St. John's To Open Lavin Era At Saint Mary's [Redstormsports.com]

St. John's new head coach Steve Lavin is giving fans a reason to wake up in the early morning hours on Nov. 16 - his Red Storm coaching debut on national television.

ESPN revealed the schedule for its third annual College Hoops Tip-Off Marathon for Tuesday, Nov. 16, and Lavin's new squad is a part of it. St. John's will take on 2010 NCAA Tournament participant Saint Mary's (Calif.) at the Gaels' home in Moraga, Calif., on Tuesday, Nov. 16 at 2 a.m. E.T. The matchup is the second game slated as part of the 12 live college basketball games in 24 consecutive hours on ESPN. With four participating teams, the BIG EAST is the most-represented conference in the marathon.

"Opening our season at St. Mary's in a nationally-televised matchup on ESPN is an outstanding early-season test to gauge where we are as a team," said Lavin. "The Gaels return four starters from a team that went to the Sweet 16, and McKeon Pavilion is a hostile environment for opponents. A contest like this will pay great dividends in preparing our team for the rigors of the BIG EAST."

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The complete St. John's men's basketball schedule, with non-conference opponents, dates, times and television information, will be released with the rest of the BIG EAST conference basketball schedules at a later date this fall. The complete non-conference schedule will be released later in the summer.

Read More: http://www.redstormsports.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/081610aaa.html

Seems to me that St Mary's lost two starters, Samham and Ben Allen, the big Aussie. 

Seems to me that St Mary's lost two starters, Samham and Ben Allen, the big Aussie. 

Samham was a huuuuuuuge part of their team too.  I think he was a 20 an 10 guy.  I'm not sure what size they return, but I know they had a ton of perimeter players coming back.

Can we take em?!?!

looked quick at a few box scores Sanham seemed like their best player. He played over 30 + per game. Leading scorer. Ben Allen was thier starting center. From a few box scores he did well. He also played alot over 25 +. I know I had them going to sweet 16 in tournament( which they did) but I don't even remember who they played. They have a big home court advantage. Last year they did lose early to schools from bigger confernces. I know I am calling in sick the 17th. It should be a great game.

We can take em, they graduated 3 of their top 5 scorers. Their offense ran entirely through Sanham. They're about the same size as us, but their play style will have to alter because if anyone remembers how they played Nova in the tourney last year, Sanham slowed them up and was able to dominate in the half court. If they try to play us in the half court, we've got to respond by just running them out of the gym. St. Mary's has been a force to be reckon with for the past few years and it will be tough going out west, but if Lavin is the coach that we brought him in here to be this is a game that he has to win not only for RPI jump but just to build up confidence. We got alot of big names coming in to the Garden this year, we need these road games.

I think the biggest question mark to this game is whether I go to a bar at 2am to watch it or if I watch it at home and drink my own beer

Re three of top 5 scorers being gone I think Hunter is back on medical redshirt but I'm not sure.  For sure Samham and Allen are gone.

Am i the only one surprised about this game? Nov 16 we playing in cali and then Nov 23 we are in Alaska for the tournament. So what will we do for that week off? Is there another game in between? Or will they fly back? 3 trips to the west coast in one year seems a bit much