The Rise And Fall Of 1980 DePaul Basketball

Ray Meyer’s DePaul program was riding high, coming off the old coach’s first Final Four appearance in 1979 and the key players back in the fold. There were great expectations for the 1980 DePaul basketball team, and the Blue Demons lived up to those expectations almost every step of the way—until a sad end proved both untimely and foreshadowing.

Mark Aguirre was a sophomore, and the 6’6” forward had an electric year, averaging 27 points/8 rebounds per game and making All-American. He was joined on the front line by freshman Terry Cummings, who–like Aguirre–was destined for a strong NBA career. Cummings averaged 14/9 in his first year as a Blue Demon. Center Jim Mitchem and forward Teddy Grubbs chipped in with rebounding help.

The backcourt of Skip Dillard and Clyde Bradshaw could do everything. Combined, they averaged 23 points/9 rebounds/11 assists per game. DePaul was a complete basketball team, and they opened the season ranked #9 in the country.

A pair of home wins, including against a good Texas team, got the season underway. The Blue Demons went on the road on December 15 to seventh-ranked UCLA for a high-profile Saturday showdown. It was the Bruins that DePaul had beaten in the regional final in 1979. This time, the Blue Demons did it in Pauley Pavilion, posting a 99-94 win. That was the highlight of sweeping the three-game road trip.

DePaul went on to Evanston to play a two-day holiday tournament for local schools. They knocked off Northwestern, along with 19-win Loyola-Illinois. When the calendar flipped to the New Year, the Blue Demons were 8-0 and up to #4 in the national rankings.

A difficult road trip to NCAA Tournament-bound Missouri was next. The Tigers were ranked #12 and had a well-balanced lineup that included freshman center Steve Stipanovich, who would one day be the second player chosen in the NBA draft. DePaul won 92-79.

A second game with Loyola-Illinois followed and produced an 80-75 win. The Blue Demons went north to Milwaukee to play their historic rival from Marquette, whom they had eliminated in the Sweet 16 a year ago and was again headed for NCAA play. DePaul got a 92-85 road win. They knocked off another NCAA Tournament team in Lamar.

They were up to #1 in the polls by Super Bowl Sunday on January 20 and their game with #14 LSU was the college basketball showcase before the Pittsburgh Steelers and Los Angeles Rams took the field. Playing in front of the home fans in old Alumni Hall, the Blue Demons got a 78-73 win.

A game against a sneaky good, well-coached UAB team was a trap spot the following Tuesday. DePaul still escaped with a 57-54 win. They also beat Evansville. The Blazers and Purple Aces were both good 18-win teams this year, although in a more rigid time for the NCAA Tournament—only 48 teams qualified—neither made the field.

The Blue Demons got the offense humming by dropping 105 points on Creighton to close out the month of January at 18-0. They ripped off seven more wins against a softer schedule through much of February. They were 25-0 with a road trip to South Bend beckoning.

DePaul’s February 27 with Notre Dame was the last serious hurdle to an undefeated regular season. The Irish had a good team, and this was a big game for them—with the top four seeds in each regional getting byes into the Round of 32, Notre Dame was right on the cusp of the 4-5 seeding slot. Not to mention, Digger Phelps had developed a history of beating #1-ranked teams on this floor. The Blue Demons played well, but they became the latest victim, dropping a 76-74 overtime heartbreaker.

A home game with Illinois State on Saturday closed out the year and DePaul won 97-81. As expected, they got a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. But the placement in the West Regional was curious. The top seed in the more natural region of the Midwest had gone to LSU—whom the Blue Demons had beaten.

Furthermore, UCLA was looming. The Bruins had underachieved during the regular season and were only an 8-seed for the NCAA Tournament. But they had a prolific forward in Kiki Vandeweghe, a good backcourt in Rod Foster and Mike Sanders, and—from the perspective of history—we know that the young head coach, Larry Brown, was pretty good. When UCLA took care of business in the first round, it set up the third Bruins-Blue Demons matchup in the past 12 months.

DePaul just did not click on this afternoon in Tempe, only shooting 40 percent. Cummings had the best game, with 23 points/8 rebounds. Aguirre got 19/9, but at the cost of 8-for-18 shooting. Dillard and Bradshaw played reasonably well, but Grubbs and Mitchem had rough games—they combined to shoot 1-for-14. A 77-71 loss brought the season to a premature end.

There was no getting around the pain of the early exit, although DePaul fans certainly had a right to gripe about the bracket placement. What makes it more difficult in retrospect is the knowledge that this became a pattern. The Blue Demons again had great regular seasons in 1981 and 1982, but again suffered upset losses in the Round of 32. It was the beginning of an era filled with both excellence and heartbreak in Chicago.