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St. John’s Basketball: Another poor effort against DePaul ends 2021-22 season

Dec 18, 2021; New York, New York, USA; St. John’s Red Storm guard Dylan Addae-Wusu (5) at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 18, 2021; New York, New York, USA; St. John’s Red Storm guard Dylan Addae-Wusu (5) at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports

St. John’s Basketball was an NCAA Tournament contender entering this season. But a loss to DePaul all but ends those hopes barring a Big East Tournament run.

“Can St. John’s Basketball make the NCAA Tournament the season?” That was the big question for a team that returned star forward Julian Champagnie and had a rebuilt roster with some optimism. However, things were off to a rough start this year, losing to Kansas, Indiana, and Pittsburgh in the non-conference and entering Big East play without a good win, something that was gonna come back to haunt them later.

A 3-6 start in league play dug them an even bigger hole that gave the Red Storm no margin for error in terms of bad losses. And despite getting road wins over Seton Hall and Xavier, this team just hasn’t been good enough to make an NCAA Tournament push. But when you look at the bubble overall, there has been a chance that St. John’s could get back on it had they won out.

Well, that hope was ended on Sunday on the road at DePaul, who came into the game under .500 overall and was 10th in the Big East standings. Yet they looked like a top-10 team early on in the game, racing out to a double-digit lead thanks to an incredible shooting display. Star guard Javon Freeman-Liberty ended up with a career-high 39 points, while David Jones returned to put up 24 points and 10 rebounds.

St. John’s was able to get the game close and make it a game late but in the end, they fell 99-94 to get an awful resume loss and make it clear that they must pull a Georgetown – win the Big East Tournament or go home early. And that’s an incredible disappointment, considering the hype around Champagnie’s return.

Posh Alexander, the team’s only other double-digit scorer on the season (14.5 ppg) and starting point guard, came off the bench this game and wasn’t injured. But aside from not knowing what’s going on behind the scenes, not having Alexander guarding Freeman-Liberty from the get-go set a tone that allowed the Blue Demons to do whatever they want offensively.

And that’s been the story of St. John’s Basketball this season. They’ve been very versatile in how they’ve been disappointing. They either can’t score or can’t defend but it’s just been miserable seeing how mediocre they are overall, now at 15-13 and 7-10 in Big East play.

Does the Red Storm have the talent to potentially make a run in the upcoming conference tournament? Maybe, just with Champagnie alone going on runs. But there’s nothing from a team standpoint that says that they’ll be able to win multiple quality games in a row, something they’ve yet to do this season.