Rod Strickland, 59, ‘honored’ to have DePaul jersey retired. ‘It means more now as an older gentleman.’

Rod Strickland said he didn’t know if his DePaul jersey ever would be retired. So when athletic director DeWayne Peevy invited him to Chicago for a meeting under different pretenses in November, he was caught off guard when he heard the news.

On Tuesday night at halftime of DePaul’s game against St. John’s, the Blue Demons will make Strickland one of just five men’s basketball players with their jersey numbers retired. The two-time All-America guard, who led DePaul to three NCAA Tournament appearances from 1986-88, will join Mark Aguirre, Terry Cummings, Dave Corzine and George Mikan as men’s players with jerseys in the rafters of Wintrust Arena.

Strickland, who went on to play 17 seasons in the NBA and is in his fourth season as the Long Island head coach, will receive the honor at the age of 59. But he thinks it means more now than it would have earlier in his career.

“When you’re playing, especially for me, I always was in the moment,” Strickland said on a Zoom call Tuesday afternoon. “Always thought I wanted to be the best. I wanted to win — but in that moment. So years later, to be able to be acknowledged for what I’ve done in the past, I think it means more now as an older gentleman.”

Strickland said former teammates Terence Greene, Kevin Edwards and Kevin Holland were among the people he expected to celebrate with him at Wintrust on Tuesday.

Strickland, who is from the Bronx, N.Y., felt it was right to pick for the ceremony a game against a New York team like St. John’s coached by Rick Pitino, who was his first professional coach with the New York Knicks.

In his three seasons at DePaul under coach Joey Meyer, Strickland averaged 16.6 points, 6.4 assists and 2.3 steals per game, including 20 points and 7.8 assists in his junior season in 1987-88. Along with holding the single-season assists per game record with 7.8, he also ranks second with 204 career steals and third with 557 career assists and a 45.6% 3-point percentage.

His game against Wichita State in the 1988 NCAA Tournament, when he had 13 assists as he tried to break the tournament record, remains one of his favorite memories of his time at DePaul. He had a handful of other favorite games, including playing against St. John’s, which the Blue Demons upset in the regular season in 1986 and beat in the NCAA Tournament in 1987.

But he said mostly he thinks about the mark he and his classmates Greene and Stanley Brundy made on an already successful program. He said he basically recruited himself to DePaul because of what he saw of the team on national TV and his admiration of Aguirre, who played for the Blue Demons from 1978-81.

And then Strickland began to build his own legacy, including two trips to the NCAA Sweet 16.

“The three of us established something on our own that kind of separated us and put us in the class with the rest of them,” Strickland said. “But in three years, that freshman class, we won over 70% of our games. So I think about that. I think about my teammates. Think about just the fun times that we’ve had together, the tough times, the tough losses, the great wins.”

Strickland is in the middle of the season with LIU, which improved to 14-8 Saturday against Central Connecticut State and will play again Thursday. Strickland gave the team off Tuesday so that he could make the trip to Chicago between Monday and Wednesday practices.

In his post-playing career, Strickland was in basketball operations at Memphis, was in administration at Kentucky while Peevy was there, was an assistant coach at South Florida and was the director of the professional path program for the NBA G League. In 2022, he took over at LIU, a role he didn’t necessarily foresee when he was playing at DePaul.

“I knew I was going to be in basketball, and it just kind of led me in this direction, from going to college coach to NBA executive, now to head coach,” he said. “I always feel like I have so much experience and knowledge in basketball. I think I can fit myself in any position in basketball.”

In the middle of his busy coaching career, he has visited a couple of DePaul practices under coach Chris Holtmann. He said he tried to encourage the players as the Blue Demons try to raise a program that has fallen on hard times.

“Let them know a little bit about the history, but also telling them that they’re here to make history,” Strickland said. “Why not be that team that changes this thing all around, you know? You talk about the past, but that team who brings DePaul back and transitions them to the upper echelon, they’ll never be forgotten. So why not start here?”

DePaul ensured a reminder of what Strickland did for the program will be visible at Wintrust Arena.

“I was grateful, honored, to be able to put (my) name in the rafters,” Strickland said. “Everybody walks in that gym, they get to see the Strickland jersey. It’s big time.”