freeman for players between 100 and 500 minutes played. If Flores can keep this rebounding rate high, he’ll see significant playing time.
Key Transfers
DePaul acquired six transfers for this season, all six of whom scored at least 150 points in the 2025-26 season. The headliner, at least in my opinion, is senior forward Magoon Gwath, the former Mountain West Conference Defense Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year in 2024-25. He took a redshirt at San Diego State in 2023-24, but then became a prominent piece to the Aztecs’ defensive attack. He led the Mountain West in blocks per game and total blocks as well as averaging 5.2 rebounds per game in his first season playing. At 7-foot, he shot 37.8 percent from three on 45 attempts over the course of this season, gifting Head Coach Brian Dutcher some spacing you don’t usually see from a player who also wins DPOY in a conference.
But in ways, his second year was not as kind to him. He saw less playing time and fewer starts despite better shooting percentages, higher scoring averages and equivalent rebounding numbers when you normalize his playing time year-over-year. The cause for this lower playing time was much weaker rim protection, as Gwath went from 68 blocks over 26 games in his first season to just 37 blocks across 25 games in his second season. He also fouled more when his minutes were normalized; Gwath’s personal fouls per 40 minutes increased from 3.1 to 3.8 in just one season. His offense game blossomed in a way, with Gwath shooting 51.9 percent from the field and 43.5 percent from three on around 6.2 field goal attempts per game, but San Diego State’s defense struggled compared to Gwath’s first year and Gwath’s block rate was part of the reason why.
Alongside Gwath in Chicago is fellow 7-footer, junior center Wilson Jacques. In 32 games and 32 starts for Fresno State last season, Jacques was a powerful rebounder, averaging 8.8 total rebounds and 3.0 offensive rebounds across 27.4 minutes per game. He may not have been as offensively efficient as Gwath, but still made 109 field goals on a 48.4 percent clip last season to average 8.8 points per game.
The caveat to Jacques is that he’s not a prolific shot blocker like Gwath, but he is so much bigger than Gwath and provides that knack for rebounding that other forwards might not have to the same degree. Jacques is listed at 270 pounds, around 50 pounds bigger than Gwath. Jacques also placed in the top 30 nationally in total rebounding rate among players who played at least 750 minutes last season and would have placed fourth in the Big East (behind Tarris Reed Jr., Duke Brennan and Michael Ajayi) if he translated one-for-one in this league. These numbers make him a wildcard for DePaul, as he not only needs to translate his abilities from the Mountain West to the Big East—like Gwath—but also needs to show he can perform on a competitive team, as Fresno State went 13-19 in his only season playing for the Bulldogs.
Ade Popoola is a fifth-year guard who comes to the Blue Demons’ program by way of Tulsa. He had been playing JUCO in the years before his time with the Golden Hurricane, but in just one year at Tulsa, Popoola showed he was one of the best three-point shooters in the American Conference. He scored, averaging 10.8 points per game, but also shot 40.9 percent from three on an outrageous sample size of 6.4 attempts per game and 242 total attempts. His 99 three-point makes were top 40 in the country and only a handful of players in the American Conference had more three pointers on the season. His shooting prowess is his calling card, which allowed him to rise from the JUCO ranks to Tulsa to DePaul. He will provide a lift to DePaul’s spacing, improving on a team three-point percentage which at times struggled last season at 32.5 percent on the year and 266th nationally.
Kahmare Holmes, junior guard from Wofford, also will provide a scoring lift at the guard position for Coach Holtmann. Averaging 19.5 points per game for the Terriers, he also led the Southern Conference in steals at 53 and steals per game at 2.0 over 26 games and 26 starts. He improved on a weaker shooting percentage in his freshman year with a strong set of splits in his sophomore season: 48.3 percent from the field, 35.2 percent from three and 65.5 percent from the line, all big improvements from the year prior. The question with Holmes might be his level of play last season and how he is able to transfer the scoring to a much better league, but he still impressed with solid performances at Auburn and at Wichita State.
Senior guard Koree Cotton played at three schools before coming to Chicago, most recently UTRGV. He showed his abilities as a strong shooter from the field and the three point line in a high-usage situation for the Vaqueros, but was not as effective shooting the basketball against better competition in the Conference USA during his sophomore season. After he took the jump down to the Southland Conference, his field goal and three-point percentages both jumped by nearly 10 percentage points. He’s a good rebounder for his position and provides some natural and needed passing ability for this DePaul team, but might struggle in a league like the Big East based on his time in the C-USA.
Finally, Noah Meeusen is a junior guard who played mostly as a reserve for Arizona State last season. Though his bench role was significant, playing 27.3 minutes per game across 30 games and 11 starts, Meeusen averaged just 5.9 points per game. Despite not scoring, his presence was felt in other ways: he averaged 3.2 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.4 steals per game. A do-it-all guy off the bench for the Sun Devils, Meeusen will almost certainly have a role on this DePaul team based on his high-major experience in the Big 12 Conference.
Key College Newcomers
DePaul received three high school commitments, one of whom was ranked on 247Sports. Guard Noah Smith was a three-star on this recruiting service, finishing as one of the best prospects in the state of Indiana. He averaged 19.2 points and 9.0 rebounds per game in his senior season at Plainfield High School in Plainfield, Indiana.
DePaul also received commitments from unranked prospects Andrew Jensen and Mason Lockett IV. Jensen, a forward, averaged 18.7 points per game in Wisconsin’s Kaukauna High School, while Lockett IV, a guard, averaged 18.3 points, 5.0 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game at Oswego East High School.
Others
DePaul returns three other players. Junior guard Nate Kasher scored two points over nine minutes and five games for the Blue Demons last season. Sophomore forward Jonas Johnson and junior guard Amsal Delalic both took redshirts in the 2025-26 season, but Delalic did have playing experience at Pittsburgh before transferring to DePaul. In his 21 appearances and two starts with Pittsburgh in the 2024-25 season, Delalic scored 80 points over 281 minutes and shot 35.3 percent from three on 34 attempts.
Outlook
I think the Big East as a whole is much improved, but if I were to give out a dark horse award, I think DePaul would win it. There are a multitude of players who could make an impact on the Blue Demons’ season this year, yet there are so many unknowns with NJ Benson and CJ Gunn having left the program. If Gwath can get back to his first-year levels and the three point shooting can improve for Coach Holtmann, I would not be surprised if DePaul jumps a few teams ranked above them in the Big East Media Poll.
Credits
DePaul player information (demographic information, player stats from high school, et cetera) found on DePaul’s athletics webpage. Player stats from other schools found on Sports-Reference. Lists made with Stathead. Player rankings from high school found on 247Sports. Charts made in Microsoft Excel.