St. John’s basketball: 3 keys to victory against DePaul in Big East Tourney

St. John’s basketball Keys to Victory:

Defend Someone, Anyone

St. John’s did not defend a sole two weeks ago in Chicago.

The hot dog vendor could have gotten open looks at the basket if he wanted to.

The Johnnies gave up 99 points in 40 minutes and DePaul left 12 points at the free throw line in the game.

Javon Freeman-Liberty had a career-high 39 points and David Jones, who was playing in his first game in two weeks due to injury, had 24 points.

It was an embarrassing effort on that end of the floor, to be frank.

Head coach Mike Anderson said on Tuesday that the team didn’t defend at all and tried to beat DePaul with its offense, something it came close to doing.

St. John’s did not have Joel Soriano in that game, its only true center, due to a knee injury and Anderson thinks a large part of DePaul’s success in the paint was due to the void he left.

The Blue Demons shot 55.9-percent from the field and had 46 points in the paint.

That cannot happen again on Wednesday.

St. John’s has to defend and be disciplined at a high level if it wants any chance at pulling off multiple upsets in this tournament.