“I just wanted this bad for my teammates,” a teary-eyed David DeJulius said after a heart-wrenching loss to Xavier after just his second game as a Bearcat. His 16 points and late-game heroics nearly willed Cincinnati to a win. At that moment, it didn’t take a Philadelphia lawyer to surmise that David DeJulius was just different.

David DeJulius won’t have his jersey in the rafters. His name will never be mentioned with the Martin’s, Logan’s, or Kilpatrick’s. He’s likely going to leave Clifton without an NCAA tournament appearance, but he still left quite a mark during his three seasons in Cincinnati.

It was easy to get excited when DeJulius committed to Cincinnati after hitting the transfer portal in April 2020. After all, he was coming off a solid season as Michigan’s sixth man, where he averaged 7 points per game and shot 36 percent from three. With the world in flux, UC fans welcomed any positive news.

To call his first season bumpy would be an understatement. DeJulius started a bit slow, and the constant roster defections put more of a burden on Dave. He was playing a lofty share of minutes for the first time in his college career. Still there were flashes. He was brilliant in a win at Temple, scoring 26 points and tallying three steals. UC fans saw a glimpse at how good Dave could be.

But it became bigger than basketball on February 25th, 2021. DeJulius opted out of the season, citing mental health issues amid COVID.

“The life we’ve been having to live due to a worldwide pandemic, it’s been tough in that regard. It took a lot of steps for me to decide what was best not only for me but for my team, and that was to step away,” he told Justin Williams of the Athletic.

Dave returned to the team a few weeks later to play in the conference tournament. Then came one of the more tumultuous off-seasons in recent memory. All but four UC players hit the portal. John Brannen was ousted. You know the story.

It would have been easy for him to enter the transfer portal. We’re in a player empowerment era with NIL and immediate eligibility. When John Cunningham hired Wes Miller, DeJulius could have bolted, but he bought in and decided to stick around.

For DeJulius, it paid dividends. He was far and away the best player on the 2021 team. He was spectacular in the narrow loss to Arkansas, he scored 22 in the win over SMU, and he hit the game-winning floater to beat ECU in Greenville.

From a wins and losses perspective, the season wasn’t all that fun. You can’t blame Dave for that. By the end of the year, teams were smothering DeJulius. They weren’t going to let him beat them, and with the way he was playing, you couldn’t blame them.

By the end of the year, I was beating the drum so loudly for DeJulius to return for year 5. Luckily, he wanted to run it back in the Red and Black for one more year.

Again, he could have transferred to be a contributing piece on a high major for his last year. Yet he stuck it out.

On paper, his point-per-game average is nearly identical to last year. He’s averaging 14.6 PPG this year. He averaged 14.5 PPG last year. But his improvement has been evident. He hasn’t had to carry the load, and that has turned him into a terrific facilitator. DDJ dropped at least five assists in 15 straight games. His three-point shooting has jumped from 29 percent last year to 37 percent this year. Juice is the king of the step-back and the master of putting your defender in a blender.

When this team needed someone to get a bucket to quell an opponent’s run, Dave often answered the bell. His senior season is filled with some memorable moments. He scored 12 points over the final 3:31 in a heroic effort in a loss to Xavier. His and-one three to tie the game sent the Fifth Third crowd into a frenzy for the first time in probably three years.

He hit another game-winning floater to beat UCF after putting Darius Johnson on skates. It was a deserved outcome after missing what would have been a buzzer-beater at Tulane.

Typically, that would be the end of the story. David DeJulius left his mark as a very good player in the program’s storied history. But as good of a player as he is, he’s a better person.

When I spoke with ESPN’s Mark Adams about DeJulius on the first episode of the Fries Frame podcast (shameless plug), he mentioned Dave’s maturity and considered him a friend.

DeJulius announced before the season that NIL income from his jersey sales would be donated to inner-city kids in Cincinnati and Detroit.

Wes Miller has referenced getting phone calls from random people raving about Dave going to schools and interacting with kids just on a whim.

“David’s got basketball ahead of him,” Wes said. “He’s also put himself position to have a lot of opportunities when the ball stops bouncing as a player… He’s going to be able to do whatever he wants to do.”

In a world where it’s easy to be selfish, Dave was the exact opposite. Cheers to #5 on a great career. When you applaud David DeJulius one last time, don’t just do it for the 1,091 points he scored or the big shots he hit, do it because he was different.

(Photo credit: Eric Christian Smith/AP Photo)