Last season, Coach Steve Lavin managed to lead the St. John's Red Storm squad to a 21-12 record and a trip to the NCAA Tournament. This year they're without star Dwight Hardy and 7 of their other leading scorers. Can a highly regarded recruiting class bring the Johnnie's back to the big dance?
St. John's is coming off of a great recruiting season, picking up a slew of the nation's best freshmen. However, ineligibility for three of their new recruits will force the Red Storm to go back to the drawing board and look for new answers.
All of this and still sportsbooks are still expecting a decent showing from St. John's. Bodog has the Red Storm listed at 25/1 in the NCAA Basketball odds to win nest year's NCAA Championship.
Top 3 in Recruiting in the Nation!
With most of their stars out of the picture, St. John's will be dependent upon the incoming freshman class. They landed 6 of the top
100 recruits in the country, but unfortunately Amir Garrett, Norvel Pelle and
Jakarr Sampson didn't qualify for the fall semeste. These
players will work to become eligible for the spring semester and could be
eligible to practice on December 19th. However, Jakarr Sampson has decided to decommit.
That's a blow to St. John's as he was their 2nd highest ranked recruit.
Garrett is a two sport star. He was drafted in the 22nd round of the MLB draft by
the Cincinnati Reds, and the NCAA allows Garrett to play college basketball and pro
baseball. His future will be an interesting one as Garrett was ranked 99th out of the
top 100 recruits
This is a team that's mainly built on a group of talented freshman and
inexperienced players at this level. Let's take a look at the new 2011-2012 St. John's
Red Storm.
Guard
St. John's is saturated with young blood and a first year Red Storm player, Nurideen Lindsey, will be starting at point guard. Lindsey can actually be considered a sophomore, as he has 1 years
of college experience before transfering to St. John's, and has three remaining years of eligibility. Lindsey is known
for his shooting and his ability to take instructions from the coach. Look
for big things out of Lindsey, who stands at 6 foot 4 (perfect size for a point
guard).
Freshman guard Phil Greene will battle for playing time. Greene is a 6 foot 2
shooting guard that will be a pure backup, even while being ranked 41th in the incoming shooting guards.
Future Madison Square Garden entertainer
Coming to MSG (which is St. John's home court) will be shooting guard
D'Angelo Harrison. Harrison is a scoring machine, and fans will quickly forget Dwight
Hardy after Harrison steps on the court of "The World's most famous
arena". He's a perimeter shooter that can score off the dribble. Look for
Lindsey and Greene to feed the ball regularly to Harrison. Expect immediate
results from this super freshman who was ranked 64th in the top 100 recruits.
Expect junior point guard Malik Smith to get some backup playing time. He was
with the Red Storm last season and averaged 3.3 points in 12 minutes per game.
Forward
Before Jakarr Sampson decomitted to the program, he was slated in as a starter.
Good thing the Red Storm are fairly deep at this position. They might go with the freshman
combination of Dom Pointer and Queens native Maurice Harkless at small forward.
Harkless was ranked 39th as opposed to Pointer who was ranked 25th in the top
100 but Harkless should be the better player.
Harkless has good length, breakaway speed, and is a finisher. Strength is one
weakness to his game and that hurts St. John's because they're thin at the
power forward position without Sampson. Nonetheless, he's still a very good
basketball player.
Dom Pointer is a similar player to that of Harkless and is a better defender, but isn't as good a shooter. If, and when he
returns, Amir Garrett is similar in stature to Pointer and Harkless. Garrett plays
with reckless abandon, and he is a very athletic player and a fierce defender.
God's Gift!
In the power forward position a lot of the responsibility will be rest in the
hands of JUCO transfer God's Gift Achiuwa. Achiuwa gives the Red Storm some much
needed mass at 6 foot 9, 240 pounds, coming out of Erie Community College in
Buffalo, Nachiuwa averaged 22.3 points and over 10 rebounds per game in
his sophomore season. Coach Lavin is hoping that making the transition to a
higher level college will be a successful one for God's Gift Achiuwa.
Note: The Red Storm have signed 6 foot 7, 240 pound power forward Ricardo
Gathers for the 2012 season. This will add depth to the power forward position
but the Red Storm will have to wait a year before he joins the squad.
Center
St. John's was dealt a heavy blow when freshman Norvel Pelle didn't qualify for
the fall semester. Pelle is a highly regarded recruit, ranked 77th in the
top 100 and when, and if Pelle comes back, he will give St. John's size at a 6
foot 10, with a great shot blocking ability. He can be compared to a shorter
version of Dikembe Mutombo. Expect Pelle to pay off in the long run but in the
meantime, St. John's will have to play small. We could possibly see God's Gift Achiuwa
rotate from the poward forward to the center positon.
Summary
This is a basketball team with a lot of youth and talent. They have a couple of
key new players that have community college experience, which shouldl help their
cause. If this team stays together, they can be a powerhouse top 25 team in the
future. The setback of having Jakarr Sampson decommit and having to wait for
the Spring semester for Norvel Pelle and Amir Garrett to return will be
damaging this season for the St.John's program.
I don't see this team dropping off too far. They're loaded
with talent even without the ineligible players, but I would not include them in my NCAA Basketball betting picks for a title shot this year. Look for St. John's to return to it's power in the future, but 2011-2012 will be a rebuilding year.
Predicition- 20-13