RED STORM FALL IN FESTIVAL FINALE TO CORNELL

The third time is the charm for Cornell as the Big Red finally upended a Big East squad in their three attempts already this season. After falling to Seton Hall (at home) and Syracuse (at the Carrier Dome), the two-time defending Ivy League champion got past St. John's in last night's Holiday Festival Final at Madison Square Garden.

Cornell Denies St. John's Hokiday Festival Title (NY Times) as the Big Red was led by Jon Jaques’s 20 points. Jeff Foote added 19 points, 11 rebounds and 5 blocks and was named the tournament’s most valuable player.

It was the fourth consecutive season the Red Storm failed to capture the title on the Madison Square Garden floor. Norm Roberts' squad led by as many ass 11 points early on, but a 13-2 run after halftime by Cornell flipped the game into their favor.

With Anthony Mason Jr. still sidelined with a hamstring injury and Justin Burrell out with an ankle injury, the Redstorm has seen their depth depleted as Quincy Roberts is out because of recurring headaches and likely taking a medical redshirt this season. Dwight Hardy put up a pair of strong outings in MSG over Sunday and Monday, finishing with a team-high 19 points in 19 minutes off the bench in the finals. DJ Kennedy added 15 in the loss.

The Redstorm dominated the boards, grabbing 17 offensive rebounds and winning the overall rebounding battle 39-23. However, poor shooting (hitting just 42% from the field) was the difference as Cornell shot at a 57% clip, including 11-18 from beyond the arc.

St. John's will host Bryant on Wednesday ahead of their conference opener against original Big East rival Georgetown on New Year's Eve at the Verizon Center in the nation's capitol.

ST. JOHN'S IMPROVES TO 7-1 WITH GARDEN PARTY VICTORY

Has Winning Finally Become the 'Norm' (NY Post) for the Red Storm? With St. John's defeating Georgia 66-56 Wednesday night in the opening game of the SEC/Big East Invitational at Madison Square Garden, Norm Roberts' club improves to 7-1. What is more impressive is SJU has yet to have 5th year senior Anthony Mason Jr, a proven Big East player, available this season because of injury and last night played without starting power forward Justin Burrell who missed the game with a sprained ankle. Burrell suffered the injury in the opening minute of SJU's lone loss of the season, last Saturday at Duke.

The Storm is Starting to Believe (NY Post) in themselves and are relying on each other to win games. Even with the injuries and the importance of performing well ont he big stage, Norm Roberts sticks to his principles and started the game with DJ Kennedy, Paris Horne and Sean Evans on the bench as the normal starting trio were punished for being three minutes late to the team bus earlier in the day.

Kennedy continues to shine in his role, this time coming off the bench, to score 11 points, grad 7 rebounds and dish 5 assists. NYC Native and JUCO transfer Dwight Hardy led SJU with 12 points as the balanced Storm saw all 10 players that played Wednesday score at least three points.

St. John's will wrap up their pre-conference late with home games against Fordham (Sunday), Hofstra (12/20) and Bryant (12/23) before diving into conference play on the road against Georgetown on New Year's Eve.

GRITTY RED STORM FALLS TO DUKE, FACE GEORGIA NEXT

The Chance to play Duke in Cameron Indoor Stadium was definitely a measuring stick opportunity for the St. John's basketball team on Saturday. Entering the game 6-0 and receiving some votes in the latest top 25 polls, the Red Storm was eager to see how they stacked up against an elite team in the country. Duke Snaps St. John's Winning Streak in 80-71 Win (NY Daily News) as they ride a big early lead to victory.

Duke took a 40-24 lead at the half and SJU, already without 5th year senior Anthony Mason Jr, lost junior Justin Burrell to a sprained ankle in the game's opening minutes as Duke Was Too Much for Gritty St. John's (NY Post) who accounted well for themselves despite the cirumstances.

DJ Kennedy led SJU with 18 points and Sean Evans scored 17.

A 17-0 first half Duke run took control of the contest, but SJU closed the gap to 58-52 in the second half. Duke, which held a solid rebounding edge, ran off 10 more consecutive points to push the lead back to 16. St. John's would push back, but never get within six again.

The Redstorm are back in action on Wednesday night playing the first game of the SEC/Big East Invitational at Madison Square Garden against Georgia.

ST. JOHN'S 79, BROWN 76: THE NOTEBOOK

by BILL SAN ANTONIO


Though St. John's led by as many as 15 points in the closing minutes of the first half, Brown eventually cut the deficit to one late by shooting 70 percent from the field in the second half.

D.J. Kennedy’s dunk with 56 seconds remaining and a pair of free throws by Malik Boothe shortly thereafter sealed the win for St. John’s.

“We won the game; that’s the bottom line,” Head Coach Norm Roberts said.

Dwight Hardy led the way for the Red Storm, scoring 16 points on 6-11 shooting, including 4-6 from three-point range. Hardy hit two key free throws on back-to-back possessions early in the first half to put the Red Storm up 13-9. His four three-point field goals were the only successful attempts in the first half for the Red Storm, as St. John’s shot 4-10 in the half from beyond the arc.

Due to early foul trouble to Justin Burrell and Sean Evans, Roberts went to his second unit of Dele Coker and Justin Brownlee in the frontcourt, who played a combined 24 minutes. They each recorded a block, and Brownlee finished with nine points and three rebounds.

Friday’s game was dominated by tight officiating, as 35 total fouls were called. The two teams shot a combined 43 free throws, and 11 players recorded at least two fouls. With each blown whistle, the referees were greeted to an even louder ovation of boos from the 3,220 fans at Carnesecca Arena. Boothe and Kennedy were both perfect from the line.

During the timeout with 11:58 remaining in the second half, the St. John’s men’s soccer team was recognized at halfcourt for its Big East Tournament win last Sunday over Notre Dame. The Red Storm takes the field Sunday at 6 p.m. against Boston College in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The team reached the College Cup round last year, where it was defeated by Maryland.

Bill San Antonio is the sports editor for the The Torch, The Award-Winning Student Newspaper of St. John's University

BIG EAST RECRUITING UPDATE: ST. JOHN'S

May 15, 2009


COMMITMENT ALERT: Justin Brownlee, 6-foot-7 forward from Chipola (FL) Junior College

St. John's has finished off their recruiting class of 2009 with the addition of JUCO forward Justin Brownlee of Chipola JC. Brownlee Rounds out St. John's 2009-10 Recruiting Class (RedStormsports) as he signed a LOI this week with Norm Roberts' program.


Projected 2009-2010 Roster:

Seniors: Anthony Mason, Jr. (SF)
Juniors: Justin Burrell (PF), Malik Boothe (PG), Rob Thomas (F), Ayodele Coker (C), Paris Horne (G), DJ Kennedy (G), Sean Evans (F), Dwight Hardy (G), Justin Brownlee (F)
Sophomores: Quincy Roberts (G)
Freshmen: Malik Stith (PG), Omari Lawrence (SG)



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Read More...Click 'Read More' Below!!!

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St. John's added a quality spring time addition with Justin Brownlee signing a letter of intent with the Redstorn. Brownlee played this past season at JUCO powerhouse Chipola (FL) on a strong squad that has also sent Malcolm Armstead to Oregon, Casey Mitchell to West Virginia, Gary Flowers to the NBA draft, among others.

Brownlee averaged just over 10 points a game and nearly 6 rebounds for the 34-2 Indians this past season. Chipola finished third in the NJCAA Division I national tournament. Brownlee scored 20 points in their third-place game.

Brownlee is a native of Tifton (GA) and played high school ball at Covenant Christian. Many remember his 2007 run on the AAU circuit with the Smyrna Stars that put his name in the mix for some natonal top 100 recruiting lists. After starting his JUCO career as San Francisco City College, Brownlee spent this past season at Chipola playing for coach Gary Heiar.

Brownlee is the second JUCO addition in the 2009 recruiting class, joining former John F. Kennedy guard Dwight Hardy. hardy comes back east to finish his college eligibility as he has been playing for JUCO power Indian Hills CC in Iowa for coach Jeff Kidder the last two seasons.

“Dwight Hardy is a great teammate, a great student," coach Kidder told Adam Zagoria of ZagsBlog.net. "He will have a terrific two years at St. John’s after he’s done here.”

At JFK in the Bronx, Hardy was a scorer extraorinaire, averaging nearly 40 points a game as a senior. St. John's helped him find his way to Kidder's program and have stayed in touch every since. The Redstorm have had trouble scoring, so a big-time scorer like Hardy is worth adding, even if it really jams up the projected junior class of the projected 2009-2010 roster.

Of the 13 scholarship players on the projected 2009-2010 season, nine of them will be juniors in terms of eligibility. It is just about an unheard of situation, which also leaves SJU with a single scholarship available for the 2010 class.

Norm Roberts Looks to Take Back NYC on the recruiting trail and he has needed a recruiting victory to keep the local talent home and increase SJU's perception in the Big Apple. So, the news from last summer of Omari Lawrence's commitment should not be taken lightly as it could be a sign of things to come. With an upgrade in local connections for his coaching staff, the embattled SJU coach hopes this is just the beginning.

With Omari Lawrence, SJU is getitng a very athletic guard that can defend and attack the basket. Lawrence is improving on his guard skill set, meaning his ball handling, decision making and shooting, so his upside potential is quite impressive. However, the biggest impact he might have is being the 'first' to commit and could lead to others.

Joining Lawrence, Hardy and Brownlee in the 2009-2010 incoming class is Malik Stith, a native of Long Island, who committed to St. John's early last spring after completing his senior season at East Mecklenberg High School in North Carolina. Stith prepped one season at Bridgton Academy, the same institution that has sent current SJU players Paris Horne and Justin Burrell to the Redstorm program.

Stith had a big season at East Mecklenberg and his play this spring for the United Celtics impressed the St. John's staff enough to earn a scholarship offer. Others involved with Stith at the time of his commitment were Wichita State, Winthrop and George Mason, but more would have been involved if they knew his academic situation and that he would moving to the class of 2009.

Stith, the Southwestern 4A player of the year, made the boys all-state first team in North Carolina as he led East Mecklenberg to the class 4-A North Carolina High School basketball championship by scoring 20 points in the final game, a 72-63 win over Apex. He also added 7 steals, 6 rebounds and 4 assists in the game and his ability to handle the ball was the key component to running out the clock. Stith is a very good ball handler who is exceptionally quick with the ball. He will be a perfect compliment to Malik Boothe and give SJU another top-notch ball handler.

However, murmurs grew louder and louder that Stith might not be joining the Redstorm program for 2009-2010 and as the early signing period passed, Stith did not sign and it looked like both parties had moved on.

However, in April, Stith took a visit to St. John's and then narrowed his choices to LaSalle and the Redstorm. With guard Ty Edmondson transferring from the SJU program and center Phil Wait also leaving, SJU had a couple scholarships open and Stith accepted their offer.

Stith scored 18 points and earned MVP honors as Bridgton beat South Kent and future teammate Omari Lawrence 89-85 to win the NEPSAC Class A Championship this past March.

With the commitment accepted from Brownlee, the biggest name attached to St. John's recruiting efforts, Lance Stephenson, is now officially out of the picture for the Redstorm. Several times it looked as 'Born Ready' was on the verge of commiting to SJU, but the pledge never game and reports that he was no longer considering staying close to home have been confirmed.

The hirings last spring of Kimani Young and Oswald Cross do give the Redstorm a much more positive image and influence in NYC circles and the impact was felt in 2009, with the commitment of Lawrence, and could pay off more in the future as 2010 prospects such as Jayvaughn Pinkston, Ashton Pankey and Devon Collier all played under Young on the AAU circuit this past year and SJU has made an early pitch for players such as Doron Lamb and others with NYC ties. Young recently left the SJU program to help his family deal with the sudden and tragic passing of his wife. Even in the brief year he worked at SJU, the positive effect it had on the NYC area in it's perception of Roberts' program was helped trmendously. Young is now back with the New Heights AAU program, but the door has at least been opened with SJU once again.

Of course, as luck would have it, the scholarship situation for 2010 is very unclear for SJU with possibly, on paper, just one available unless players leave the program. Players leaving the program has been a regular occurrence and with the large number of projected juniors on the roster for the 2009-2010 squad, something very well could happen to open up a couple spots for the class of 2010. This past sprng saw Ty Edmondson and Phil Wait leave the program.

We will see if this indeed is the spawning of a new Redstorm.

Lance Stephenson: The Saga Continues

April 29, 2009

by Zach Smart


The Lance Stephenson sweepstakes continues.

Who really knows when the wowing wunderkind will arrive at a decision?

The saga continues...

Rumored to be headed to first Kansas and then St. John's, both schools seem to be out of the picture for the kid they call "Born Ready."

New York's top-rated player, who's been hyped up to bliss-bound since he was a freshman at Lincoln High School, is rumored to be receiving interest from Memphis and Kansas. It was reported first on http://www.zagsblog.com/

According to a source with inside information, Stephenson is nowhere near a decision.

The late signing period concludes May 20, but Stephenson could end up making his decision after that date.

Stephenson has grazed the cover of sports magazines, had his own reality show on the web (http://www.bornready.tv/), and emerged as an instant lynchpin in the New York City streetball circuit.

That's a helluva lot of attention for a kid who is yet to attend his prom. New York has a history of kick-starting the hype machine early on promising point guards, and you can look up Stephon Marbury or Sebastian Telfair for more on that one.

Read the Rest of Zach's Article HERE!!

ONE on ONE WITH OMARI LAWRENCE

by Pat Stevens


Pat Stevens (PS): -Feeling when committed…

Omari Lawrence (OL): It was great. Me and my family and the coaches had met and we decided that’s the place for me. We had the press conference later near a gym I grew up playing at and a bunch of the media came.

PS -If not St. Johns…

OL: I can’t even answer that really. But my final schools were Louisville, Memphis, Marquette, UConn, Pitt and Xavier.

PS -Positives from the prep school experience…

OL: I got to play against 7-footers every night, got more serious with school work , had to be real independent doing things on my own, and our strength coach helped me develop my body. He helped me tone down after coming in a little overweight and it really gets you ready for college and especially the Big East where it’s physical.

PS -Any previous prep school players you spoke with…

OL: I knew Tyrone Nash (Notre Dame/Northfield Mount Hermon, MA) and Darius Gabriel (Winchendon, MA).

PS -Best game of the year…

OL: My most consistent was against Notre Dame Prep, we lost in OT. It was so up and down. There were a lot of lead changes, it was a really physical game, we were attacking the basket and getting easy baskets. I was guarding Sean Kilpatrick (Cincinnati) and we were scoring on each other and getting stops. It was a back and forth, high energy game. It was a fun game to play in.

PS -On the National Prep Tournament first round loss to eventual champion Tilton (N.H.)…

OL: It was a tough one for us. We played them earlier and beat them by like 30. We came into the game thinking we were going to win against an easy team and they made the game tough for us.

PS -On the runner-up finish in the New England Class A Playoffs…

OL: Every night we played against a tough team. There were no breaks, every time we had to bring it. In the championship against Bridgton we were up 20 with eight minutes to go. You could say we fell asleep. It was really rough for us to be up by so much and lose like that. We came out knocking down every shot and were real confident. I think we got tired as a team, our confidence died down and they started coming back. It was very hard for us. We didn’t know what to do they were scoring so fast.

PS -On February’s National Prep School Invitational…

OL: Previously that week we were hearing we were going to lose to Tilton by ex amount of points because they were undefeated and that Northfield Mount Hermon had a great shooter who was going to light us up. We wanted to show people we were No. 1 and we played well both those games and picked up the wins. We had won 16 straight around that time.

PS -On November’s National Tip Off…

OL: Everybody was trying to find themselves. We weren’t in sync. We couldn’t score against Patterson and they had already played like 12 games. It was hard but we bounced back and put together a good season.

PS -Regrets from career…

OL: I think if we had stayed home and played for St. Raymond (NY), me and Kevin (Parrom) would’ve run through the CHSAA. But it would have been less competitive for us. The league wasn’t that strong this year. A lot of players moved on to college. So I’d say we bettered ourselves by coming to South Kent. The mindset and whole structure of it helped us. But regrets, I would have loved to have won the city championship our sophomore and junior year.

BORN READY TO DECIDE

April 12, 2009


by Zach Smart


"The s--- is bogus, the boy did not go for the bucks!"-"Big Time," He Got Game

The curious case of Lance Stephenson, New York City's top-ranked player (and one of the most highly sought after items on the nation's recruiting marketplace) has taken a few twists and turns lately.

None of this was expected. The manchild, known in these parts as 'Born Ready,' with springy bounce and a penchant for wowing, electrifying and violent dunks was rumored to be Kansas-bound.

Stephenson, a 6-foot-5, 200-pound senior at Lincoln High (Brooklyn, N.Y.) held back on his announcement, which was expected to take place at the McDonald's All-American game in Miami.

A number of inside sources close to both the Stephenson family and Kansas indicated that 'Born Ready' was headed to Jayhawk territory.

Word that Stephenson may commit to St. John's, however, has spread like wildfire in the last several days.

"It's a done deal," claims one source who is close to the St. John's coaching staff.

The source has a son who is already considering St. John's--amongst others--to prolong his basketball career. He maintains close ties with the Johnnies' staff.

At the Hoop Group Elite 100 camp at the Queens, N.Y. campus last week, the source spoke out about Stephenson's future and the controversy suddenly surrounding it.

"The number one prospect out of New York City is going to St. John's. Malik Boothe knows he's coming. Omari Lawrence knows he's coming. I think we all know who this player is, and he knows where he's going and it's St. John's.”

Stephenson took an official visit to the campus in Jamaica, Queens this weekend, as it was reported HERE on zagsblog.com.


Reporters from SNY both debunked the rumor that Lance is committing to St. John's soon. They contacted parties and both sides and each denied the rumor.

Stephenson Sr. told SNY's Brooklyn Sal that the claim was false and that his son is simply "weighing his options."

The Kansas situation may have taken an abrupt turn.

The Jayhawks, Stephenson's supposed first choice, are anticipated to offer 6-foot-6 Oklahama City standout Xavier Henry a scholarship.

Like Stephenson, Henry is a five-star recruit at guard. Henry de-committed from Memphis after John Calipari accepted the long green to revive a once-prosperous program at Kentucky.

Stephenson made history this season, etching his name in NYC Hoops royalty. He led the vaunted Railsplitters to an unprecedented four straight PSAL titles.

Stephenson established himself as the city's all-time leading scorer.

Since garnering some national exposure in a duel against O.J. Mayo in 2005, Stephenson has left a lasting legacy as a top-profile high school phenom.