Ladies and gentlemen, quality basketball is back at the world’s most famous arena. That’s right, MSG is rockin’ once again. Oh, you thought I meant Amare and the Knicks? No, for the first time this decade the St. John’s Red Storm are legitimate NCAA tournament contenders.
St. John’s, after tonight’s win against #4 Pittsburgh, are 17-9 and 9-5 in the Big East, the nation’s toughest conference. The Red Storm have quality wins against West Virginia, Georgetown, Notre Dame, Duke, UConn, Cincinnati, and Marquette. They have the 17th ranked RPI and the 2nd ranked strength of schedule. This team is for real.
When Steve Lavin left the set of ESPN to take over the head-coaching job for the Johnies I thought this was a major demotion for Lavin. In the 1990s and early 2000s, Lavin was the new, hot coach. At UCLA, he won Rookie Coach of the Year in 1997, led the Bruins to the Final Four in 1998, and won the Pac-10 Coach of the Year in 2001. However, after a very disappointing 2002-2003 season, Lavin was fired. In 2010, he returned to coaching and undertook the arduous task of bringing St. John’s back to big time basketball.
For those (like me) who don’t remember, St. John’s was once a proud basketball program. The Red Storm have made twenty-seven NCAA tournament appearances and reached two Final Fours. Fran Fraschilla and Mike Jarvis led them to much success in the 1990s and early 2000s. However, by 2003, the program was in shambles.
In steps Lavin in 2010 to save the program. The Red Storm are beating good teams this year and more importantly Lavin has them believing that they can go deep into March. This team has some real talent: Bronx-native Dwight Hardy leads the team averaging 17.1 points per game and Justin Browlee is averaging almost 13 points per game.
While this year’s St. John’s team is poised to make a run, Lavin, a recruiting wizard, has done a fantastic job with his first recruiting class at St. John’s. Seven recruits with ratings higher than 90 from ESPNU will be heading to New York to play for Coach Lavin next year. This class includes Dom Pointer, #34 in ESPNU’s top 100, Jakaar Sampson, #35 in ESPNU’s top 100, Maurice Harkless, #41, D’Angelo Harrison, #62, and Norvell Pelle, #75.
Don’t expect St. Johns to cut down the nets at this year’s Final Four in Houston. However, relevant college basketball is once again being played at The Garden and don’t be surprised if Coach Lavin, with his famous gelled back hair and all, has the Johnies dancing deep into the tournament this year.
