By Derek DeBurger
Louisville women’s basketball will face former Big East rival the DePaul Blue Demons for their home opener.
The rivalry in men’s basketball has been very one-sided, with DePaul only notching one win coming in 2021, but the women’s series has been much closer. Though tied at 17 wins apiece, but the Cards have won the last two matchups in convincing fashion including a 81-67 win last year.
DePaul will present a tougher challenge than Cincinnati, especially under formidable head coach Doug Bruno. Bruno has also been at the helm for the Blue Demons since 1988, so there’s a lot more consistency than Cincinnati who has a first-year head coach.
In their two games this season, DePaul has been a menace defensively holding opponents to 35 and 28% from the field. The Blue Demons have also done a great job creating havoc, coming away with 24 steals on their last time out on the court. Missouri transfer by way of Notre Dame Katlyn Gilbert led the team with 10 steals.
Notre Dame transfer Anaya Peoples scored 20 points in each of their two contests, proving herself to be the Blue Demons’ go-to scoring option.
DePaul is a proud program that has been down on their luck the past few years. It would be easy to say that they’ll have a similar disappointing season, but the Blue Demons brought in seven transfers so no one really knows how good they actually are. Usually, when there’s a lot of roster turnover there’s a question of how long it’ll take for the team to gel, if it ever does. With DePaul, three of the transfers are former Notre Dame players and two are former Michigan players, so there’s already some familiarity baked in with the team.
Head coach Jeff Walz will still be trying to figure out the specifics of his roster and rotation, but he’ll need some answers fast as the Cards field a tough non-conference schedule.
I wouldn’t expect to see 12 players in the first quarter again, but I am expecting a hard-fought win.
