It wasn't supposed to be like this for the DePaul Blue Demons. Oh, they knew coming into the season they were young, but they also felt they were talented.

Could they win the Big East. No, absolutely not. But they certainly didn't visualize themselves sitting home for the conference tournament, not included among the five teams that survived the grueling 18-game schedule.

Adding two games this year did little to help anyone in the conference. It just made the season longer and tougher, leaving more room for the good to separate itself from the bad while hurting the national rankings with unnecessary losses that could have been scheduled out of existence with two additional nonconference game.

When you analyze the Blue Demons, though, you see that this year was played for next year. Call it a building year, if you must, although coach Jerry Wainwright would never characterize it as that.

Yet two exciting freshmen came in and took over the program -- center Mac Koshwal and forward Dar Tucker. Tucker is a scorer, Koshwal a rebounder and such a leader that he became a team captain in his freshman year.

But DePaul as a team shot badly and was inconsistent, senior guard Draelon Burns and the Blue Demons' go-to guy was either at the top of his game or badly off it.

The Blue Demons lose four seniors in Burns, forward Wesley Green, point guard Cliff Clinkscales and forward Karron Clarke.

"I don't think we've watched standings," Wainwright said. "I think we've been in a fight to try to survive ourselves."

And they couldn't pull it off, losing 10 of their last 12 games.

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