The way they were talking about it, one would think this is the start of the Big East season for St. John’s.
“I’m approaching this like we’re playing Syracuse,” said freshman guard D’Angelo Harrison. “I feel like this game is like the last game I’m ever gonna play. Everybody feels the same way. Everybody’s willing to put their life on the line to win this game.”
Post, whose campus is located in nearby Brookville, New York, is an 8,000-student school that is part of the larger Long Island University system.
They finished 21-10 overall last season, which continues a string of recent success for the program, including a 30-1 record in 2008-2009 under now-Iona head coach Tim Cluess.
As for the Red Storm, they bring their overhauled, historically youthful roster into Carnesecca Arena for the first live college action of the season and, for many players, the first of their careers.
Assistant coach Mike Dunlap has stressed St. John’s work with “dry runs” in practice, drills that use no defense, to avoid injury, but this will be the first chance the Red Storm have to put preseason work into action.
“What we want to do is see how this totally new group is going to react when playing against someone other than themselves,” said assistant coach Tony Chiles in a pregame press conference Monday night. “We need to see how they react and if they can play through their mistakes.”
In Chiles’ eyes, though this team includes six newcomers and a former walk-on, it shares some similarities with the senior-laden team that made the NCAA Tournament a season ago.
“I think it’s as important as our first game last year,” he said. “We had the same questions last year as we did last year.
“To tell you the truth, I have no idea how they’ll do. I wish I could tell you. Some days we’re out there, we look really, really good. Other days we walk out of the gym and say, ‘Whew, we keep forgetting these guys are 17 and 18 years old.”
Even the confident Harrison, with his thirty-five (yes, thirty-five) tattoos, admits that there will be something special when he takes the court Tuesday night.
“Before games, I usually listen to music and chill,” he says. “I’ll be nervous tomorrow night, though.”
St. John’s will face a Pioneers team that returns its leading scorer, senior guard Stefan Bonneau, who averaged nearly 19 points last season, on his way to winning Co-Player of the Year honors in the Eastern College Athletic Conference.
“I think they’re going to come and test their talents against a D-I team,” said Chiles. “I wouldn’t say it’s their “Super Bowl,” but they’re going to come in here and try to beat us. I expect for them to come in and really challenge us.”
Walk-ons Gerard Rivers, a 6′ freshman guard, and Samuel Sealy-James, a 6’8″ forward, will dress for the game.
Chiles says those two will are not expected to play, expect in the case of injury or fatigue in the normal rotation of eight scholarship players. The other walk-ons are still working their way through the NCAA clearinghouse.
Also not expected to be at the game is head coach Steve Lavin, who is still recovering from prostate cancer. The team continues to communicate and run practices according to Lavin’s orders, sending him video footage and corresponding via cell phone.
“Coach Lavin is in good spirits. His thumbs aren’t feeling real great because he’s been texting a lot,” said Chiles with a laugh.
As for the greater outlook on the season, it has mostly been reduced to clichés and talking points, for now. The mantras of “defense” and “practice” and “team” still abound, as this team continues to find its identity.
But there is little doubt that the confidence of these young men is not in short supply.
“I feel like the team we have now, we’ll have a spark and we can kind of bring New York back,” says Harrison, with his chin up. “Some people from the school are saying, ‘I heard three guys are out.’ And I say, “So what, I’m here, God’sgift [Achiuwa] is here, Nurideen [Lindsey] is here.’ We came here to play basketball.”