St. John's return home begins with demoralizing loss to DePaul

Minus Shamorie Ponds, St. John's lost to DePaul Saturday, prompting a rare show of displeasure from Chris Mullin in postgame press conference. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

NEW YORK -- I have stood here before inside the pouring rain

With the world turning circles running 'round my brain

I guess I'm always hoping that you'll end this reign

But it's my destiny to be the king of pain

- The Police, "King Of Pain"

The players may change, the coaches may change. The results, sadly for the fans who have bled red and white, have remained largely the same for the past two decades.

No, this isn't an homage to Joe Benigno, nor is it a dig toward the New York Jets, whose own existence has been wrapped in self-inflicted wounds for an even longer period of time. Rather, this is a reaction that was felt by many of the 5,602 patrons who filled Carnesecca Arena Saturday evening, the mass exodus ruined by St. John's after the Red Storm commemorated its Top 25 ranking with a second straight loss, falling to DePaul -- longtime doormat of the Big East Conference -- by the final score of 79-71.

For the second straight season, St. John's (14-3, 2-3 Big East) must now carry the ignominy of a loss to the Blue Demons on its resume, with this one perhaps more disappointing than last year's 17-point rout in which Max Strus and Marin Maric carved up the Red Storm to further a downward spiral that reached eleven straight conference losses before ending the schneid last February in Shamorie Ponds' transcendent stretch against the likes of Duke, Villanova and Marquette. On this night, Ponds was unavailable, missing the game with what head coach Chris Mullin later termed as a lower back injury, citing his superstar guard's availability for Wednesday's game against Creighton as day-to-day. Further criticism emerged in Saturday's postgame press conference, when players and coach differed in their assessment of whether Ponds' absence changed matters much.

"We knew all along he wasn't playing," Marvin Clark revealed after posting a valiant 14-point, 12-rebound double-double against the likes of DePaul big men Femi Olujobi and Paul Reed, who dominated the Red Storm in the paint to the tune of a combined 45 points and 18 rebounds. "Of course, it changes some things, but we have a pretty talented team, so it really doesn't change too much."

"I found out today," Mullin admitted, contradicting an alleged recurring problem that Ponds addressed Tuesday night following St. John's loss to Villanova, when the guard posted the following to his Instagram page:

"Gotta go check my lower back out, been having sharp pain for last week"

"Obviously he's a great, great player, but without him, you approach things a little bit differently," Mullin continued. "I thought we played okay, a little passive, I thought. In the second half, we picked up our energy, but we've just got to play through."

And without Ponds, Justin Simon (20 points, seven assists) filled in admirably as the Red Storm's primary ball handler, with LJ Figueroa (23 points) picking up the slack on a night where Mustapha Heron was held to just 11 points as Olujobi, Reed and Strus -- the latter of whom matched Clark with 14 points and 12 rebounds while flying under the radar -- worked a three-man game to perfection as DePaul (10-5, 2-2 Big East) simply outmuscled the smaller St. John's lineup en route to a 43-34 margin on the boards that Mullin attempted to rationalize with his defensive philosophy, but one his fifth-year senior forward was refreshingly candid about.

"We're really concerned about defensive rebounding," Mullin said, later invoking the San Antonio Spurs to try to prove his point. "We gave up 14 offensive rebounds, but our big focus is on transition defense. When you crash the offensive boards, you have bad transition defense. If you play small, you want to get back on defense and not crash the boards. San Antonio has probably the best transition defense in the world, they don't crash the offensive boards. We like to get back on defense and not give up transition baskets."

"We just got b****ed in the post," a brutally honest Clark surmised, succinct in his assessment. "We gave them too many extra possessions, and you can't win games that way."

Nor can a team win games when it is on the short end of a 28-6 disparity in free throw attempts, or a 21-9 difference in personal fouls, as St. John's was in both aspects on Saturday. Mullin's frustration reached its peak with just over five minutes remaining in regulation, when official Bo Boroski rung up the Hall of Famer for a technical foul with the Red Storm trailing by six points, at 62-56. The change in momentum led to an 8-2 DePaul run, capped by a Strus three-pointer from the left wing that essentially served as a dagger that left the losing coach seething long after the horn sounded.

"To me, you've gotta carve out your space and hold your ground, and deal with the ramifications, whatever that may be," a visibly exasperated Mullin said, trying to be diplomatic. "We'll do a much better job from here on out on doing just that, so if that's illegal, so be it. You guys can look at the stat sheet -- you can read a stat sheet -- and you can digest that. And on defense, what we're going to start teaching is when people crash the boards, we're going to hit them in the neck so they don't come back. We're going to start boxing out like that."

As St. John's turns the page and focuses on Creighton and its Wednesday night showdown against the Bluejays, Mullin enters the matchup in the crosshairs of a fan base who was quick to point the trigger at the coach for a perceived failure to execute Saturday. To his credit, though, he placed the blame squarely on his shoulders, but vowed he would return stronger the next time out in a display of determination that harkened back to his "you gotta put me in the ground" response -- ironically, following a loss to Creighton -- last January when proudly declaring he would not give up while in the throes of the aforementioned 11-game losing streak of last season.

"It's totally on me, 100 percent," Mullin stated. "It's always on me, everything that happens here is on me. But yet I'm not embarrassed. I'll be back here going for the jugular."