For De Paul, it`s the moment of Truth.
St. John`s (25-3), which has proved there is life after Chris Mullin, invades the Horizon Saturday for a nationally televised game against the Blue Demons, who hope to prove there is life after 10 losses.
With Mullin graduated, the new star for the Redmen is Walter ”the Truth” Berry, the 6-foot-8-inch junior forward De Paul coach Joey Meyer calls ”probably the best offensive player in college basketball.”
Berry is averaging 22.7 points and 11 rebounds a game, and if De Paul can`t handle the Truth, it will have to take the consequences–a postseason without a bid to the NCAA tournament or, possibly, any tournament.
”There`s still a chance we can make the NCAA,” said De Paul center Marty Embry after Wednesday night`s shaky 48-44 victory at Indiana State.
”There are a lot of other teams not playing as well as people thought they`d be playing.”
There are, nevertheless, 91 Division I schools with better records than De Paul`s 14-10, though some of them play in weak conferences that
historically send only one team to the tournament.
”They look at who you play,” said De Paul assistant Jim Molinari.
”We`ve beaten Pepperdine and Alabama-Birmingham, and those teams are going to the tournament. We`ve beaten Texas, and they could be the Southwest Conference champions.”
Still, De Paul needs to win its last four games and finish 18-10 to be reasonably certain of getting an NCAA bid. A 17-11 record, which would require beating either St. John`s Saturday or Notre Dame on the road Tuesday, would leave the Blue Demons on the bubble at invitation time. Anything less would mean the National Invitation Tournament–or nothing.
”Right now, all I`m worried about is St. John`s,” said Meyer. That would appear to be enough for him to worry about.
The Redmen may be better than they were a year ago when they went to the Final Four. Their losses have been by one point to Duke, which could be ranked No. 1 in the country by next week; by four points to Syracuse, a top 10 team most of the year; and by two points in overtime to Big East rival Boston College.
”They`re not very deep,” said Meyer. ”They only have five players, but all five are really good.”
The Fab Five are Berry, point guard Mark Jackson, off-guard Ron Rowan, forward Willie Glass and center Shelton Jones. ”Rowan is a great perimeter shooter,” said Meyer, ”and they say Jackson is one of the best point guards in America.”
In fact, Jackson leads the nation in assists with a whopping 248. Rowan, a transfer from Notre Dame who sat behind Mullin last season, has been the biggest surprise, averaging 14.6 points and dishing out 113 assists. That means the two St. John`s guards have 361 assists, matching De Paul`s total as a team.
”The two keys for us are Berry and Rowan,” said Meyer. ”The others have capabilities of scoring, but we`ve got to do a job on those two.”
Embry, whom Meyer calls ”our best defensive player,” will be assigned to Berry, at least at the outset.
Meyer thinks the victory over Indiana State, which broke a four-game losing streak, was a confidence builder for De Paul. ”But there`s no doubt we need another shot. Winning helped . . . there`s a better atmosphere . . . but it would feel a whole lot better if we could beat St. John`s.”
