St. John’s fans have been constantly reminded during this centennial season of how prominent the then Redmen once were in college basketball while also witnessing first hand how far we’ve fallen into disgrace.

It took me nearly a week to sit and reflect and write this post because I was so so angry and upset over the St. John’s performance against Georgetown following such poor performances against Connecticut, DePaul, West Virginia, and Pittsburgh for six consecutive losses.

Some of the losses were expected but it was in the way that the team lost and the way they played. We went into Storrs and got smacked around, we collapsed against DePaul, went through the motions against West Virginia, and got beat down by Pittsburgh.

St. John’s fans were awaiting that one trademark upset win that Norm Robert’s regime has seemed to be good for each season. Even the Georgetown fans were worrisome of the Johnnies but we failed to even show up for this game. We didn’t score a field goal until just 4 minutes were left in the half for the worst whooping I’ve ever seen in my lifetime.

I think this could have been the straw that broke the camel’s back for even as patient of fans as myself. I’ve waited and waited to see things change but yet I’ve failed to see change be made. Now some of you might already be jumping to conclusions by my referencing of changes and I’m not calling for Norm’s head but I’m growing tired of the same results.

I’ve always wanted Norm to be the “Man” at St. John’s and he has many characteristics of the makings of establishing a solid foundation to building a program. He has hit hard luck time after time as it never seems the ball bounces his way but how long does this become acceptable? I think he has put together a solid core of player who will climb up the latter of the Big East however it seems his players have lost faith in him or something because there is no fight.

The season is not over and there is time to right some wrongs however it there must be significant change in play and coaching. Norm needs to make better rotations, Norm needs to make better defensive adjustments, Norm needs to run better offensive sets, and Norm needs to win. If this doesn’t happen he will be in the hot seat.

I’m waiting until season’s end out of respect to the coaches, players, and staff before I call for action one way or the other and I encourage all to do the same. The “Fire Norm” chants don’t help anything besides causing a large distraction for the players. I was disappointed to hear the students do this during the game.

If you want to make change, you can, the fans hold the power. Well perhaps not as much as the boosters who donate large sums of money to the program but the average fan does carry weight. Use the power of the almighty pen to voice your displeasures of the current state of the program and don’t limit it to calling for the coaches head but voice about all issues from tickets to facilities from concessions to merchandise. What ever! There is a lot of things that need to change and we can jump start the revolution.

Harrington- pres@stjohns.edu

Chris Monasch- monaschc@stjohns.edu

Kathy Meehan- meehank@stjohns.edu

Pat Elliott- elliottp@stjohns.edu

This is President Harrington’s email address along with the Athletic Directors.  If you so choose to email them with concerns make it professional and rational because if you don’t they will not take it seriously. Also subject the email accordingly so they will see the email and not think it is junk mail. They do read their emails(I’m not so sure about Father Harrington) and if they don’t they have an assistant who reads them believe me I witnessed it first hand having worked in the St. John’s athletic department.

If you choose to use an actual letter the address to St. John’s is:

St. John’s University

Attn: Whoever you are writing to

8000 Utopia Parkway

Jamaica New York 11439

If you are really serious about them receiving what you have to say send it first class mail this way they have to sign for the package and you know they received it.

Now individual letters will help however we need to unite under a greater cause and petition for change. We saw this have great success in fellow Big East Catholic School Georgetown when they’re program was declining and they fired their coach in favor of John Thompson III and the rest is history.

I will be planning on drawing something up after the end of the season with everyone’s input in there and our numbers will speak volume of what we want to change.

Remember you hold the power than can make change!

New York City is supposed to be the center of the basketball world with the Mecca being Madison Square Garden the “world’s greatest arena” or at least thats what used to be.

St. John’s is celebrating its 100 year anniversary this season and has made it quite a memorable one so far for the fans. First from raising season ticket prices blackmailing boosters to ante up a larger donations or get bumped from your seats in favor of a larger donor. Student ticket prices were raised from $10 to $15 for Big East games this season as well.

The attendance at games has been on a steady decline for years now and its only getting worse and worse as the current season goes on. In addition to the sliding attendance the fans have been treated with poor play, questionable coaching, and an overall feeling of embarrassment of being dressed in St. John’s apparel.

Johnny Jungle was officially created before this season to help bring back the pride and tradition in this once proud program however the school continues to do its best to cancel out our efforts.

St. John’s ticket office has tried its best to break up students from gathering together in what every school in America calls the “Student Section” as they have scattered students behind each basket of Madison Square Garden instead of giving the students a block of tickets to sit together.

In my years as a student at St. John’s I’ve had my fair share of run ins with the ushers of MSG but there was a certain understanding between the students and suits. They were doing their job and we were just trying to enjoy the game and we co-existed in peace. This season I was appalled at the actions of Madison Square Garden.

First let me paint the picture of what MSG looks like for a St. John’s game. (      ….     ) If you can’t tell by my dynamic drawing that is the arena thats only filled up about 25% for every game.

St. John’s students who try their best to make the Garden a “Jungle” stand up and cheer like every other college across the country but this year its different. MSG has told students to sit or be ejected from the game.

The students who were sitting court side in their designated seats earlier this season sat in a group of 20 or so was told to sit down or face ejection. A few bold students remained standing while others complied with the wishes of MSG. The 15 rows behind the students were empty, the first 25 rows to the right of them were completely empty(I could literally lay down 4 times over in one row 2 rows behind the basket) yet the usher said the students were obstructing the view of the court. I find this so hard to believe because there was no one in the arena and I also moved to various seats in the arena and not once was my view obstructed. The students regained their confidence to stand again only to be harassed by ushers the minute they stood up. Select students were given a piece of paper stating this was a warning and as soon as it was apparent they were finished reading the paper they were physically dragged out of their seat and forced out of the arena for simply standing.

Not only was this distracting for the students but for everyone in that half of the arena drawing chants by older St. John’s fans to “Leave the students alone”

In the latest debacle a dozen or so students were ejected from the St. John’s game against Georgetown in a game where St. John’s didn’t score a field goal until 4 minutes left in the first half. How do you kick out a fan let alone 12 or more who’s team is losing by 30+ in the first half for standing and cheering for their team without using vulgar or obscene language?

Madison Square Garden is continuing to make a mockery of New York and the game of basketball. The so little St. John’s students have to cheer about MSG deprives them of what every college in America gets to do and that is stand up during games. I’d like to see Cameron or Chapel Hill ushers prohibit standing at games and see what would happen. I tried to contact MSG security and ticket office and no one was available for comment on the matter. I tried to contact the SJU ticket office too after sitting through 15 min of computer prompted questions I finally received a never ending ringing phone in which no one picked up which is seemingly befitting to the situation.

Maybe St. John’s should just drop their basketball program since they don’t care about their fans and make it so difficult for students to want to go to games with poor marketing, expensive tickets, and lackluster play.

For the students who still attend the games I say this,

Get up, Stand up, Stand up for your rights

Get up, Stand up, Don’t give up the fight!

Just six months ago we were getting ready for another year of St. John’s Basketball with perhaps one of the more anticipated seasons on the horizon with so many elements being unknown and left for the debate of St. John’s faithful. People were buzzing about the seven new freshman, the new strength coach, a more experienced Mason Jr, Norm’s 4th season, and of course that new site called Johnny Jungle.
There was plenty to discuss both good and bad and some of us were right about a lot of things while others not so much and some change their opinions as consistently as the ocean tide. Whether we were right or wrong at this point it doesn’t matter because we’re all in the same sinking ship shoveling out water trying to stay afloat.
We’ve seen and in some cases heard this team go through their trials and tribulations. We’ve had some good but mostly bad news so far this season and with the fall semester behind us its time to revaluate. Now the team might have saw one of its best report cards in the classroom in St. John’s history however Johnny Jungle is going to give one on the court.

Players(sorted by PPG leaders)

Anthony Mason Jr.
-At the beginning of the season we saw Mason Jr. projected as a mid second round pick for the 2009 NBA draft but Mason is no longer listed and its for good reason. Mason still lacks focus and consistency while playing too soft for a player his size. Mason has fallen too dependent on his outside game and has forgot that he can rock the rim. With his patented fall away shot leads to streaky shooting which is something he needs to improve on. Mason shows aggressiveness and willingness to be the man on offense which is something this team desperately needs but now he needs to focus on doing it better. Mason needs to realize his importance of hitting the boards harder only averaging 3.7 boards a game.

Grade: B-

Justin Burrell
-Justin is one of my favorite players to watch but he is a freshman. There has been a great deal of pressure put on Justin’s shoulders this season to be a major producer and thats some what unrealistic. At the beginning of the season we saw butter fingers Burrell dropping passes left and right but now we see a player confidently taking 15 footers and pretty ones at that. Justin shows great poise and discipline on defense and I can’t remember him leaving his feet once this season on a pump fake. Justin needs to have more of a passion for grabbing rebounds and take pride in being a double double man.

Grade: B

Larry Wright
-Perhaps the fans have shown the most applause this season when this guy stands from the bench and goes to the scorers table. Larry Wright has been wronged this season however Larry isn’t undeserving of criticism. Larry needs to take a page out of  Richard “Rip” Hamilton’s game book and realize there is such a thing as a midrange shot. Larry has fallen in love with the 3 ball looking like Avery Patterson this season.  36 of his past 42 shots have been three pointers and I’m not arguing too much because he has knocked down 66% of those shots however Larry you are so much more! On a bright note Larry never turns over the ball because he never dribbles.

Grade: B

Eugene Lawrence
-Everyone’s favorite ripping boy the captain Eugene Lawrence. Eugene is a friend of mine and I root for him to do well however he has been abysmal this season. I’ve tried to put myself in the shoes of Eugene Lawrence a few times this season and its been hard to find answers. Eugene is too stagnant trying to set up an offense that doesn’t exist at the top of the key wasting 10 seconds of the shot clock every possession usually resulting in a long range three with 3 ticks on the shot clock that seldomly goes in. People harp on Geno’s turnovers and they haven’t been that bad as he is at a career best 2.4 however he is like Armando Benitez having 45 saves that one season only to blow the biggest game of the year against the Braves. Geno needs to practice by himself to get himself out of this shooting funk. There is still time left to salvage a poor season but time is running out for the senior.

Grade: D+

DJ Kennedy
-The X Factor has been looking more like the Y Factor the past few games but DJ is going to be a very good player. DJ comes as advertised doing a little bit of everything. Sticking to my baseball references he is like that 4th outfielder who hit .340 for a month and everyone was like he needs to start. What usually happens to that 4th outfielder? He hits .240 the next month because his flaws become exposed and teams know he can’t hit the curve ball. This is the case with DJ as we realize he can’t dribble the basketball. It looks like someone deflated the ball a bit when he dribbles. DJ was a vital part of this team for a while due to his intangibles however with Mason back at full strength DJs intangibles aren’t enough to warrant him playing 30 min a game.

Grade: C

Paris Horne
-The spark plug off the bench hasn’t registered a steal in his past 6 games but perhaps because his playing time has been cut to 9 min a game. Paris has been one of the more consistent players on the team this season. He is shooting 48% from the floor and 79% from the charity stripe which is good for 2nd best on the team. He has knocked down 40% of his last 18 three point attempts starting the season 1-9. Paris might run the court better than anyone on our team and is hungry to run the fast break problem is we never fast break.

Grade: C

Sean Evans
-Perhaps one of the more surprising players of the team so far this season. Now I must start off saying how is Sean Evans so bad at free throw shooting? He might be the worth free throw shooter in the country at 27% and that is not a typo 27, 27, 27, 27% its really that bad. Talking with Sean before the season he is very energetic on and off the court and perhaps his hustle is what is getting him the minutes. Offensively he has improved tremendously from the first time we saw him in Queens. I still don’t like him in the game though because I think he is a horrible defender and isn’t that reason why Larry Wright doesn’t get time? Sean looks pretty good in the boxscore but when I watch the game I don’t come away saying Sean looked good today.  However no one usually looks good so might as well have him continue to develop with more time but I just wish he would either take the charge or foul hard instead of always getting caught in between for an and 1.

Grade: C

Tomas/Dele
-Maybe its not fair doing them at once but they are the two headed monster we call our center so why not group them together. I’ve been saying it all season Tomas is good in small dosages and when I say small I mean very small. TJ is the polar opposite of the energizer bunny he doesn’t go forever but is like the batter you used for your cool remote control car you got for christmas as a kid…4 min on turbo and thats it. TJ does rock a team leading 86% from the charity stripe. Our freshman counter part has shown some glimmers of the great potential we hear about. Some seriously hard stuffs and when they aren’t stuff they’re just great old school hard fouls. Although just as we start seeing these glimmers he starts getting less and less time what the hell? He is also starting to foul less too so we can’t blame that for the reduced minutes. We’ll see!

Grade: D

Malik Boothe
-Last but not least our freshman floor general who does all the things that don’t show up in the box score but count in the scoreboard. Malik has proved to me he knows how to run an offense and he is an exciting player to watch on both sides of the ball. Malik has one pitfalls its shooting the basketball but for some reason I got faith in Malik to improve there. I am an old school kind of guy and pass first PGs are right up my alley

Grade: C+

Overall Team Grades
Offense: C-
Defense: C
Intensity: C+
Discipline: C
Overall: C-
Overall Team Grades
Offense: C-
Defense: C
Intensity: C+
Discipline: C
Overall: C-