Vin Parise blog/upcoming double header

Good stuff

http://www.vphoops.com/

Beginning tonight we’ll be previewing the great local matchups that are at Madison Square Garden this weekend.  At 7:00 pm on Saturday the Rutgers Scarlet Knights take on St. John’s, and in the second part of the evening’s doubleheader - the Manhattan Jaspers take on the Iona Gaels at 9:00 pm.

Be sure to check each evening, beginning tonight with the Iona Gaels.  It won’t be your regular boring preview……we’ll have some good quotes & tidbits along with some under the radar profiles.  And please, if you have any questions or scoop you may want answered, JUST ASK - and I’ll do my best to answer your questions.

Perhaps if you combined the talent of all 4 teams, you could put together one decent team. Most Big East teams could beat all of them at the same time.

Check out his preview

http://www.vphoops.com/

This team misses Malik Boothe’s passing tremendously.  Norm must have stated about four times last night in the press conference that his team is not handling the ball well and not moving the ball on offense with a purpose.  He was also quick to point out that they are young and will eventually improve.  This team has not caught too many breaks yet this year.  Boothe is the starting point guard and has missed seven straight games with his thumb injury….  Anthony Mason is out for the season…….Quincy Roberts has a bad ankle……and besides having a temper last night; D.J. Kennedy also has the flu.

I feel bad for Norm Roberts…..I really do.  He does not have enough talent to overcome all of these injuries and obstacles for too much longer.  But the main reason I respect Norm more than anything is how hard his kids play.  Rutgers is in for an absolute war tomorrow night.  Mike Rosario is going to get banged around as much as he did when he played Uconn.

Perhaps if you combined the talent of all 4 teams, you could put together one decent team. Most Big East teams could beat all of them at the same time.

It would be guard heavy.  My team's starters would be on talent alone with liberal substitution when some of them start putting up bad shots:

pg: scott machado
sg: mike rosario
sf: dj kennedy
pf: justin burrell
pf: gregory echinique

with paris horne first off the bench, then
Jonathan Huffman (IONA), Hamady N'Diaye (RUT), Antoine Pearson (MAN), Milan Prodanovic (IONA), Devon Austin (MAN), Sean Evans (STJ), and Mike Coburn (RUT).  If Rob and Malik are healthy, Rob is in instead of Austin, and Malik instead of Coburn.

http://www.vphoops.com/

 I was really surprised at how bad the crowd was for the first game.  St. John’s had barely any home court advantage and Rutgers usually gets more of a crowd at the Garden.

-  St. John’s should re-evaluate the pre-game introductions.  A 4 minute rap video and laser light show doesn’t look that good in a 3/4 empty Madison Square Garden.

- While sitting at press row, Gary Stanley and I had the pleasure of sitting next to the great Manhattan radio team of Ed Cohen and former coach Brian Mahoney.  About 5 feet away from us across from the Rutgers bench - was a man so intoxicated, you almost wanted to watch him more than the game at times.  The best part, he was completely decked out in Rutgers gear and rooted for St. John’s the entire night!  I think the fact that Rutgers was playing another team whose colors were also red and white was too much for him!  We had a good laugh more than a few times with Cohen and Mahoney about this character