The bus did not return to DePaul until nearly midnight, but Draelon Burns was not heading to his dorm yet.
“I didn’t want to be sitting in my room,” the DePaul senior guard said. “I’d probably break something.”
After the Blue Demons lost Feb. 23 at Seton Hall there was only one place to take out his frustration from another loss in a monthlong slump. He put on his iPod and hit the court at McGrath Arena, where he shot until the aggravation melted away — or he simply grew too tired.
“Being in here is how I keep my mind free,” he said.
Burns’ final season is nothing but mind-boggling.
Burns draped himself in pressure and has not always worn it well. And DePaul’s final regular-season game Sunday at the raucous “Zoo” in Pittsburgh contains as much pressure as a shaken soda can.
DePaul must win to advance to the Big East tournament as the 12th and final seed. If they lose to Pittsburgh, Providence takes the last slot. The Friars helped DePaul by losing Saturday night to Villanova, otherwise the Blue Demons season essentially would be over already.
“I really don’t try to stress too much about the standings,” Burns said. “It’s stressful enough already. I probably have put too much pressure on myself looking back. I probably shouldn’t have. It could’ve gone a lot better.”
Now, Burns can wonder only how much longer it will go.
While Burns is the fourth leading scorer in the conference, averaging 17.6 points per game, he has struggled to be a night-after-night scorer.
After shooting 7 of 15 for 22 points against South Florida, Burns was 3 of 14 for 11 points against Louisville. After making 6 of 15 for 20 points against Connecticut, he shot 3 of 11 for nine points against Seton Hall. He was 9 of 16 for 31 points against West Virginia, but connected on 2 of 10 for nine points against Notre Dame.
If any time was vital for Burns to put together back-to-back hits, it is Sunday.
Burns kept DePaul in the hunt for a conference tournament berth by shooting 8 of 16 for 24 points in a victory Thursday at Cincinnati, breaking DePaul out of slump that consisted of nine losses in 10 games.
Burns can’t be faulted with effort. If anything, he tries too hard.
With last season’s DePaul headliners — Wilson Chandler and Sammy Mejia — gone, Burns was expected to be this season’s fire, but sometimes this season he burned himself out.
“I certainly think, especially early on, he didn’t understand how people would come after him,” coach Jerry Wainwright said. “He was a target.”
The most repeated line his teammates hear from Burns is “It’s my fault,” deserved or not.
“He says it after games,” Wainwright said. “He says it after plays. If you wear that kind of pressure, it adds up.”
If Burns and his teammates can stand against the pressure one more time, they will be shooting in Madison Square Garden rather than late at night in McGrath Arena.
“We just want to get to the Big East and be the Cinderellas of the tournament,” Burns said.
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sryan@tribune.com
