DePaul faced a formidable roadblock on Monday in its bid for a second straight trip to the NCAA women's Sweet 16.
The Blue Demons clashed with powerhouse Tennessee -- a team they've never beaten in 19 previous tries -- in a second-round NCAA tourney clash at Allstate Arena..
The winner advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16 and third round action in Des Moines this weekend.
The Volunteers series may be the most lopsided in the Blue Demon record books, but head coach Doug Bruno said regularly playing teams with that pedigree is by design and helped elevate his program into the nation's elite.
"We chose to play the best teams in the country," he said. "By playing great coaches like (Tennessee's) Pat Summitt, you got to learn your craft … In the big picture of how we all go about competing at the Division-I level, there's been a learning curve here that's been helped by the process of being beaten by the University of Tennessee and some of the other great programs we've played as well."
DePaul has played more than 200 ranked teams during Bruno's 26-year tenure and regularly meets the nation's best since the school joined the Big East in 2005-06.
Tennessee eyes its first Final Four trip since 2008. But it's been a bittersweet passage since Summitt revealed she's afflicted with early stage dementia. Winner of eight national championships, she has passed game responsibilities to Volunteers' associate head coach Holly Warlick.
An animated Warlick directed action during Saturday's 72-49 win over UT-Martin while Summitt quietly sat on the sidelines with hand on her chin while intently following play.
The Blue Demons (23-10) have played with seven regulars since Keisha Hampton went down in the last of a series of season-ending injuries. And that lack of depth is something Tennessee planned to exploit.
"We feel like we're the deepest team in the country," Warlick said on Sunday. "They've had some injuries and so their starters have had to play key roles for them and they can't go very deep. We're definitely going to try to exploit that and use our depth to our advantage."
But DePaul guard Anna Martin warned that seven is plenty.
"We're in great shape," she said. "We've been preparing for games like this, so we've just got to come out and play like we've been and hope for the best."
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