The recruiting hustle: every day, Norm Roberts hustlin-hustlin

I should be excited that St. John’s coach Norm Roberts is hard on the grind this month during the summer “live” recruiting period, where coaches can be seen watching the games of the prospects, where men wear brightly-colored team logo shirts to draw attention, and try to bump into players in all kinds of funny places.

I take that back; I am excited. It’s a good sign that St. John’s is taking some strides in bringing kids on to the Jamaica campus to see the new facilities, interact with the coaches, and take in the atmosphere, such as it is in the summer. And even better that Norm Roberts has been on the road, looking at talent and letting the top guys know he is watching them.

Some of the Red Storm activities this summer (taken from March Madness All Sseason, Zagsblog, and Rivals):

The St. John’s Elite Camp at the beginning of July brought together a great deal of local talent – forwards (2010) JayVaughn Pinkston, Melsahn Besabe, JJ Moore, Allen West, Ryan Rhoomes, Kadeem Jack, Devon Collier, Ashton Pankey, (2011) Sidiki Johnson, Derrick Randall, Nkeruwem Okoro, Joey De La Rosa, Kamari Murphy, (2012) Tafari Whittingham…

and guards (2010) Shane Southwell, Antoine Mason, Harold McBride, Kyrie Irving, (2011) Jermaine Sanders, Mike Taylor, Corey Edwards, Myles Mack, Jordan Allen, (2012) Tariq Carey, Tyler Harris, Daniel Dingle, Omar Calhoun, Kyle Anderson, and LeBrent Walker. Players are thinking of St. John’s as a viable option; player analyses are here, here ($ required), and here. The camp featured 3 on 3 drills, 4 on 4 drills and scrimmages

Norm Roberts has been seen at most of the big summer AAU events, finding himself in Pennsylvania, Las Vegas, Cleveland and Orlando, as written by Adam Zagoria, tracking JayVaughn Pinkston among others. Pinkston – once “leaning” towards St. John’s when his AAU coach Kimani Young was an assistant at St. John’s – is blowing up large, as seen on SNY and on Five Boro Sports, and will be hard to get… he will supposedly commit in the spring.

Today, St. John’s is hosting one of the last events of the live recruiting period, the Summer in the City event hosted by New Heights; Peter Robert Casey has an interview with Kimani Young that touches on the event. There will be other coaches in there – Tennesee’s Bruce Pearl, Villanova’s Jay Wright, Maryland’s Gary Williams. But there is some benefit to being the host of the event, for sure.

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It’s been a grind for a month, with Roberts and his coaches trying to get the top seniors to see campus on an unofficial, to interact with the current players, to get a sense of the program and what they want to do. I commend that.

All that excitement will, hopefully, lead to actual commitments; St. John’s has one scholarship for 2010 that they hope to use on Pinkston or perhaps Kadeem Jack or Ryan Rhoomes, if they don’t reclassify, or JJ Moore; Kyrie Irving, Tobias Harris, and Doron Lamb sound like longshots, but the Storm would love to have them in the fold.And they have to keep trying to bring in the best players available.

What’s important is making inroads into the 2011 and 2012 classes – talents like Sidiki Johnson, Myles Mack, Kamari Murphy, Joey De La Rosa, and Nkeruwem Okoro. The school is probably looking for a few young commits. Some early wins this year will help a few more on the fence players see how they can continue/ build a winning tradition at St. John’s… and also ensure that they coaches who recruited them will be there in 2 years. Playing time will be available, especially for the big men.

But the aggressive ways of getting players on to campus for Elite Camps and hosting the AAU teams with the prospects the school wants is what the Big East competition has been doing for years. great to see St. John’s getting into the recruiting game hardcore; the time for nice guys and crossing fingers on a top recruit, only to get a mediocre player who transfers… that needs to be over.

0809 Dele Coker

#15 – Dele Coker

2008-2009 Class: Sophomore

Position: Center

Height: 6′10″

Weight: 260

Age/ DOB: 21 / March 18, 1988

Home: Newburgh, NY

2008-2009 Highs

High Minutes	19	(Marquette)
High Points	8	(Marquette, Loyola-IL)
High Rebounds	8	(Rutgers)
High FT Att	4	(Eastern Mich.)
High Blocks	4	(West Virginia)
Fouls/ 40 Min, conf	9.3

It says something about St. John’s offense that ordering the players in order of the minutes played in conference (from lowest to highest) means that the three true centers come first. Is there a use for a center on the Red Storm except for as a specialist? The style of motion offense does not offer many offensive opportunities for a slower, back to the basket player to show their stuff. Indeed, for the power forwards to get shots they have to drive in from 10 feet or so or take a jump shot, a skill that Dele Coker has not yet consistently displayed.

Dele doesn’t get much playing time… and some fans are disappointed that he makes little impact on the court. His rate stats refute that; though at about 10 minutes per game, rate stats can easily be skewed. But despite seeing Coker bobble rebounds or slap at the ball, his in-conference rebound rates are good. Coker would pull in about 10 boards a game in 40 minutes (though only 6 would be defensive), about equal to Sean Evans‘ rebound rates. Those numbers indicate that there is a rebounder in Coker.

Coker’s scoring has improved slightly, and against Marquette in Milwaukee, he displayed about 17-foot range, hitting jump shots. The team got blown out, and I’m not sure why he was stroking jumpers all of a sudden, but his stroke wasn’t terrible.

More interestingly, Dele blocks more than a shot a game in those 10 minutes per contest. Even if his footwork is not always up to par, for a guy who is fairly new to the game, he shows some excellent aggression (maybe too much, see below).

He’s the only St. John’s player who blocks more than 3% of available shots in conference. A good defense is not necessarily dependent on an eraser on the back line. But it helps to have a shot blocker to reduce spots on the floor where the opposing offense can score.

The positive big-man skills are negated by Dele’s propensity to foul. A lot. As I stated in the half-season conference report, Coker’s foul rate increased. Some of those calls may be non-fouls; his aggression and big body make him targets for phantom calls. But he has to learn how to play and look in control.

In conference, Dele averaged about 9.5 fouls per 40 minutes. That’s nearly 2 foul-outs per game, if he could play that long. Dele lived up to his fouling reputation, picking up his 5th foul in 14 minutes of play on the road against Cincinnati and in 13 minutes on the road at Villanova.

Impact on the 2009-2010 Season

Last year Dele was one of 6 bigs (power forwards and centers), and he was more of a specialist while Burrell, Evans, and Rob Thomas were the rotation. This year, Coker is likely the last backup. If there is foul trouble, Coker has to get in there. Injury? Suspension? Coker has to get in there. Here is what this blog thinks Dele Coker needs to improve:

Footwork. To make an impact in the upcoming season, Dele’s footwork has to improve. He needs better position on rebounds, and better position on man-to-man defense (depending on whether or not he has to step out for a double team, as this version of the Red Storm is wont to do).

His timing on weak side shot blocks seemed to improve during the year. If he can maintain that level of defensive play while fouling less, Coker’s skills will help St. John’s to become a defensive force. Fewer unnecessary elbows while blocking shots will also aid in the “fouling less” effort.

Post Play + Scoring. Dele’s shooting has been poor for a big man, though he doesn’t get a lot of touches, and turns over many of the touches he receives. His free throw stroke (70.6% on the season; only 3 attempts in conference) indicates that he might have a little range, though it would be better if he had some touch or good moves in the paint for the easy slams and put backs.

Big Man Skills. On the glass, Dele has potential to be a solid rebounder. With better position – and some increased hand strength to corral the rebounds – his jumping ability and size/ strength combination should help him be an impact player on the glass. Is his rebounding timing getting better? Perhaps on offense, where his rebound rate went up 5 percentage points. Beware, of course, of small sample size distortions.

A player of Dele’s size should get to the free throw line more often. If he is going to be a better player on offense, he has to get himself in positions to get fouled, which usually mean: close to the basket, about to put up a point-blank shot.

Even if he improves, he will be a foul-prone player. The St. John’s offensive and defensive sets require a lot of movement from post players, many of whom are not good at moving from perimeter to post in an efficient manner. He is often called for offensive fouls while setting picks; he needs to get to position and hold it or else if the pick isn’t good enough, just let it go.

Coker’s size means he has potential. Whether he will realize it in a St. John’s uniform is a story that will be told this fall.

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Wrong place, wrong time, he’s still tall: on Anthony DiLoreto

You may have seen that CBS’ Gary Parrish wrote that Anthony DiLoreto is out of jail, facing two felony charges… all while playing with an AAU team in a tournament in Las Vegas, and has a scholarship offer from the Rick Majerus and Saint Louis University.

You may also know (possibly from this blog or others) that Anthony DiLoreto was the getaway driver in a bank robbery in Wisconsin, near to where DiLoreto lives in Minnesota. This was in the summer (2008) before the lanky center was to report to the Cal Poly campus. Way to party your summer away.

Now I’d like to say I’m all for second chances. But I think it’s suspect that athletes, at times, find themselves in the “wrong place, wrong time” like Tyreke Evans who happened to be the getaway driver after a fatal shooting but didn’t know what was going on. At least there is some deniability there. But in DiLoreto’s case… this is certainly less deniable, unless there are some facts we don’t know about.

And does it matter? His compass is obviously off, and not by a little; this is no hormonal aggressive teenager abusing a woman. This is no friend/ homeboy with a beef that erupts into a fight or even a shooting. Those things are wrong, those actions are illegal, but they happen enough that when crimes happen, a person can be allowed to come up with caveats, hike down from the moral high ground, and cheer on that player. Much, much respect to the people who don’t; but I understand the line of thinking.

But a bank robbery? Saying no one got hurt when one party had a sawed off shotgun (unloaded, supposedly), and a getaway car? The potential for real uninvolved innocents to get hurt while just going about their day – that’s real. That, honestly, is the kind of crime that should put a fear in people. The fact that no one got hurt should not mask the possibility of what could have happened. This is not a crime that is in the normal course of athletes being assholes.

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The sliding scale of crime heinosity that a bank robbery is on can be debated; but the way college basketball is, if the kid can play, he will be considered if he is eligible (i.e., not in jail) to play. And that is the long and short of it. And the fact is, his profile has never been higher. He has a plea bargain scheduled

Anthony DiLoreto should never have told Parrish what school offered him a scholarship. I would think that kid like that would want to keep a low profile. He’s not obligated to answer questions. Moreover, I would bet cash money that he does not get in to St. Louis; the school’s students can muster up some Catholic moral high ground.

But whatever happens with that school, as long as he can avoid much of his jail time, we will hear a story about how he has gotten better, realized his mistake. We heard it with AJ Price and Marcus WIlliams. Those two Connecticut players were given gauzy screened, soft-music treatment by the sports media once their penalties were up. All DiLoreto has to do now is sign with a decent school, get on a CBS Saturday afternoon game, and watch the sympathetic stories come in…

It’s the way of college basketball.

0809 Tomas Jasiulionis

stats taken from Statsheet, kenpom.com, and my own calculations

#11 – Tomas Jasiulionis

2008-2009 Class: Senior
Position: Center
Height: 6′11 "
Weight: 260
Age/ DOB: 23/ January 11, 1986
Home: Utena, Lithuania/ Richmond, VA

2008-2009 Highs

High Minutes	14 (Va. Tech)
High Points	5 (Howard)
High Rebounds	4 (Howard)
High Fouls	4 (Marist, in 5 mins)

Unlike Ricky Torres and Anthony Mason Jr. from his recruiting class, Tomas Jasiulionis made it to graduation on time, contributing spot minutes for the St. John’s Red Storm. With a roster that has featured a lot of turnover from players who won’t get the time they expect, or perhaps some kind of personality conflict or some other issue, one almost wonders why Tomas stayed with the squad?

I say that will the full belief that consistency is laudable, and important. And if I were a baller, I wouldn’t want to transfer – I have seen people around me transfer schools (years ago, of course) and to a man, they all should have stuck with the school that they pledged to.

Not to say transfers don’t work; Jack McClinton made a name for himself transferring to Miami; Cedric Jackson made a name transferring from St. John’s to Cleveland State and getting into the NCAA Tournament.

Tomas stayed. And Jasiulionis was the most enthusiastic towel-waver. He seemed genuinely excited to get into the game throw his body around, and give some effort. He got some run in games against Howard University, Virginia Tech, Rutgers, DePaul, and both Georgetown games… but on this slightly faster roster, he didn’t seem to have a strong role (which we will also touch on when reviewing Dele Coker). The movement of the offense and defense took him away from the basket, where his lack of foot speed made him ineffective, though his hustle was welcome.

Thanks for 4 years of effort, enthusiasm, and emergency height, Tomas, and best of luck in finance or in low-level basketball. His height and toughness may help him stick somewhere in Europe, especially since, as far as I know, he’s still a Lithuanian citizen (European teams have limits on the number of Americans they can have on their roster).

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0809 Phil Wait

stats taken from Statsheet, kenpom.com, and my own calculations

#50 – Phil Wait

2008-2009 Class: Sophomore

Position: Center

Height: 7′1″

Weight: 260

Age/ DOB: 22/ February 2, 1987

Home: Manchester, England, UK

2008-2009 Highs

Minutes	10 (MAR)
FG Attempts	2 (VT)
Rebounds	3 (Prov, Corn)

Phil Wait came in to the Red Storm program as the mystery man from England, the man that Glenn Braica had been following (and it seems that Braica might be a decent recruiter, all things considered). He was tall, and even though he came in as a 21-year old “project,” one hoped that he would be a competitive player and show some skills.

But despite the thinness of the roster, Wait didn’t get much time. In fairness, one of the places the roster wasn’t very thin was at center, where forward Sean Evans started and Dele Coker and Tomas Jasiulionis backed up. And in some of those games against low-level opponents, St. John’s needed a second-half run to put the team away, or St. John’s was going with a faster pace and a run.

Even when Coker was suspended for the rest of the season for not fulfilling his academic responsibilities, Wait didn’t see the floor. The Johnnies certainly found themselves on the wrong side of some blowouts that the British center could have played in. Then again, when he did play, he often seemed out of position, unsure of his game, and not yet strong enough to be affective Big East post player. And Wait’s height would not have been a help; the problems were often turnovers/ ballhandling and a lack of scoring.

Phil Wait has chosen to transfer to another institution. Though no official release has come out, word has it he will be at Monmouth University in New Jersey, where he will have 2 years of eligibility left starting in 2010-11 season. He’s 22 now, not entirely immobile/ stiff, and though he didn’t get on the court, his height should allow him to be a decent rebounder. He doesn’t come with big hops, but maybe in Jersey, his wandering basketball career can lay down some roots.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that Phil Wait should have been logging 15 minutes per game. But maybe theRed Storm didn’t have a chance to see what he could do; and if he was not ready enough to contribute, they could have redshirted him. But what’s done is done; we wish the best for Phil Wait.

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0809 Red Storm review

This is a first in a series of reviews posts about the St. John’s Red Storm men’s basketball team. They went 16-18 on the 2008-2009 season, with a 6-12 mark in conference, including a Big East Tournament win (and a loss in the CBI postseason tournament to the University of Richmond). Today will be a look back on the team; expect to see individual player reviews around every other day or so, starting early next week.

We Are… St. Ouch

In 2007-2008, the narrative around the Red Storm team was that they were so very young, so inexperienced; that they needed to “learn how to win”; that they were whipped a lot but were improving and playing hard the whole game.

Hopes going into 2008-2009 centered around an improving squad of hard-working, conscientious young men who would put it all on the line, led by the senior Anthony Mason, the promising forward Justin Burrell, captained by quick and steady point guard Malik Boothe, with contributions from the solid DJ Kennedy and Paris Horne; and a possible comeback from Rob Thomas and improvements from Dele Coker.

What happened to the team is not a prelude to an excuse. But the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry, as Steinbeck quoted in Of Mice and Men. To wit:

• Anthony Mason… played 3 games before being sidelined with a torn peroneal tendon in his right foot, another in a line of injuries that have slowed him down the past 2 years.
• Justin Burrell… struggled at times with turnovers and finding his shot, a problem greatly exacerbated by a broken nose suffered in practice and the mask he wore for most of the rest of the season.
• Malik Boothe… his shot did not improve enough, and he struggled with turnovers even before he tore a tendon in his left hand; his backups fared poorly as the lead guards going into conference play.

With Great Injuries Come Great Opportunities

But in the injury carnage, DJ Kennedy proved to be a solid player willing to take tough shots (perhaps too many?) while passing like a backup point guard. Paris Horne was the team’s scoring star in the conference season, shooting 25% of the team’s shots while posting a very good field goal percentage (eFG, which accounts for 3-pointers, was 51.8%).

Sean Evans played an aggressive brand of offense down low, averaging 9.5 points (and 7.2 rebounds) in conference play.  Rob Thomas provided additional aggression in the paint and a nice touch on putbacks. The dogged play earned the Red Storm a win over a ranked team (Notre Dame), and two wins over Georgetown (one being their first conference tournament win in years).

As a more mature team, the Red Storm upped the pace slightly (from zombie?) by a little more than 1 possession to 66.8 possessions a game and were slightly more efficient, scoring .94 points per possession. Which is not very good – they were 13th in the conference in scoring efficiency.  But on paper, they scored 3.5 more points per game, due to having a chance at a shot more per game.

The effective field goal percentage was about the same, as they increased their efficiency on 2’s and lost efficiency on 3’s, and increasing their free throw rate slightly. All of this is despite having a league-high 9% of their shot attempts blocked in conference play.

The Johnnies created a little chaos on defense, stealing the ball on 11% of opponent possessions, better than the 9.5% they posted in 07-08. The one place where the team really showed improvement was in their offensive rebounding – the ultimate hustle and motivation stat – pulling down nearly 38% of their own misses. Sean Evans (11.7%, conf) and Rob Thomas (14.9%, conf) were monsters on the offensive glass. Despite the injuries and a continued lack of scoring efficiency, they hustled, or “battled,” like Art Howe used to say.

The Anatomy of A Blowout

The stagnation of the offensive scoring was disappointing, but not as disturbing as the regression on defense and the turnovers on offense:

• The defensive rebounding took a hit; St. John’s corralled 68.8% of misses vs. 71.9% the previous year.
• The Red Storm had (in conference) the league’s highest turnover rate at 23.1% of possessions.
• Within that, 10.5% of their possessions were NOT steals; to phrase it another way, 45% of their turnovers were “unstolen” to coin a word.
• The opposition was more efficient (scoring 1.05 points per possession vs. 1.02), more efficient from outside the arc 38% on 3’s, a 2 percentage point increase. Those same opponents made 51.6% of the attempts inside the arc, the same percentage they made the year before.
• 16 of the 18 losses were by 10 points or more (the other losses were by 7 to Duke and 6 to Richmond).

To be fair, the defensive efficiency was 10th in the league in 2007-2008; it was 9th in the league in 2008-2009, indicating that the league as a whole shot better from the field.  And the increased pace can make the losses look slightly worse than they are, even if they indicate a wide gulf between the better teams in the league and St. John’s.

Teams took the 3rd lowest number of three-pointers against the Red Storm*; and in rebounding, St. John’s might have just been part of a monstrous rebounding year for the league, where the Red Storm’s rebounding decline actually left them second best in the league at rebounding opponents’ misses.

The Space Between

Still, the regular conference season gap in points per 100 possessions (which we will use as efficiency: 100 * points per possession, so we have numbers higher than zero) was -12.1 in 2007-2008; and was -11.7 in 2008-2009. In a year where the novices returned with some experience, playing against many of the same veteran names, same coaches, same teams, why couldn’t the Red Storm close the gap a little more? From this post in March, I touched on how teams with the same coaches and returning players do not generally improve 12 efficiency points, and the disparity between efficiencies is a very good indicator of won-loss record.

The eternal optimist can find caveats – what if St. John’s has a year of Anthony Mason? What if Burrell and Boothe’s injuries really held back their performance? What if having actual backups at the point and shooting guard and wing, along with a possible dead-eye shot from the perimeter allow the players more rest and increased efficiency? Every year, there are so many what ifs.

There is a hope that with the loss of many impact players on teams around the league, and improvement/ team cohesion in the Red Storm, the Johnnies can move up in the Big East rankings. That concept will be addressed in many of the coming player profile posts – starting with the players with the least amount of average time on the floor to the most – and summed up in a few weeks’ time. Until then, enjoy a look at a team of sophomores taking hold of their opportunities with varying degrees of success.

* Maybe the team needs to pack in the defense a little, instead of sending forwards out to the perimeter and trying to get them to recover to defend the paint. Just an idea.

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“…we in here talkin’ bout PRACTICE”

Just as Allen Iverson twists in the wind as a free agent, waiting for someone to make him an offer worthy of his talents…

A great, great mashup with a solid beat of Iverson’s “practice” rant, Jim Mora on “p-p-PLAYOFFS?”, Dennis Green’s “they are who we thought they were” (which I never thought was that outrageous), Mike Gundy’s “I’m a man! I’m 40!” tirade, Joe Namath’s “I want to kiss you” leer, and Terrell Owens’ crying with emotion about his quarterback.

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Bzdelik and the “casual talk”

You may have heard that Colorado Buffaloes head coach Jeff Bzdelik (once the coach of the NBA Denver Nuggets), had a “casual talk” with the General Manager of the Minnesota Timberwolves while taking in an NBA summer league game. This blog thought it was curious that the Athletic Director of the University of Colorado put out a statement about the “casual talk”.

Turns out that, according to the Denver Post, the statement seems to be an effort to put the information out there and crush any rumor-milling that may come of the “unexpected”, “casual talk”. On the face of it, it’s good to make sure that, for recruiting efforts and team morale, it is very important to let the Buffalo players know that their coach isn’t going anywhere.

In fact, this bit of “news” helps reinforce Bzdelik’s bonafides – the NBA people hold him in high regard, despite the severe outclassing that Bzdelik’s Colorado tenure has been. After all, one shouldn’t lose toget blown out by Vermont and Texas Christian as a major conference team in a coach’s second year. Eyebrows, fully raised.

All of this may be blown up/ over-communicated on the web over essentially nothing. Jeff Bzdelik might be completely committed to the Buffalo basketball program. But this also might be a coach who would be happy to land on his feet after last year’s 9-22 record; or an AD who might look at his team, the unknown recruits and lack of size or competitive athleticism and think… well, if he left, would that be the worst thing?

The Buffs were simply awful last year, an uncompetitive 1-win skidmark on the Big XII schedule in basketball. They have a long way to go to make a turnaround, and their terrible rebounding highlights the struggles of a short team with one excellent talent in Cory Higgins and non-rebounding, distance shooting big men.

Faced with long odds, when does a “casual talk” become serious interest for Bzdelik?

Daniel Murphy and Oliver Perez, or Last Night’s Party

Two things from last night’s game against a Dodgers, a close 5-4 win made a little more hairy by Francisco Rodriguez’ closing style. It was a fun game but Oliver Perez’ line was…

	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR
O. Perez	5.0	4	2	2	7	2	0

Underwhelming.

But his hair was perfect! And Mets fans were trying to make #OliverPerez a trending item. We failed.

First, the hair:

And then video of Daniel Murphy’s adventurous put-out at first. Hat tip to the ‘Ropolitans:

St. John’s Out of Conference and Conference Schedule

St. John’s has released the out of conference schedule:

Date	Opponent	Location	Event
11/13/2009	LIU	Carnesecca
11/17/2009	St. Bonaventure	Rochester	neutral site
11/20/2009	Brown	Carnesecca	Philly Hoop Group
11/27/2009	Siena	Palestra	Philly Hoop Group
11/28/2009	Temple	Palestra	Philly Hoop Group
12/2/2009	Stony Brook	Carnesecca
12/5/2009	@Duke	Cameron
12/9/2009	Georgia	MSG	BE/ SEC Invitational
12/13/2009	Fordham	Carnesecca
12/20/2009	Hofstra	MSG	Holiday Festival
12/21/2009	Davidson/ Cornell	MSG	Holiday Festival
12/23/2009	Bryant	Carnesecca

I kind of like this schedule.

I suppose it’s a case of low expectations, given the steady diet of “who dat?” opponents last year; the only NCAA-level, national name opponent on this year’s schedule is Duke. But Cornell, Siena, Davidson, and Temple are challenging mid-majors (and Siena employs my favorite mid-major coach, Fran McCaffrey). Long Island University always gives St. John’s a tough time. Hofstra has a lot to prove and would love to knock off St. John’s.

The Red Storm chose to stay local, and I appreciate that; the team should not be bringing up weak schools from Florida and DC for non-conference games. It does no one any good and makes it look like the team is ducking the weak schools in its own region. And local games draw fans from both schools and alumni in the NYC area. Gotta fill those seats.

It’s not the schedule of a national power; Miami and Virginia Tech aren’t on the schedule, and they are mid-level ACC teams regardless. No trips to play some up-and-comer like Arizona State or Minnesota, and only the Duke trip against a team that should be expected to go to the Sweet Sixteen.This year’s schedule removes some of the Division-II level teams, but adds a few more easy W’s (Bryant comes to mind, though their coach Tim O’Shea did beat the Johnnies in Hawai’i two seasons ago).

But in this schedule are some put up or shut up games; the choice to play in the Philly Hoop Group matchups are aimed at competing against teams with a solid RPI, and hopefully using those wins over mid-majors to get a tournament bid. Even with the turnover and loss of Dionte Christmas, Temple should be a worthy opponent. Siena, even without Kenny Hasbrouck, is a well-coached running team that can hang with the best. And Davidson/ Cornell are tough teams with aggressive schedules – nice adds to the out of conference slate.

Beyond that,  with fewer turnovers, St. Bonaventure might be competitive. Georgia has some talent and a new coach. And Hofstra, Stony Brook, and Fordham are local competition, the kind of teams St. John’s should be beating just to let them know who the dog is.

Not saying that St. John’s will beat those teams; they have to get better performances from the team as a whole. But it’s good to see the Red Storm playing the neighborhood. But the neighborhood shouldn’t get it twisted; the locals aren’t really very good. This locals on the schedule are not as tough as, say, Richmond. But it is nice to get some local buzz up.

From the Daily News, Norm Roberts says, “We’re not a young team anymore, we’re a veteran team and this is what you do with a veteran team… We’ve got good teams from some other conferences and we should have the experience now to be up to that.” We can only hope. Like Animal Collective says, No More Runnin‘.

Also in that article: the Red Storm plan to take a preseason trip through Canada in September to play exhibition games. A great move; playing the games after school begins means that the freshmen/ incoming Junior College players can practice in game situations, while the team as a whole gets up to speed and re-integrates Anthony Mason, Jr. into the fold.

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The school also announced men’s basketball matchups within the conference. The home and homes are DePaul, Louisville, and Pittsburgh. The home games are against Cincinnati, Marquette, Providence, Seton Hall, Villanova, and West Virginia. The road games are against Connecticut, Georgetown, Notre Dame, Rutgers, USF and Syracuse. Does it strike anyone as strange that none of the home-and-homes are with the locals, Seton Hall, Rutgers, or even Syracuse, Providence, U Conn, or Villanova?

The conference is what it is – tough. Having Cincinnati at home just increases the spectacle – lance Stephenson playing at home, in the Garden (most likely) where he won 4 Public School Athletic League (PSAL) championships. Louisville and Pitt always travel well to the Garden. If last year’s relative results hold, the team actually has a chance for 3 road wins at DePaul, South Florida, and Rutgers. That’s always a big “if.”

So much has to go right to have a winning season; having the sophomores become juniors may be part of the magic Norm Roberts hopes for, but it takes more than just age to make a winning team. Every team’s goal is to reach the top 8, the coach has said; always easier said than done.