At the beginning of the summer, the DePaul men’s basketball team was primed for smooth sailing into a highly anticipated season—Head Coach Oliver Purnell, in his sophomore season at the helm, took on a six-player crew of freshmen talent, and it seemed the Blue Demons were headed in the right direction with their young squad.
Then, in the course of a week, three key players were announced to miss the entire 2011-12 regular season. Junior Tony Freeland, and freshmen Macari Brooks and Montray Clemons will all be unable to compete, putting the rebuilding team on damage control.
Purnell is optimistic the team will be able to look past losing Freeland, Brooks and Clemons, though he showed concern with the team’s current status.
“I think we’re most affected in practice,” said Purnell. “The past couple days, we’ve been to practice with less than 10 guys, which obviously makes it difficult to practice five-on-five “Montray happens to be a similar type of player – from a depth standpoint that hurts, since Cleveland Melvin has to play that position as well. Knock on wood, he’ll be just