“@AdamZagoria: St. John’s Embarking on European Tour http://zagsblog.com/articles/st-johns-embarking-on-european-tour/ #stjbb”
They leave Monday.
On the recruiting front, the Johnnies remain in the mix for several bigs and wings, including 2014 centers Goodluck Okonoboh of Wilbraham & Monson (Mass.), Pascal Chukwu of Fairfield (Conn.) Prep and Adonis Dela Rosa of Christ the King.
Several onetime St. John’s targets, including Payton Dastrup of Mesa (AZ) Mountain View; Abdul Malik Abu of Kimball (N.H.) Union; Jared Terrell, Abu’s Expressions Elite teammate out of Brewster (N.H.) Academy; and Robert Johnson of Chesterfield (Va.) Benedictine have cut St. John’s from their lists.
“The 2014 class will likely be a smaller sized recruiting class relative to 2011 and 2012,” said Lavin, adding that his team has 13 players on scholarship.
“Frontline players are the priority. WE are not in a rush to sign prospects unless they are the right fit. With our roster depth we can now afford to be a bit more selective and even wait to the spring signing period to have a more precise picture of our composite roster and the specific needs to enhance our objectives.”
Everyone knows I am a homer but this mad scramble before the April signing period is going to bite Coach Lavin in the ass eventually.
If you can't get studs before, I have no problem holding all three ships until April and playing the transfer game. We might be an immediately eligible big away from a championship.
Bingo. Let's be clear Coach is not intentionally trying to land all of his recruits late. You don't think he could land a second or third tier recruit immediately? Of course he could, that is not what he is trying to do. This is not about landing kids early, this is about landing the right kids who can elevate the program. And if some of those targets don't pan out early then you wait.
You know how many kids Indiana has committed for 2014 after Blackmon de-committed? None. You think Crean is intentionally waiting or better yet you think if he wanted to land a kid early for the sake of landing a kid early he couldn't offer a kid who belongs in the MWC instead of the Big Ten and get a commitment as opposed to trying to get in the Whitehead sweepstakes late?
Can Coach at least ASSEMBLE a recruiting class before we judge how good or bad a recruiting class is? Unless you honestly think he won't land ANYONE...
One other funny thing, not that I think he needs him, but I recall a lot of posters being against Coach trying to hire Barry Rohrrsen after he was fired at Manhattan because the consensus was that Coach does not need help in recruiting. But almost every year there is incessant complaining about his....recruiting? Ish Wainright, Jarrell Martin, Rico Gathers, Darrick Wood, Chris McCullough etc all failed to make it to Queens.
And after all that he has assembled the most talented SJU team in more then a decade. Or as Jon Rothstein says the "the most talented team in the Big East not even close."
Relax a lot of time and a lot of scenarios before we think of hitting the panic button.