To punctuate Tuesday’s visit by No. 22 St. John’s, DePaul has pulled out all the stops.
New York playground legend Rod Strickland, a two-time All-American at DePaul before embarking on a 17-year NBA career, will have his jersey retired at halftime in Chicago.
Also, the legendary Red Panda will perform before the game.
There’s just one thing DePaul forgot: to enter this Big East clash with a head of steam.
The Blue Demons (12-10, 4-7) built an 18-point lead with 13 minutes to go Saturday at Xavier before giving it all away. They dropped a 68-66 decision after the Musketeers made a 12-foot baseline jumper at the buzzer.
That didn’t leave DePaul much time to rebuild its confidence before St. John’s (16-5, 9-1) arrives on a seven-game winning streak.
But the Blue Demons do have something to buoy them: They have won their last four Big East home games. They haven’t done that since the 2006-07 season, and they haven’t won five straight conference home games since 2004-05 as a member of Conference USA.
“This is a really difficult stretch for us,” DePaul coach Chris Holtmann said before the Xavier loss. “Our focus just has to be on what can we do to play better?”
One Blue Demon who likely can’t play much better is CJ Gunn. He drilled four 3-pointers in the second half at Xavier — including a game-tying 25-footer with 9.1 seconds left — and finished with a team-high 19 points.
In Big East action, Gunn leads DePaul with 14.8 points per game and 23-of-64 shooting (35.9%) from 3-point range. Layden Blocker (12.3 ppg, 3.6 apg) and super-sub Brandon Maclin (10.5 ppg, 4.6 rpg) also average double figures in league play.
While DePaul enters Tuesday’s game riding a nice winning streak at home, St. John’s hasn’t lost a true road game since Feb. 12, 2025. The Red Storm’s Big East road winning streak sits at eight games and began with last year’s 82-58 win on Feb. 19 at DePaul.
During their current seven-game overall winning streak, six different players have led the Red Storm in scoring: Zuby Ejiofor, Lefteris Liotopoulos, Oziyah Sellers, Bryce Hopkins (twice), Dillon Mitchell and Ian Jackson.
While Ejiofor (15.7 ppg, 7.4 rpg, 3.3 apg, 2.0 bpg, 1.2 spg) has lived up to his billing as one of the most versatile players in the nation, Mitchell has made a big leap in recent weeks.
In the Red Storm’s last four games, Mitchell has averaged 14.5 points, 10.3 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 2.0 steals while shooting 60.5% from the floor.
This run features three of his four double-doubles this season, which includes his 14-point, 13-rebound, four-assist, three-block outburst on Wednesday, when St. John’s bounced Butler 92-70 to gain coach Rick Pitino’s 901st career win.
“I’m having so much fun watching Dillon Mitchell play,” Pitino said. “I don’t think I’ve said that too many times in my 52 years — of having fun watching a person play. Whether it’s him coming down as a point forward and attacking the basket, or making a great pass, or throwing it to Zuby and him cutting to get open, he really knows how to play.
“It’s not like having another point guard on the floor. It’s like having another coach on the floor, which is great.”
–Field Level Media
