1.15 Around The Big East

DePaul 77, St. John's 75 - January 3rd and January 5th, 2008. That was the last time that DePaul won two straight Big East games. I'd go back and look to see when the last time that St. John's lost four straight Big East games, but seeing as they're currently on an eight game regular season losing streak and a nine game overall losing streak, I don't see the point.

DePaul claims that 6,102 people were in attendance last night to watch what was actually a pretty exciting game. It's hard to not like a game that had 16 ties and 15 lead changes. The lead swings were even bigger than those stats tell you. DePaul led 10-4 before giving up a 9-2 run that cost them the lead. St. John's took a 29-24 lead, their largest margin of the game, before DePaul ripped off a 9-2 run of their own to retake the lead.

The first half ended in a tie, but a Tommy Hamilton three pointer gave DePaul a seven point lead with 13:37 left. St. John's wasn't going to go away, and they would tie the game, and even lead by four points on a D`Angelo Harrison jumper with 4:35 remaining. That's when - and this is weird to type - DePaul took care of business. The Blue Demons closed the game on a long, long 7-1 run. There was drama in the closing moments, though. After Cleveland Melvin missed a jumper while up 76-75, St. John's ran down to the other end, needing any shot at all to take the lead and potentially win. In a scene that was horrifyingly reminiscent of Marquette at Green Bay last season, instead of literally doing anything else, St. John's passed the ball to their 40% three point shooter, Max Hooper, who missed his shot badly.

Harrison had a game high 24 points in the losing effort, while Billy Garrett led four Blue Demons in double digits with 21 points. Go check out Rumble In The Garden for more.

#20 Creighton 88, Butler 60 - Doug McDermott scored 24 of his 28 points in the first half as Creighton took a 53-24 lead at intermission. The end.

No, seriously. How does a team desperate for their first win in a new league let McDermott, a national Player of the Year candidate and the Big East's preseason Player of the Year, shoot 9-12, including making all three of his attempts behind the arc? Was it because they were focusing on stopping sharpshooter and lumberjack Ethan Wragge, who only made both of his three ball attempts in the first half? Heck, given that Creighton had a first half eFG% of 79%, are we sure that Butler was even playing defense?

Even after this disasterous performance, I still completely expect Saturday's Marquette-Butler game to go to overtime, because that's how the universe works. You can read more about this one at White & Blue Review and Butler Hoops.