Rick Pitino said St. John’s basketball’s matchup against DePaul was going to be a “flat our war.”
It was anything but.
The Johnnies asserted themselves early and often and left no doubt in an 89-61 win.
“I was shocked tonight,” Pitino said after the game. “We were sick over this game. We were preparing as if it was the last game of the season and we had to win it.”
It was very apparent from tipoff that Pitino had his team locked in and focused that this wasn’t a buy game against a mid-major, it was the start of Big East play where his team is poised to finish in the top half of the conference due to the struggles of the rest of the programs.
“It was by far our best game of the season.”
Deivon Smith, inserted back into the starting lineup for the first time since he was disciplined in the second half against Georgia, controlled everything. The Blue Demons had no one to match his speed and quickness as he finished with nine points, six rebounds, eight assists, and five steals.
“He’s not only very fast, but he’s a very smart young man,” Pitino explained about Smith. “He ignites you because he rebounds the ball. He’s unselfish.”
While Smith controlled the action, the Johnnies turned in one of its most balanced scoring efforts of the season with four players reaching double figures as RJ Luis led the way with 19 points while Kadary Richmond dropped in 18 points.
“Our guys were brilliant tonight,” he continued. “We’re four points away from probably being ranked Top-5 in the nation.”
St. John's led by 11-points at halftime, 40-29, before using a 17-4 second half run to build an advantage as big as 35 points, 84-49, in the closing minutes.
The domination of DePaul doesn’t come as a surprise to many who loosely follow the Big East but this is a Blue Demon team that is vastly improved from last season under new head coach Chris Holtmann, and St. John’s made them look like past versions of themselves under Dave Leitao and Tony Stubblefield.
DePaul (8-3, 0-2 Big East) was shooting 40.4-percent from 3-point range entering its matchup with the Red Storm before being held to just 6-of-20 in Queens.
St. John’s (9-2, 1-0 Big East) will play its first true road game of the season on Friday night (8:00 p.m. ET, FOX) against Providence (7-5, 1-0 Big East).