It`s a good thing De Paul will get away from Chicago to play in the NCAA tournament.
Five of the Blue Demons` seven losses this season have been inflicted within groaning distance of their North Side campus-four in the Horizon and one in far-flung exotic Evanston. Elswhere in the country, they`re 7-2. All coach Joey Meyer has to do is put them on a plane and the Demons turn tiger.
Right now, De Paul is bigger in the Big Apple than Trump Tower. They demolished St. John`s 65-51 Saturday night before an astonished Madison Square Garden crowd of 14,508.
Coming on the heels of last week`s 92-56 De Paul demolition derby against Iona, it`s understandable if New Yorkers start mistaking the Demons for the Original Celtics. Regardless of how they`ll stack up as Hall of Fame fodder some day, the Demons finally proved their worth, right here in the center of the basketball universe.
Barring an unlikely 0-5 skid to end the season, De Paul (16-7) locked up an NCAA tournament bid with Saturday`s glow-in-the dark performance. Not just the convincing final score, but the way the Demons dominated and embarrassed St. John`s (15-8) should provide all the evidence needed by the NCAA selection committee.
”Their big men surrounded me all night, and their guards came in to swipe at the ball whenever I tried to post up,” lamented St. John`s forward Shelton Jones. ”I can`t say De Paul is better than some of the Big East teams we play, but they`re very athletic.”
That explains why Jones made only 5 of 16 field goal tries. Even so, his struggling 14 points and another dozen from reserve center Marco Baldi towered over the rest of the Redmen`s totals. They bombed on Broadway with combined 8 for 41 shooting, figures that rendered St. John`s coach Lou Carnesecca almost speechless.
”Unheard of,” Carnesecca mumbled after staring in disbelief at a box score revealing his team`s sub-zero 16 for 63 gunnery. ”Shooting 25 percent is a statistic from the 1920s. We shot double-barrelled blanks tonight.”
Nobody, not even Meyer, had expected the Demons to throw this kind of Garden party. Routing Iona at home is one thing, but humiliating St. John`s on its own turf is another matter.
”A couple of bad breaks at North Carolinia State and Georgia Tech kept us from being 9-0 on the road,” Meyer said. ”If that doesn`t prove we belong in the tournament, I don`t know what will.
”So I can`t say this game got us over the hump, any more than beating Bradley or Notre Dame twice or those two tough loss (at N.C. State and Tech)
to good teams. I`m never surprised at what Rod Strickland does on offense, but he also worked hard on defense tonight.”
Strickland turned his reunion duel against St. John`s playmaker Greg
”Boo” Harvey into a bigger mismatch than the game itself. Strickland led all scorers with 21 points, throwing in 6 assists and 9 rebounds, while shackling Harvey, who was 3 for 12 from the floor for 6 points.
Amazingly, St. John`s folded even faster than Iona had against the Demons` take-no-prisoners defense. Matt Brust got the game`s first basket for the Redmen, whereupon De Paul ripped off 14 straight points in 3 minutes 55 seconds.
Red-shirted Redmen fans in the Garden spent the rest of the evening seeing red over their team`s wretched performance. Carnesecca took the only way out, pleading guilty as charged and throwing his team on the mercy of of New York`s sophisticated basketball jury.
”I told my players, `Don`t lose faith in yourself and the guy next to you,` ” he said. ”All teams go through this.
”We missed so many easy shots, I thought the ice was on the floor for hockey tonight. I`m talking easy shots, right underneath the basket.”
Still the veteran coach was too much of a realist to claim the Redmen had a chance with Strickland on the warpath.
”Rod`s the best point guard in the country,” Carnesecca said flatly.
”No doubt he`ll make an outstanding pro. Along with scoring and passing, he has a great feel for the game.”
Strickland has had better games than this one, and so has Kevin Edwards, his backcourt mate. Apparently victimized by Garden jitters, Edwards double-pumped frequently, missed 10 of 13 shots and lacked his customary
consistency.
That made the performance by the Demons` new starting forward, Andy Laux, all the more noteworthy. Along with strong defense and steady ballhandling, the senior from Elmhurst Immaculate Conception contributed the game`s biggest basket.
It deflated the Redmen permanently after they had whittled a 19-point deficit down to 51-43 with 8:55 left. The crowd was coming back to life, but Laux silenced them with a 3-pointer that bounced high off the rim before nestling into the net.
”Andy proved what a genius I am,” Meyer said. ”While he was taking that shot, I was trying to call timeout and erase it.
”Seriously, Terence Greene is a much better player than Laux, but the five best players don`t always make the best team. Andy doesn`t overdo his role, and he gets rid of the ball to keep our offense moving.”
