Seton Hall 72
DePaul 62
More than the no-look passes and bodacious ball- handling, it was Andre Barrett’s million-candlewatt smile that brightened up gyms in the city’s Catholic League. That smile had faded like a flashlight with old batteries as Barrett endured three-plus years of tumult at Seton Hall.
Forward Eddie Griffin marred Barrett’s freshman season by creating dissension before bolting for the NBA. Coach Tommy Amaker sabotaged the sophomore season with his clandestine escape to Michigan. The junior season was muddled by adjusting to new coach Louis Orr’s system.
“If it takes until my senior year to have fun, why not?” Barrett told The Post. “I’d rather have fun now than have fun early and then be upset now.”
The waiting is over. The smile is back.
Yesterday, Barrett led the Pirates to a 76-62 win over DePaul with a 25-point, six-assist, four-rebound, four-steal performance that was punctuated by the 5-foot-10 Bronx native waving his arms over his head to exhort the Meadowlands crowd to make some noise.
“I haven’t let distractions bring me down,” said Barrett. “A lot of players, if they went through some of the stuff I went through, I think they would have transferred, they would transferred a long time ago or ran away from the problems. Me, I stood up to them. That made me become a man.
“For moments like this now, having fun out there and people everybody seeing smile, that’s what everybody’s been looking for,” continued Barrett. “That’s the type of player I was when I was at Rice.”
At Rice, Barrett was the latest in a bumper crop of New York prep point guards. Omar Cook went to St. John’s and then oblivion. Taliek Brown is at UConn, where he leads the Huskies to wins but can’t win over the Connecticut fans.
Barrett is poised to take Seton Hall to its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2000. The Pirates improved to 7-2 with only losses to nationally-ranked Purdue and Louisville.
“The knock against him when he came to Seton Hall was that he couldn’t shoot,” said Dave Leitao, whose 5-4 DePaul team played without injured center Andre Brown. “He was 5-of-8 [on 3’s] today and he almost leads the team in rebounding. What does that say about the size of the guy’s ticker?”
Size has always been an issue with Barrett. When asked what he would tell an NBA GM about giving his 5-6 guard a shot, Orr said, “C’mon, you at least got to give him 5-9.
“Size is not an issue with Andre Barrett,” continued Orr. “When do people stop talking about size and just talk about talent and productivity?”
When? As soon as Andre Barrett started smiling again.