http://www.redstormsports.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/120712aab.html• Steve Lavin and his young St. John’s basketball team (6-3) make their 2012-13 Madison Square Garden debut on Saturday, taking on local squad Fordham (1-7) of the Atlantic 10 at 7 p.m. as part of the MSG Holiday Festival presented by Foot Locker. The one day doubleheader, which features Rutgers vs. Iona in the nightcap, will air live in the New York area on MSG+. Don LaGreca and Vin Parise will call the action, with Steve Gelbs on the sideline and Jon Rothstein at the half. The matchup can be heard live on the official radio flagship of St. John’s Basketball, Bloomberg Radio 1130-AM, and on RedStormSports.com (subscription), with veteran play-by-play announcer John Minko and Tim O’Toole.
• Lavin returns in 2012-13 after posting a 2-2 record last season while making a full recovery from prostate cancer surgery (Oct. 6, 2011). Dr. Peter Scardino of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center placed Lavin on a modified schedule in 2011-12 that kept him off the sideline, enabling Lavin to better focus on a full recuperation, while simultaneously securing the No. 8 recruiting class in the nation per HoopScoop.com. St. John’s 2012 recruiting class is comprised of eight standout student-athletes representing five countries. The highly-acclaimed group followed a 2011 class ranked No. 3 nationally by ESPN. Lavin is 29-17 at St. John’s.
• According to RPIRankings.com (Dec. 6), St. John’s owns a current RPI of 45, with a strength of schedule of 32 and non-conference SOS of 35 (5-0 home; 1-1 road; 0-2 neutral).
• St. John’s plays in its 47th Holiday Festival, having participated regularly since 1952. The Red Storm is now 70-38 all-time and owns 15 championships. St. John’s is 400-269 (.598) all-time at “The World’s Most Famous Arena,” which has served as a home court for St. John’s basketball for more than 77 years. STJ looks to improve upon a 4-8 mark from 2011-12.
• Freshman JaKarr Sampson led all scorers with a career-high 22 points, but St. John’s shot just 39.7 percent (25-of-63) from the floor and saw its four-game winning streak snapped with an 81-65 loss at San Francisco on Tuesday. D’Angelo Harrison added 14 points to help pace the Red Storm, which trailed by just three points, 59-56, with 7:41 to play.
• St. John’s is 62-21 against Fordham all-time after a 56-50 victory in last year’s Holiday Festival on Dec. 17. Harrison led the Red Storm with 16 points, while eventual BIG EAST Rookie of the Year Moe Harkless contributed 13 with 16 rebounds. The Rams rank as STJ’s eighth-most frequently played opponent with 83 all-time meetings in a series that dates to 1909.
Storm Tracker
• Preseason All-BIG EAST Second Team selection D’Angelo Harrison is currently the league’s second-leading scorer at 20.9 points per game, and his 84.8 percent success rate at the free throw line ranks fifth among all BIG EAST players. The three-time BIG EAST Honor Roll member’s 2.3 made 3-pointers per game are tied for fifth in the conference, he holds the team lead and is listed 13th in the league with a 1.8 steals per game average, and his 34.4 minutes per game rank 10th in the conference. He is currently firing at a rate of 43.8 percent from the field and a 35.6 mark from beyond the arc. He has reached the 20-point plateau in seven of St. John’s first nine games.
• Second-year guard Phil Greene IV is making an early run as the BIG EAST’s Most Improved Player. After averaging 7.6 ppg as a freshman, he is currently firing at an 11.3 ppg clip and showing his ability as a dynamic scorer and playmaker. His 3.6 assists per game rank tied for 15th among all BIG EAST players and his 1.9 assist-to-turnover ratio is tied for 11th.
• Sophomore swingman Amir Garrett closed out 2011-12 with 14-straight starts as part of the “Fresh Five.” Garrett spent the offseason in professional baseball as a left-handed pitcher within the Cincinnati Reds minor league system. This season he is averaging 7.2 ppg and 6.4 rebounds with an impressive .532 field goal percentage that ranks 14th in the BIG EAST.
• Motor City sophomore Sir’Dominic Pointer averaged 6.6 ppg in 2011-12 and his 4.6 rebounds per game average ranked fourth on the team. The Red Storm’s best on-ball defender is 16th in the BIG EAST with a 1.4 steals per game average, and recently scored a season-high 15 points with eight boards, six assists, three blocks and two steals against Florida Gulf Coast (Nov. 24).
• The No. 31 overall prospect in the Class of 2011, JaKarr Sampson has begun to display his prowess with a team-high 6.6 rpg to go along with 13.6 ppg and a pair of preseason dunks that were selected as ESPN SportsCenter Top 10 plays. Sampson’s rebounding and scoring averages rank 19th and 16th, respectively, in the BIG EAST, and his 1.6 rejections are 12th.
• A game-changing shotblocker who craves defense, 6-9 Chris Obekpa averaged 13.0 rebounds and 9.0 blocks per game as a high school senior on Long Island. The Nigerian native with the 7-5 wingspan led STJ with a school-record eight blocked shots in the victory vs. Detroit (Nov. 13), and is averaging a BIG EAST-leading 4.2 rejections per contest, good for fourth in the nation.
• Athletic wing Felix Balamou earned his first start vs. Florida Gulf Coast (Nov. 24) and will continue to see game action. In the last seven games he has averaged 5.6 ppg, connecting on 16-of-29 field goals (.552) while also contributing 2.1 rpg and 1.0 bpg.
• The final member of Lavin’s eight-man recruiting class, freshman Christian Jones was the surprise of the preseason. He played one postgraduate year for IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., averaging 12.0 points and 5.0 rebounds. In exhibition play he averaged 12.5 ppg on 66.7 percent shooting with 8.5 rebounds.
• JUCO transfer Orlando Sanchez will not participate Saturday as he awaits an eligibility ruling from the NCAA. Texas A&M transfer Jamal Branch is eligible for game participation as early as Dec. 16, 2012. Harvard transfer Max Hooper is eligible for game participation in 2013-14 season. All are eligible to participate in team activities, including practices and intrasquad scrimmages.
• Senior big man God’sgift Achiuwa, who averaged 9.5 ppg and 5.6 rpg in his JUCO transfer year in 2011-12, is in consideration for a redshirt season and should not see game action. Achiuwa, a member of St. John’s University’s prestigious President’s Society, is on track to graduate with a degree in administrative studies and could complete Master’s degree requirements by the end of his 2013-14 redshirt season.
On Deck
• St. John’s will meet longtime interborough rival St. Francis in the BROOKLYN HOOPS Winter Festival at the new Barclays Center on Sat., Dec. 15. The Red Storm meets the Terriers at 5 p.m. in a tripleheader, which will also feature Michigan vs. WVU at 7:30 p.m. and Fordham vs. Princeton earlier at 2:30 p.m.
Get That Outta Here!
• St. John’s leads the BIG EAST, and ranks fourth in the nation, with 8.3 rejections per game. Seven different Red Storm players have blocked a shot this season, ranging from athletic 6-4 guard Felix Balamou’s seven to imposing 6-9 center Chris Obekpa’s 38.
• In the 33-year history of the BIG EAST Conference, the Red Storm has never led the league in blocked shots, nor has St. John’s had the individual rejections leader.
• The Red Storm is led by Obekpa — the intimidating gamechanger with the 79-inch wingspan — who ranks as the league-leader with 38 rejections, is listed fourth in the nation at 4.2 blocks per outing and first nationally among freshmen. Kansas senior center Jeff Withey currently leads the nation at 5.7 blocks per game.
• Obekpa looks to become the BIG EAST’s eighth-ever freshman blocked shots leader. UConn’s Hasheem Thabeet was a freshman in 2006-07 when he averaged a league-leading 3.8 per game, and Georgetown’s Patrick Ewing was a rookie in 1981-82 when he set the pace at 3.9 swats per contest, among others.
• Obekpa already holds the St. John’s single-game record by blocking eight shots in his collegiate debut, a 77-74 victory over Detroit on Nov. 13, 2012. The prior STJ record-holder was Robert Werdann with seven vs. Hofstra on Dec. 9, 1989. The NCAA single-game record is 16, set by Mickell Gladness of Alabama A&M on February 24, 2007, against Texas Southern.
• Walter Berry holds the STJ single-season blocked shots record with 76 from 1985-86 over 36 games, an average of 2.1 per game. Obekpa is currently doubling that pace. The NCAA single-season record is 207, held by David Robinson of Navy (1986, 35 games, 5.9 per game). UK’s Anthony Davis set a new freshman record with 186 in 2012.
• JaKarr Sampson also rates among the BIG EAST’s finest at No. 12, averaging 1.6 swats per contest.
• The 1985–86 season was the first that statistics on blocks were compiled by the NCAA.
Taking Care Of The Basketball
• St. John’s is averaging only 10.9 turnovers per game, a mark that ranks third among BIG EAST programs and 22nd in the nation.
• The Red Storm, which finished dead last in BIG EAST assist-to-turnover ratio last season (0.82), is currently ranked fifth in that category and 37th nationally at 1.23.
• The squad is bolstered by Phil Greene IV’s 1.88 ATO ratio, which ranks tied with Louisville’s Peyton Siva for 11th among all league players.
• St. John’s +2.78 turnover margin also currently ranks fifth in the conference, up from a +1.28 mark in 2011-12.
• The Red Storm’s improved passing is paying off on the scoreboard as well, as St. John’s has 117 assists on 252 made baskets (46.4 percent). St. John’s 46.2 percent field goal rate ranks eighth in the league.
Scouting Fordham
• Fordham comes into Saturday’s matchup with a record of 1-7 and on a four-game losing streak, including recent road losses to 2012 NCAA Tournament participants Harvard and Lehigh. The Rams have an RPI of 309 early on the year, with the 248th toughest schedule in the nation. Their lone win of the year came against Penn as part of the Preseason NIT. The team is shooting 41 percent from the field on the year and connecting at a 32.1 percent clip from behind the arc.
• Leading the Rams on the court is junior guard Brander Frazier (15.6 ppg), who is one of three players for Fordham averaging in double figures, along with sophomore guard Bryan Smith (10.4 ppg) and senior forward Chris Gaston (11.3 ppg), a preseason first team All-Atlantic 10 selection and the team’s leading rebounder (8.7 rpg), who has missed the last five games while recovering from a knee injury. Sophomore center Ryan Canty (4.6 rpg) is the Rams’ active leading rebounder with Gaston shelved.
• The head coach of the Rams is Tom Pecora who is in his third season in the Bronx with a three-year record of 18-47. In his 12th season as a head coach overall, Pecora spent nine years at the helm of the Hofstra Pride, and has a 173-173 record as a head coach.