1975 DePaul Basketball: The Robinzine-To-Corzine Transition Year
Ray Meyer spent the early-to-mid 1970s gradually building the DePaul basketball program back into prominence at a time when Al McGuire’s Marquette and Digger Phelps’ Notre Dame teams ruled the roost for Catholic college hoops in the Midwest. The 1975 DePaul edition was getting closer—while they wouldn’t what make was then just a 32-team NCAA Tournament field, the Blue Demons started knocking on the door, with a big late-season win being the sign of things to come.
Senior forward Bill Robinzine, soon to be a top-10 pick in the NBA draft, was the team leader with 19 points/14 rebounds per game. Ron Norwood was a good all-around scorer, passer and rebounder. Greg Boyd and Jim Bocinsky chipped in double figures in the backcourt.
But the big addition was a freshman named Dave Corzine. A 6’11” center, Corzine made an immediate impact, by averaging 12 points/9 rebounds per game. And he turned into the building block that ultimately put the veteran Meyer, who had coached this Chicago program since 1943, back onto the national stage.
GROWING PAINS
What DePaul did not yet have was quality depth and they were unranked to start the season. And they looked out of their depth in the season opener at UCLA. This was the final season for legendary Bruin head coach John Wooden, and he would be sent off with a national championship in March. UCLA easily beat DePaul 79-64 on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
DePaul continued to play teams from the west, both home and away. They beat St. Mary’s and Gonzaga, neither of whom are what they are today. The Blue Demons lost to a bad Washington State team.
A three-game homestand of St. Bonaventure, Rhode Island, and San Jose State presented an opportunity against teams that were mediocre-to-bad. DePaul won all three, but in two of those games, they only escaped by a basket. That was followed by a road trip to 10th-ranked Providence, which turned into a decisive 85-71 loss.
CLOSE CALLS & TOUGH LOSSES
By the first weekend of January, DePaul was 7-3 and at best a mixed bag. A road trip to play Marquette on a Friday night seemed like a hopeless cause. The Blue Demons showed some fight, rallying from eight down late in the second half to take a one-point lead. But a late tip-in handed Meyer a tough 61-60 loss.
Nor could they bounce back, at least not right away. DePaul went to Niagara, a mediocre team, albeit one coached by future Utah Jazz boss Frank Layden. Niagara gaveDePaul another one-point loss.
Wins over Manhattan and Dayton, and scoring a combined 176 points in the process, healed some wounds in Chicago. But the Blue Demons were still only 9-5. And they lost again, this time to Marshall, in a sizzling 107-96 game, to conclude a rough January.
DePaul opened February by giving Marquette another tough battle. But again, it ended in defeat, this time 72-69. And again, the Blue Demons suffered a hangover out of that loss. Road trips to Virginia Tech and Duquesne—good teams, but ones who would miss the NCAA field—turned into two more defeats.
BREAKTHROUGH
Even given that this DePaul season didn’t start with high expectations, it was still shaping up to be a disappointment. But there was an opportunity. A home game with Notre Dame on February 22. The Irish had also started slow but were coming on strong and looking to salt away an NCAA bid.
The Blue Demons dug deep. The quelled the Irish surge with a 75-70 upset. While Notre Dame ultimately made the NCAA field, DePaul had made their rivals from South Bend sweat. More important, they infused some life into their own program, ultimately closing out the season at 15-10.
Even better, beating Notre Dame proved to be a harbinger of what was ahead in the Corzine Era. DePaul made it back to the NCAA Tournament in 1976, starting a string of seasons where they would be a major national contender for a decade and an NCAA Tournament regular into the early 1990s.