DePaul hosts Creighton Wednesday evening

HOW TO WATCH OR STREAM

Time: 8 p.m. CT

TV: FOX Sports Net (Check Local Listings)

Stream: FOX Sports Go (Where Available)

All-Time Series: Creighton leads the series 18-16, and the Bluejays have won eight straight games against the Blue Demons.

PREVIEW

It’s pretty amazing how snakebitten the Creighton Bluejays have been in the last two weeks. Between injuries to Marcus Zegarowski and Ty-Shon Alexander (both have since returned, the overall rigors of conference season, and Creighton’s absolute meltdowns late in each of their past four games, things are going poorly for the Bluejays. It’s hard to remember a team leading four straight games at the final media timeout and subsequently losing each game. Losing on the road in overtime to Villanova stings because it was preventable, but it’s something that happens. Losing to Seton Hall after being up by six with 3:50 to play, Xavier after being up by five with a minute to play, and Seton Hall again after being up seven with six minutes to play is a whole separate issue.

It was always going to be a transitional year for the Bluejays after they lost Marcus Foster and Khyri Thomas to graduation and the NBA, respectively, but after a promising 10-4 start to the season, the Bluejays now sit at 13-13 and tied with Providence for a Big East worst 4-9 in conference play. The bottom has completely fallen out, and now it’s time to try and stop the bleeding and salvage the season.

Meanwhile, DePaul is enjoying one of their most successful seasons in recent memory. At 13-11, the Blue Demons have already won their most games since 2006-07, and need to win just two of their final five games to finish above .500 for the first time since that 2006-07 season. With a strong recruiting and transfer class coming in next season and a lot of talent returning, this might finally be the start of things heading in the right direction for the Blue Demons. Leading scorer Max Strus (17.2 PPG, eighth in the Big East) is coming off a conference season high 23 points in DePaul’s loss to Butler over the weekend. The two biggest keys to DePaul’s success this season have been Femi Olujobi and Paul Reed. The big men have been pivotal for DePaul, as Olujobi is second on the team with 13.5 points per game and 5.3 rebounds per game, while Reed checks in with 11.6 points and a Big East leading 8.1 rebounds per game. The Bluejays will likely have to slow both DePaul big men down and force Strus into poor shots if they want to leave Chicago with a victory.