Preview Magazines Hype DePaul Basketball

CHICAGO -- One of the annual rites of the fall is the production of the college basketball preview magazines and the 2006-07 editions of those publications have had some good things to say about the upcoming edition of the Blue Demons.

The four major publications (Street & Smith’s, Lindy’s, Athlon and The Sporting News) all have the Blue Demons finishing eighth in the BIG EAST Conference standings.

The Sporting News listed Head Coach Jerry Wainwright's squad as a team that could surprise the nation in its “Don’t Say You Weren’t Warned” section. It also listed the Blue Demons as the program ascending the most among the BIG EAST Conference members. Individually, it listed sophomore Wilson Chandler as a “Player on the Rise” in the BIG EAST and tabbed him the 17th-best power forward in the country. Senior Sammy Mejia was listed as the 13th-best shooting guard in the nation.

Athlon named Chandler one of the nation’s “Emerging Stars” and tabbed Mejia as a third team All-BIG EAST selection. It also had DePaul among its NCAA Tournament participants.

Lindy’s listed Chandler as the 16th-best power forward in the nation and named him third team All-BIG EAST.

Street & Smith’s selected Mejia as the Best Shooter in the BIG EAST.

DePaul opens the 2006-07 season on Friday with the annual Blue Madness in McGrath Arena at 8 p.m. The exhibition portion of the season opens on November 1 when St. Ambrose comes to McGrath Arena at 8 p.m. The regular season kicks off on November 11 at Bradley. The regular season home opener is November 17 when Eastern Illinois comes to the Allstate Arena at 7:30 p.m.