DePaul Hoops

The DePaul mess took another step backward tonight at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont. The bleak corner of Touhy and Mannheim was the scene of a second half beat-down of DePaul by Rutgers. After leading by as many as 17 points with five minutes remaining in the first half, the Blue Demons were outscored something like 54-33 in the rest of the game, and were out-rebounded by 15 boards.

Down two with 42 seconds left, DePaul fouled with eight seconds left on the shotclock rather than continuing to play defense and play for the potential game winning shot.The end of the game was a comedy of errors that resulted in a 68-64 final score, with many fans headed to the exits when timeout was called with Rutgers leading by four with 11 seconds left.

What will the future hold for DePaul? The program is not improving. Luckily, Allstate Arena is small enough than crowds of less than 1,000 spectators don't seem TERRIBLY sparse. Granted, the crowds are EXTREMELY sparse. I don't know how many more seasons like this the program, or that building, can afford.
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ATP 250 de Buenos Aires

Nalbandian returned to the circuit with a victory over Starace 6-2, 7-6 (2) in a match played over the course of two days due to rain. His status for the Davis Cup in three weeks against Sweden is in doubt, but a deep run in his home tournament would give much needed confidence and ranking points at this point in his career. 2010 should be a year for David to improve physically, and prepare for one more run at the top ten. There is no place better than the Copa Telmex for such a journey to start. Nalbandian - Gimeno Traver (Wednesday 3:30 ET)