Northwestern to play DePaul on December 3rd

Unsurprisingly, Northwestern's series against local Big East foe DePaul will continue into 2016. Jon Rothstein reported on Twitter on Tuesday afternoon that the Chicagoland schools will play each other at Welsh-Ryan Arena this December.

Northwestern will host DePaul on December 3rd, sources told @CBSSports. Part of annual series.

— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) May 24, 2016

DePaul won't be a draw in terms of quality of play (the Blue Demons finished 184th in KenPom last season behind a 9-22 record), but it's hard to see many negatives about playing a local, power-conference team year after year.

The non-conference slate is getting filled out at this point. With the Legends Classic tournament (which will include two of Texas, Notre Dame and Colorado along with a few home games against mid-majors), the Gavitt Games (during which NU will play Butler), the Big Ten/ACC Challenge (during which NU will play Wake Forest), and now this game on the schedule, it's safe to say that we have a pretty good idea about how tough the non-conference slate will be, and it should be a lot more difficult than it was last year.

In last season's meeting between the Wildcats and Blue Demons, Northwestern won 78-70 in overtime.