(Photo credit: Matt Marton-Imagn Images)

Chris Holtmann's second season at DePaul brings some experience and optimism that's been lacking in the program in recent years.

The Blue Demons open 2025-26 vying to continue their dominance of city foe Chicago State on Monday night.

In his first season, with a completely new roster in tow, Holtmann guided DePaul to 14 wins -- one more than the program's previous two campaigns combined -- and a victory in the Big East tournament, plus a berth in the College Basketball Crown postseason event.

This time around, Holtmann and the Blue Demons again the hit the transfer portal hard but bring back an experienced trio from last season's squad in senior guard CJ Gunn (team-high 12.9 ppg), senior forward NJ Benson (9.0 ppg, team-high 6.2 rpg) and junior guard Layden Blocker (9.5 ppg).

'Scoring, all the other stuff, I feel like that's gonna take care of itself,' Blocker said at DePaul's recent media day. '(The) big thing is just leadership.'

Holtmann knows experience is important but also that improvement is necessary. DePaul ranked eighth in the 11-team Big East scoring 72.4 points per game last season, and second-to-last in allowing an average of 74.5 points.

'We're really excited to kind of build off the competitiveness of last year's group and how we finished,' Holtmann said. 'But, we know we have a lot of work ahead of us.'

The Blue Demons have a good shot to get off on a positive note in the opener, having gone 17-0 all-time against Chicago State. DePaul boasts a 23.2-point average margin of victory against the Cougars, who look to improve on last season's 4-28 effort.

First-year Chicago State coach Landon Bussie comes over from Alcorn State, which won or shared the Southwestern Athletic Conference regular-season title in 2022 and 2023. Despite last season's struggles, the Cougars were picked sixth in the Northeast Conference's preseason poll.

'Being picked sixth shows that our peers recognize the strides we've made,' Bussie said. 'We're hungry to prove ourselves and climb even higher.'

Bussie will rely on a bevy of transfers to help the Cougars be more competitive in 2025-26. Senior guard Marcus Tankersley, who has started 62 of 64 games over the past two seasons, averaged 16.6 points for Detroit Mercy in 2023-24, then 10.6 at Alcorn State last season.

--Field Level Media