The traps don’t get much bigger than this for the St. John’s basketball team.
A seven-game winning streak, a weekend idle from games, and a sold-out Madison Square Garden with the No. 3 UConn Huskies looming on Friday night.
All that stands in the way of the No. 22 Red Storm (16-5, 9-1 Big East) and the biggest game of the year in the Big East is a trip to Chicago for a date with the DePaul Blue Demons (12-10, 4-7 Big East) on Tuesday night (8:00 p.m. ET, Peacock).
But the speedbump for the Johnnies is that this isn’t the DePaul of year’s past. It’s not a squad in which you could show up to the arena ten minutes before tipoff and still win by 20 points. While the Blue Demons still find itself below .500 in the league, Chris Holtmann has made tremendous strides with the program in his second season after already matching last season’s win total in the league.
Despite all the hype building for its meeting with UConn, St. John’s players say they are focused on DePaul and will not be looking ahead until landing back in New York early Wednesday morning.
“We can’t,” Dylan Darling said about the possibility of looking ahead to the Huskies. “DePaul’s a good team this year. They’re coming off a heartbreaking loss and I’m sure they’re going to be wanting to get back in the win column.”
St. John’s will be looking for another season sweep of the Blue Demons after not being threatened in its first meeting of the season in Queens. The Red Storm have won eight straight games against DePaul and are hoping to keep Rick Pitino in good spirits with its eighth straight win overall.
“Coach P holds us to a standard every single day of trying to get better,” Darling explained. “I would say, overall, maybe the energy is a little better. After a loss, here, you would maybe think someone shot Coach P’s dog and now we see him smile here and there during practice.”
Granted, there might not be much smiling from Pitino with his team getting set to embark on a three-game stretch in seven days in which they can take control of first place in the conference, but his team is ready for the challenge.
“Coach P is kind of a madman. In the heat of the games, he kinds of tape into this alter ego and it’s a lot if you’re not used to it,” Darling continued. “The only thing on his mind is winning.”