DePaul Opens BIG EAST Tournament Wednesday Against St. John's

NEW YORK - DePaul opens the BIG EAST Tournament on Wednesday night with a first-round matchup against the St. John's Red Storm. After finishing in a three-way tie for eighth, the Blue Demons enter the tournament as the No. 10 seed following tiebreaking procedures while St. John's is slotted as the seventh seed. Just two games in the league standings separated the third through 10th seeds at the conclusion of the conference schedule on Saturday.

Start time Wednesday at Madison Square Garden is set for 9:30 p.m. ET on FS1 with Gus Johnson (play-by-play), Bill Raftery (analyst) and Lisa Byington (reporter) handling the television duties. The game can also be seen online via the FOX Sports Go app and at foxsportsgo.com. DePaul's radio tandem of Zach Zaidman (play-by-play) and Dave Corzine (analyst) can be heard on WIND 560 AM as well as online on DePaul All-Access at www.depaulbluedemons.com. In-game updates can be followed on Twitter at @DePaulHoops.

St. John's is 20-11 overall this season and 8-10 in BIG EAST play. The Red Storm enters the game following an 81-68 loss at Xavier on Saturday. The Blue Demons are 15-14 and 7-11 in the BIG EAST after Saturday's 91-78 loss at Creighton. DePaul head coach Dave Leitao is in his seventh season at DePaul and his fourth since returning to the program after leading the Blue Demons three postseasons in three years from 2002-05. Overall, the 2018-19 campaign is Leitao's 13th as a head coach at the collegiate level. St. John's is led by Chris Mullin who is in his fourth season leading the Red Storm and fourth season overall as a head coach at the collegiate level.

Manhattan Madness: The DePaul Blue Demons make their 12th appearance at Madison Square Garden for the BIG EAST Tournament. DePaul is 2-11 all-time in BIG EAST postseason play with a second-round appearance in 2009 and a quarterfinal appearance in 2014.

The eighth-seeded Blue Demons dropped a 75-67 decision to ninth-seeded Villanova on March 7, 2007 in their first BIG EAST Tournament game. In 2009 as the 16th seed, DePaul topped ninth-seeded Cincinnati, 67-57, before falling in the second round to No. 8 seed Providence by a score of 83-74. In 2011, the first round saw ninth-seeded Connecticut defeat the 16th-seeded Blue Demons, 97-71, as the Huskies won five games in five days to claim the tournament title. Five years ago as the No. 10 seed, DePaul knocked off seventh-seeded Georgetown, 60-56, before losing against second-seeded Creighton by a score of 84-62 in the quarterfinals.

Conference Tournament History: The BIG EAST Championship is the third conference tournament for the men's basketball program at DePaul University. Previously, the Blue Demons competed in postseason events in the Great Midwest Conference (1992-95) and Conference USA (1996-05).

DePaul holds a 10-24 all-time record in conference tourney action with two appearances in conference tournament championship games in 2000 and 2004. The Blue Demons dropped a 56-49 decision to Saint Louis in the 2000 Conference USA title game before a 55-50 defeat against Cincinnati in the 2004 Conference USA finals. In addition to those to championship game appearances, the Blue Demons also reached the semifinals in the 1992 and 1993 Great Midwest Tournaments.

The Blue Demons went 1-4 in four Great Midwest Conference tournaments before playing 16 tournament games in Conference USA from 1995-05. The Blue Demons were the top seed in the 2004 Conference USA tournament before falling to Cincinnati.

Since 2014 when the BIG EAST moved to a 10-school lineup, DePaul is 1-5 in the event with a win over Georgetown in the 2014 first round followed by five straight losses.

Notables: Since the BIG EAST reformatted to 10 teams, DePaul has faced Creighton, Georgetown, Marquette and Xavier in the conference tournament... DePaul played Creighton in 2014 and 2015... the Blue Demons and Hoyas met in 2014 and 2016... DePaul played Xavier in 2017 and Marquette in 2018... Marquette is DePaul's most common opponent of all-time with 125 games, but the Blue Demon and Golden Eagles have played just three games in conference tournaments... DePaul's most common all-time conference tournament opponent is Cincinnati... the Blue Demons are 1-4 all-time against the Bearcats in conference tournament action... DePaul is also 2-2 all-time against UAB, 1-2 against Marquette and Memphis and 0-3 against USF in league tournaments... the upset over ninth-seeded Cincinnati as the No. 16 seed in the 2009 BIG EAST Tournament marked the first time in conference tournament play of such an occurrence... Will Walker's 31 points and Dar Tucker's 30 in the second round of the 2009 second-round game against Providence was the first time that two players from the same team had scored at least 30 points in a BIG EAST Tournament game... in three tournament games, the Blue Demons have combined to shoot at least .833 from the free throw line... DePaul shot .867 (13-15) against Connecticut in 2012, .842 (16-19) against Villanova in 2007 and .833 (10-12) in 2013 against Rutgers.

BIG EAST Tournament Experience: The Blue Demons enter the 2019 tournament with six total games of BIG EAST Tournament experience on the active roster... Eli Cain has played a team-high three conference tourney games... Jaylen Butz, Paul Reed and Max Strus made their debuts a year ago in one game... Eli Cain accounts for 107 of the 168 total minutes of BIG EAST Tournament experience for DePaul... Cain is averaging 13.7 points and 4.3 assists in his three games... Max Strus scored 22 points with six rebounds a year ago against Marquette... DePaul head coach Dave Leitao is making his fourth appearance at the BIG EAST Tournament as a head coach... he has been a part of four tournament titles while serving as an assistant coach (1986-94) and associate head coach (1996-02) at Connecticut... Leitao and Connecticut won the event in 1990, 1998, 1999 and 2002 while those teams combined for a 17-10 record during his time on the bench for the Huskies.

Reed Named League's Most Improved: Paul Reed's breakout season was recognized by the head coaches of the BIG EAST Conference as they voted the sophomore as the league's Most Improved Player. Reed is the first DePaul player to win the award after nearly averaging a double-double over 18 conference games this season with 13.3 points and 9.0 rebounds per game.

A year ago in 17 conference games, Reed averaged 5.1 points and 4.1 rebounds while shooting .557 (39-70) from the field, .250 (3-12) from three-point range and .500 (6-12) from the free throw line in 12.9 minutes per game. In 18 BIG EAST game this season, he improved his averages with 13.3 points and a BIG EAST-best 9.0 rebounds per game while shooting .544 (93-171) from the field, .563 (9-16) from three-point range and .917 (44-48) from the free throw line in 27.9 minutes per game.

In all games, the Orlando native leads the league with 8.2 rebounds per game and is averaging 11.2 points per game. A year ago, he averaged 3.6 points and 3.1 rebounds in 9.9 minutes per game. He posted six double-doubles this season and had five other games either a point or a rebound shy of a double-double.

Strus Selected to All-BIG EAST Second Team: DePaul senior guard Max Strus was named second team All-BIG EAST following a vote of the league's 10 head coaches. He is the first DePaul player to be named to a first or second All-BIG EAST team since Draelon Burns in 2008.

Strus averaged 19.0 points and 6.1 rebounds during the regular season while knocking down a school-record 90 three-pointers. He totaled 26 games in double-figures that includes a 43-point game against St. John's, two 30-point efforts and eight other games he scored at least 20 points. Strus was a three-time BIG EAST Player of the Week selection during the season and was also named to the league's weekly honor roll earlier on Sunday.

Burns was a second team honoree in 2008 while Wilson Chandler and Sammy Mejia earned second team recognition in 2007. Burns (2007), Cleveland Melvin (2012) and Billy Garrett Jr. (2015) were also named honorable mention All-BIG EAST.

It Could Happen: A three-pointer extends DePaul's streak to 800 straight games with a three... Femi Olujobi needs 16 points for 1,000 in his collegiate career... he scored 76 at Oakland (Mich.), 523 at North Carolina A&T and has 385 at DePaul... with four steals, Eli Cain moves into the top 20 in program history... Max Strus needs 20 points to pass Gene Stump (1943-47, 1,071 pts.) for 47th place on the all-time scoring list... with 26 points he moves up to 45th.

Trendy: DePaul has outrebounded the opponent in 21 of 29 games... the Blue Demons are 15-6 in those games and 0-8 when getting outrebounded... in BIG EAST play, DePaul is 6-4 in weekend games (4-3 on Saturday, 2-1 on Sunday)... only Stanley Brundy has recorded a better season field goal percentage than Femi Olujobi's .631 (137-217) mark this season... in BIG EAST games, Paul Reed is 44-of-48 (.917) at the free throw line... over the last four games, Max Strus is averaging 29.3 points per game while shooting .542 (39-72) from the field, .488 (21-43) from three-point range and .900 (18-20) at free throw line.

The Opponent - St. John's Red Storm: St. John's stands at 20-11 overall and 8-10 in the BIG EAST following an 81-68 loss at Xavier on Saturday... the Red Storm has dropped three straight and four of its last five games... Shamorie Ponds leads the team with a scoring average of 19.8 points per game and 156 assists... five players are averaging in double-figures and four have made at least 46 three-pointers this season... following Ponds are Mustapha Heron (15.0 ppg), LJ Figueroa (14.6 ppg), Marvin Clark II (11.2 ppg) and Justin Simon (10.0 ppg)... Figueroa also leads the team with 6.3 rebounds per game... head coach Chris Mullin is in his fourth season at St. John's... DePaul head coach Dave Leitao is 4-4 all-time against the Red Storm.

The Series: Wednesday is the 44th all-time meeting between the two programs... the Red Storm holds a 23-20 advantage in the series... DePaul won both regular season meetings, three of the last four and four of the last seven... the Blue Demons claimed the first meeting this season, 79-71, on Jan. 12 at Carnesecca Arena... DePaul posted a 92-83 decision on March 3 at Wintrust Arena... Wednesday is the first meeting between the programs in the BIG EAST Tournament.

DePaul Opens BIG EAST Tournament Wednesday Against St. John's

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Players Mentioned

Jaylen Butz

Eli Cain

Femi Olujobi

Paul Reed

Max Strus

DePaul University Athletics