No. 19 DePaul Storms St. John's
Quentin Richardson showed St. John's and some 20 NBA scouts the inside and out of his talent, and why his game appears headed to the next level.
He popped four 3-pointers to break up a zone. He rebounded like a demon and he should since he plays for the DePaul Blue Demons and he came flying through the lane several times for high-above-everyone-else slams and follows.
"He has an uncanny way of getting to the basket and a way of making plays. Inside and outside," DePaul coach Pat Kennedy said after his 19th-ranked Blue Demons beat St. John's 71-65 in Tuesday night's only game involving a ranked team.
"We've kind of adjusted offensively and gotten him closer to the goal in some of our offenses. He understood we needed his putback ability.
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Richardson finished with 26 points on 10-of-17 shooting and had 12 rebounds.
"I was definitely ready to play. The ball came my way and my shots were falling," said Richardson, who announced last spring he would wait at least another year for the pros and return to DePaul.
So, the scouts 25 were credentialed Tuesday night are nothing new. He insists he doesn't change his game or anything else just because they are around.
"I don't look at it that way," Richardson said. "Whether they come or not, I just try to play the same way every night. Tonight I just got hot and they got me the ball."
Seven-foot freshman center Steven Hunter, who showed some potential of his own, added 20 points for the Blue Demons (7-2).
St. John's (6-2), playing its second game without injured starting point guard Erick Barkley, got 16 points eac from guards Bootsy Thornton and Chudney Gray. The Red Storm had their six-game winning streak snapped.
"Quentin is one of the best players in the nation and I hope I get a chance to play him again," St. John's forward Lavor Postell said.
Richardson started a 20-5 second-half run with a 3-pointer. But his spectacular basket of the night came minutes later. He missed a jumper and when teammate Paul McPherson also misfired on a putback, Richardson came sailing through the lane for a slam follow that put DePaul up by seven.
DePaul went up by as many as 14 and then held off a St. John's rally in the final minutes.
Richardson, who missed a last-second shot in a one-point overtime loss at Duke on Dec. 4, was the difference.
With his tongue in cheek, St. John's coach Mike Jarvis said he wrote Richardson and told him he should go pro. Then Jarvis congratulated him for staying in school.
"He made a wise move coming back," Jarvis said. "Give Pat credit for using him where he is needed and allowing him to expand his game where it benefits everybody.
"He's a guy that every coach would love to have on his team. He's a winner, he's very smart and he's very good."
The Blue Demons lost starting point guard Rashon Burno with 14:33 left when he sprained a knee ligament in a collision under the basket. He was scheduled for an MRI today and could miss six weeks.
DePaul has been without starting center Lance Williams all season because of a broken bone in his foot. Williams hopes to return for Saturday's game at No. 18 UCLA.
"Rashon's injury is just another fork in the road," Richardson said. "We had to go without Lance and now he's ready to come back. Now we have to pull together and fill Rashon's void."
The Red Storm definitely missed Barkley, out for two weeks following arthroscopic knee surgery.
"If we had executed a little better, we would have won this game. This will put us in a good spot when he returns in a couple of weeks," Jarvis said.
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