After No. 9 St. John’s seized a two-game lead on Creighton atop the Big East Conference with a 79-73 victory before a sellout crowd of 19,812 at Madison Square Garden, McDermott was asked if he was surprised that senior guard Deivon Smith played in the game considering that Pitino had ruled him out on Friday.

Rick Pitino has St. John’s basketball distancing itself from the rest of the Big East. The Red Storm took down No. 24 Creighton 79-73 in the battle of the conference’s best. But that wasn’t the “biggest shock” involving Pitino Sunday.