The first major test for the freshman-laden 2011-2012 Red Storm has been announced, and it comes against a team that knows a thing or two about having talented first-year players.
On December 1st, 2011, St. John’s will travel to Rupp Arena in Lexington to take on coach John Calipari and the reloaded Kentucky Wildcats as part of the 2011 Big East/SEC Challenge.
“Facing UK at Rupp Arena in front of a raucous crowd will be a valuable experience in preparation for BIG EAST Conference play,” said head coach Steve Lavin in a press release. “Coupled with our conference slate and our participation in the 2K Sports Classic, this diverse and rigorous schedule will present an outstanding challenge for the youngest team in the country.”
Calipari, who is one of only two coaches to lead three different programs to the Final Four, will go head-to-head with Lavin, the face of a rejuvenated St. John’s program.
St. John’s, with its six Top 100 commitments and two highly-regarded junior college transfers, is ranked third overall in the ESPNU team rankings. Not to be outdone, Kentucky, for the third season in a row, has the highest-ranked class in the country.
The Wildcats’ group of four freshman (all of whom were McDonald’s All-Americans) will include the nation’s top-ranked small forward, power forward, and point guard in the Class of 2011, to go along with returning stars Doron Lamb and Terrence Jones.
The Red Storm, on the other hand, have a mix of very good (but not yet elite) quality, and, obviously, a great deal of quantity.
So, the stage will be set on December 1st. Two top-level coaches, two young, athletic, talented teams, and one chance, on national television, to get a big non-conference win for their tournament resume.
It is interesting to see, at face value, how much these two teams have in common, most prominently, their coaches.
After six years and no NCAA appearances under coach Norm Roberts, St. John’s fired Roberts and hired Steve Lavin in the Spring of 2010. In his first season in Queens, Lavin took his Red Storm to their first NCAA Tournament appearance in nearly a decade and reenergized a fanbase that had been dormant for nearly as long.
Following a 40-27 stint in Lexington and a missed NCAA Tournament in 2009, Kentucky fired head coach Billy Gillespie and made Calipari the highest paid coach in college basketball, averaging $4 million dollars per year for eight years. In Calipari’s first season, he took a supremely talented roster, one that included five first-round picks in the 2010 NBA Draft, to the Elite Eight, before losing to West Virginia.
Both coaches have experience recruiting and coaching future NBA talent, Lavin with a list that includes Baron Davis, Earl Watson, and Trevor Ariza, and Calipari with Derrick Rose, Tyreke Evans, and John Wall.
Both have also had success in the NCAA Tournament. At UCLA, Lavin took four teams to the Sweet Sixteen and one to the Elite Eight. As was mentioned above, Calipari has taken three programs to the Final Four, though two have been vacated due to NCAA violations.
As far as the talent on these teams, the youth cannot be understated.
St. John’s will have just one upperclassman and no seniors on the roster, and, with DeAndre Liggins declaring for the 2011 NBA Draft, there are only two seniors in the regular rotation for the Wildcats.
The typical mass exodus of Kentucky freshman was to a lesser extent this season, with only Brandon Knight departing from the Class of 2010, which means NBA-ready talent will return to Lexington.
The Red Storm situation is unique, with nine seniors leaving and, basically, a whole new roster coming in. In comparison, they are two different ways to come to the same end.
This matchup is already shaping up to be a track meet. There will be two incredibly athleticism teams, both well-coached meeting up in Lexington.
These two teams have not played since 2000, when St. John’s won 62-61 at the Garden, behind 21 points from Anthony Glover and 18 from point guard Omar Cook.
“It is a unique opportunity for St. John’s to have a non-conference schedule that includes matchups against three of the most-storied programs in the history of college basketball in Kentucky, UCLA and Duke,” said St. John’s head coach Steve Lavin.
Kentucky is the all-time winningest program in NCAA basketball history and St. John’s is the seventh. Perhaps this matchup at Rupp Arena in the cold of December will ignite a new-age rivalry that could carry on into the future.
[…] a rigorous non-conference schedule. (Photo: Icon/SMI Select)After taking the bold step to face Kentucky on the road at Rupp Arena on December 1st and taking on the University of Detroit in a game sure to remind fans […]