January 10th, 2017: DePaul at St. John's

Just the Facts, Ma'am: DePaul started strong and always had an answer in their 78-66 win over St. John's. Brooke Schulte's 21 points led four Blue Demons in double figures. Jade Walker had 16 points to lead St. John's.

For spare saints, flying solo, hoisting the flag, band family, dance moves on fiyah, bad habits, good vibes, and bending in painful ways, join your intrepid and bedeviled blogger after the jump.


Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls! Welcome to Carnesecca Arena on the campus of St. John's University, where tonight the Blue Demons of DePaul face the St. John's Red Storm.

It's halftime now- pregame notes are hard to come by on weeknights. DePaul is up 38-30, and frankly, it could be a lot worse than it is. We've been feeding off the free throw line, because DePaul has erased most of our ill-advised drives into the lane. I mean, really. Running headlong into Jacqui Grant is a terrible, horrible, idea.

We've got a few folks from RedZone in the house, and they're making a good amount of noise. We need MOAR NOISE, though.

If Jade Walker takes one more straightaway three, I may break something. And I've already killed three pens this season from banging the clipboard.

I'm pretty sure Keylantra Langley is in the house, and maybe that's why Akina is doing so well (they share the number 20, though Akina is more of an offensive specialist and Key was a defensive player who had a knack for hitting at the end of the clock). She's less familiar without her awesome letter jacket, but you watch someone for four years, you kind of get to recognize them, and wow, that sounds creepy.

It's lonely without the significant other to bounce things off of- worse, my hotspot's acting up, so I can't even connect with him. I hope Seton Hall's having better luck with Marquette than they did with DePaul.

In someone's desperate need to have a Maggie Dixon game this year, this game was hurriedly designated the Maggie Dixon Classic, so there was a segment on her between the first and second quarters, her family was in attendance, and everyone's got shirts.

I don't know who the shorter inactive player was for DePaul, but with her hair down she's very striking.

This was better than I could have thought. I mean, no, we didn’t win, and there were definitely some serious issues that need to be addressed before the seaboard road trip, but it could have been worse, and I thought there were a lot of things we did well.

Tanita Allen needs a better sports bra. It's petty, but it's true. And she's very active, so the excess movement is especially noticeable. She was one of the few DePaul players who looked very uncomfortable shooting threes, but she used her strength well inside. She was tenacious on defense. Chante Stonewall has a strange combination of gawkiness and grace, like she knows what she wants to do with her body and hasn't quite gotten it to do that yet. She had a nasty block on Alisha Kebbe, and after her first three-point shot was a hot mess, her make was a thing of beauty. She's going to be just fine for them. (Though I keep thinking that last name should belong to either a defensive specialist or a gay rights activist. Maybe she's one or the other, though. I know nothing about her personally.)

Lauren Prochaska is not the best Lauren Prochaska I've ever watched, but she's pretty good. Her speed really took me by surprise- I think the only St. John's player who was able to keep up with her was Aaliyah Lewis. Kelly Campbell had a lot of family and friends in the house, including a gentleman in a name and number DePaul sweatshirt who I'm presuming is her dad. She has a nice shot and a lot of scrappiness. Brooke Schulte did work at the rim and in the mid-range. She was quietly efficient. She and Amarah Coleman are both mismatch nightmares for teams of average size.

Coleman had a couple of amazing finishes at the basket with heavy contact. She's very athletic and lean, and contorts in ways that make my eyes water a little bit. Jacqui Grant was a facilitator as a screener and an eraser on defense- she had a couple of big blocks just in the first quarter. She has range outside, which makes her very difficult to guard.

When DePaul was moving the ball, they were able to get shots. They had stretches of crisp passing and well-executed fast breaks. They were able to capitalize on openings far better than we were- too many offensive rebounds, too many loose balls.

Maya Singleton has got to hit the bunnies at the rim. I love her fight and I love her hustle, but she's got to hit open lay-ups at the rim. She had one attempt where everyone was ready to go nuts, and she blew it. I'm starting to wonder if Andrayah Adams is injured and trying to play through it- for an offensive-minded player with a pretty good stroke, she's been putting up some very strange one-handed push shots. You can tell she's trying, but she's not there yet. Crystal Simmons's defense continues to be clutch and top-notch, but I really don't want to talk about her shot. I think someone has got to work with her on her follow-through on it.

As said before: if Jade Walker takes one more straightaway three, especially when there's time on the shot clock, I'm going to break something. It's not her shot. It's not a good shot for anyone, really, but it's not her shot. I have learned to tolerate the corner threes as an attempt to extend her range, but there are reasonable limits. Her midrange game was on point, and I love when she powers to the basket. I need her to adjust her attitude when the call doesn't go her way. She misses a play with that, I have a problem. Imani Littleton was inconsistent- at times letting balls go by her, at times laying ye olde smackedowne on shots. I like how her defense has developed. Akina Wellere's shot was a little better this game, but in the second half she fell back into some bad defensive habits and got caught reaching. It doesn't help that she broke one of the cardinal rules of defense and made it work- she left her feet and charged at a three-point shooter, and it forced DePaul into a shot clock violation.

Aaliyah Lewis's definition of offense is starting to irk me. I understand the urge to drive and get contact, especially since we were hitting free throws and DePaul does have a habit of holding. I love her fearlessness. But she has to understand that sometimes- a lot of the time- she's not going to get the call. She has to be thinking of a good shot at the basket before she thinks of a good chance at free throws, and I'm not sure she's going into the paint with a clear concept of the shot. She's fun to watch, but she can be frustrating. I like how Alisha Kebbe's all-around game is developing. She's got some weird spin in her shot that she needs to get out, but she's got time to work on that. She's got game on both ends of the floor, and I think she's got a bright future.

I thought we executed our defense reasonably well, all things considered. But holy crap, our offense was a mess of blocked shots (the box score lies) and mishandled passes. Can't get sloppy around DePaul. They'll swarm you and take you down.

I'm pretty sure it's not a whistle-worthy held ball if the span of time for which it is held is shorter than the time it takes the official to blow the whistle. And I would like an explanation of how Akina got the foul for the pushout when she was pushed by two DePaul players. But we got 25 free throws, so I don't think blaming the officials is the way to go here. DePaul had a case to be irked at some really cheap calls in the second quarter.

We're not as good as we were with Aliyyah and Danaejah, nor should we expect to be this year. We're coming into our own, and all things considered, we could have had a far worse showing against the heavy favorite in the conference. I just hope our seniors recognize the bad habits they're falling into.