Wow, now that is a drought. Unless I missed it, there are no schools from the state of Illinois in the big dance for the second straight year.
This year there are 5 teams from Indiana and 3 from Iowa. The Big East sent 6 of 10.
No reason, actually crazy, that a school in Chicago that had a basketball tradition (although you need to be my age now to remember), and plays in a top level conference has not been to the dance for 11 years. I really don't think those outside of DePaul thought they would with Purnell either.
You don't need the city talent to be successful at DePaul (may be more trouble than it is worth), but if DePaul lands a really good young coach as the headline suggests (who is also in large part - salesman), the term sleeping giant might very well fit.