The 6th Man of St. John's Basketball
On Friday, November 4th, 2011, St. John’s Media Day brought outlets from across the New York area to Carnessecca Arena to get a closer look at the 2011-2012 Red Storm.
(Photos Dave Krupinski/JohnnyJungle.com)
Media Present
Lenn Robbins – New York Post
Roger Rubin – New York Daily News
Marc Ernay – 1010 WINS Radio
Deborah Harris – Rivals
Quinn Rochford and Tim Dimas – SB Nation
The Torch – St. John’s Student Newspaper
WRED TV – St. John’s Student Television
WSJU – St. John’s Student Radio
St. John’s finally takes the court for the first time in the 2010-11 season thirteen days from now when they tip off against St. Mary’s to officially commence the Steve Lavin era. However, as only its New York City locale can do, the hoopla surrounding the Johnnies and the first seven months of the Lavin administration continues to reach crescendos that had been unknown by the program since its 1999 Elite Eight appearance. The most honorable aspect of this additional media attention, you might ask? Lavin and his young charges have refused to let the publicity go to their heads for the most part, and their 46-year-old head man credits the pragmatic approach employed by world-renowned UCLA coach John Wooden and newly minted special assistant Gene Keady as the primary reason why he and his team has remained so humble.
Game number one, which comes against a St. Mary’s team that reached the Sweet 16 a year ago and returns four of their five starters from last season (only center Omar Samhan has left) will go a long way in determining just how far the Johnnies have come this offseason. “I thought it was vital that we play a tough road game before we step into the Big East,” Lavin remarked, adding that leading a team relatively untested into conference play, “would be considered a mistake in our preparation.” St. John’s also matches up with reigning national champion Duke at the Garden, and heads to Pauley Pavilion on February 5th for the much-anticipated Lavin homecoming at Westwood against UCLA, but Lavin and his players are still preparing for their exhibition game Saturday night against Westmont College, whose head coach John Moore is Lavin’s brother-in-law, married to Steve’s sister, Rachel.
When I asked Lavin about the daunting task the schedule appears to be on the surface, he was brutally honest with me, and indirectly admitted that although he takes it one game at a time, the Red Storm’s ledger this season might be a little ambitious for a younger team. “This will be the most difficult schedule that I’ve ever prepared a team for in my career,” said Lavin. “I wouldn’t want to play this schedule next year when we have eight freshmen and ten new players coming into the fold.” Having ten seniors is no typical cup of coffee in college basketball, and Lavin has already been encouraged by what he has seen in practice from his fourth-year players, who are, according to their coach, “so galvanized in their pursuit of trying to finish on a high note.”
To use one of Lavin’s favorite words, the coach remained pragmatic when addressing the fact that most, if not all of his team, needs to have a career year to make the Johnnies’ dream of climbing the ladder into a reality. While Lavin insisted more than one player needs to be at his personal best all season, he singled out Justin Brownlee as a player capable of having a breakout season. Lavin’s testimonial didn’t stop there, as he lauded the former junior college standout as being one of the more gifted players on the squad; adding that Brownlee and promising freshman Dwayne Polee as being able to play four positions on the hardwood.
Not only does Lavin need his players to have career years, he needs the revitalized St. John’s fan base to step its game up as well. “Any program that starts to make a move up the ladder to become more competitive needs the energy and support of their fan base,” said Lavin at St. John’s media day this past Tuesday. “It puts the wind at your back and it makes young people feel appreciated. That’s important when you’re 18-22 years old. So we want our fan base energized. We talk about needing all hands on deck and that includes all the constituencies of the St. John’s fan base.”
At Big East media day, Marquette coach Buzz Williams appropriately described Lavin’s arrival in Queens as a “perfect storm.” Only two weeks following that quote, the storm is as intense as ever; and appears to be gathering steam with each passing day.
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Steve Lavin has been preaching since the moment he’s been hired… well, even way before that. Lavin has been omnipresent in the media, bringing exposure the St. John’s via to a wide variety of news outlets. St. John’s fans feel like he’s been a gift from God, especially after referencing the 2011 recruiting effort as building Noah’s Ark (having two of every kind of player). So far, he is delivering, getting 5 verbal commitments before he’s coached a game. .
He’s been a miracle worker so far in building a dream team coaching staff, bringing a real midnight madness back to Queens, and recruiting on a more national level than St. John’s fans have ever come to expect. I’m sure St. John’s students are going to ask him to turn water into wine pretty soon.
I could tell some reporters were getting tired holding their recorders in the air waiting for their turn as Lavin wasn’t giving quotes – he was preaching homilies.
After he was asked for the 100th time who was in his starting lineup, he turned and looked at me. I came out firing and asked Coach Lavin, “What type of brand or even characteristics do you expect to put into a Lavin coached team?” He then gave me the on-court gospel according to Lavin:
“Well, you know, we always want to be tough defensively and [have] a flexible offense – that is vital. We have to be able to adapt to our personnel. We want to run, but we want to fastbreak off of our defense. So if you’re not solid defensively you can’t talk about fast breaking. You can sell that in recruiting, and you can have bumper stickers and slogans about it, but until you get stops defensively you’re not going to be able to run out.
“In the history of the basketball you look at the great Celtic teams, the great Laker teams … you look in college basketball, the great Duke teams, UNLV, and Kentucky teams – they all ran off of their defenses. So if you’re not getting stops or shut outs you’re not going to get run outs. While we want to force the tempo offensively, we’re going to do that through being solid defensively.”
So I followed up and asked him if he was implementing his entire system with this current team or does he need to modify things to tailor to this group of players?
“We’re trying to balance implementing a system, but also moving forward in a deliberate methodical way so we don’t give our players too much. In other words: at times less is more. We’d rather master blocking and tackling of basketball in terms of our stance defensively, our principles on the defensive end. In our staff meetings we discuss that challenge.
“How do we implement a system to get ready to play for St. Mary’s, yet not undermine the natural progression and the natural laws of learning? And that means you need time. I’m confident because we have a great team of teachers and highly accomplished individuals in the game of basketball. Our staff meetings are very lively and productive and I think our players will benefit.”
These two answers took almost 5 minutes in recorded time. I could feel bodies pushing up behind me like I was front row at a Bruce Springsteen concert. I had another question but 20 reporters yelled “Coach” after he finished speaking and his attention was diverted. I ducked under the out stretched arms of the crowd knowing I’d see Coach Lavin again soon enough. Lavin was busy spreading more of his good news to the rest of the world.
When Steve Lavin replaced Norm Roberts at St. John’s seven months ago, anyone who was remotely affiliated with St. John’s basketball realized immediately that positive changes were in store. Yesterday morning’s Big East media day proved no exception to the recent status quo in Queens, as Lavin was surrounded by hundreds of reporters, radio personnel and various other media members at Madison Square Garden for well over an hour. In fact, Lavin’s massive popularity kept him at the St. John’s table for an extra twenty minutes after his radio and print media session ended; and although late for the TV portion of the event, the extroverted head coach continued to stop and engage anyone who came within his field of vision on the way up the stairs.
Although there were more than enough nuggets from Coach Lavin himself to fill this post, (I’ll have some of those in a future edition of the Daly Dribble) the comments provided to me from Lavin’s sideline counterparts were just as beneficial in shedding some light on the increased expectations the Johnnies are now seeing for themselves.
Villanova head coach Jay Wright and UConn’s Jim Calhoun were the first to herald St. John’s experience. Calhoun said it would “carry them a long way. Always has, always will,” while Wright said the Johnnies “know what it takes to win,” and thinks “they’ll be a very good team.”
Mike Brey, the Notre Dame coach whose Fighting Irish team has lost to St. John’s in each of the last two years, was somewhat relieved to be welcoming the Johnnies into the Joyce Center in South Bend. Brey praised Lavin’s arrival and said he “inherits a team of experienced guys,” and that “he’ll do a very good job.” Brey also stated what Red Storm fans feel to be obvious when he proclaimed that there was “new life around the program.” West Virginia head man Bob Huggins complimented Lavin’s past recruiting record, which was on full display this past weekend with newcomer Dwayne Polee, who has made quite an impact since coming to the Queens campus.
Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim, whose Orange squad heads into the Garden to tip off against the Johnnies on January 12, praised Lavin’s experience as well. “I think Steve’s going to do a great job. He’s got a lot of veterans, which is going to help him.” Boeheim also commented on Lavin’s marquee status being able to draw fans into the “World’s Most Famous Arena,” a venue that usually serves as a de facto home game for Syracuse. “When we play St. John’s here, there probably won’t be so much orange,” said Boeheim after I reminded him that nearly every Syracuse game at the Garden provides a sea of orange as the backdrop in the stands.
The most interesting and brutally honest commentary came from Louisville coach Rick Pitino, who created somewhat of an added buzz when it was revealed that he was the one coach who picked the Johnnies first in the Big East preseason poll, a vote won by Pittsburgh. “I’m just trying to throw something against the wall and hope it sticks,” gushed Pitino, who gave the story more juice by saying he “made that pick before Steve (Lavin) came along, and now that he’s come along, I’m happy with my pick.” Pitino emphasized the talent, experience and style the Johnnies have employed over the years as the reasons behind his rather surprising vote, as well as the hunger on the team considering that no St. John’s player has made the NCAA Tournament.
Fellow Big East newcomer Kevin Willard of Seton Hall spoke of creating a culture with Lavin and Rutgers head man Mike Rice that could draw high school kids to the New York area and not have them leave.
Cincinnati’s Mick Cronin went through a situation in his first year with the Bearcats similar to what Lavin will experience next year, one where almost every player graduated. Cronin did provide this great quote about Carnesecca Arena when I mentioned his team’s recent success there. “It takes the kids back to their high school days. It reminds them where they came from. It warms up pretty quick, but that doesn’t make it any easier to win,” stated the underrated Cronin, picked 12th in the Big East preseason poll.
Marquette coach Buzz Williams lauded Lavin as a “really good person” with great energy, calling his arrival a “perfect storm.” I’m not sure if there was any pun intended by Williams when he told me that, but fans of St. John’s are thinking the exact same thing.
Redstormsports.com reports that
“St. John’s will hold its annual Media Day for the Red Storm men’s and women’s basketball teams on Tuesday, Nov. 3, beginning at approximately 3 p.m. at the newly-renovated Carnesecca Arena. Approximately 50 members of the media have been credentialed for the event, and, for the first time ever, Red Storm supporters are too – thanks to StormTracker All-Access live streaming video on RedStormSports.com.
StormTracker All-Access is the official streaming video platform of St. John’s Athletics, providing live video for more than 100 sports events on campus each year, and producing more than 150 on-demand video features as well. StormTracker All-Access commentators Ralph Bednarczyk and Greg Rice will take fans behind the scenes Tuesday with live coverage from the floor of Carnesecca Arena during media day activities.
At approximately 3 p.m., St. John’s coaches Norm Roberts and Kim Barnes Arico will address the media on the court in a press conference format, and the coaches and all men’s and women’s basketball student-athletes will be available for interview sessions from approximately 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. The coaches and many of St. John’s men’s and women’s basketball players will join the All-Access commentators on-set for interviews.
The tentative Media Day schedule is as follows:
2009 St. John’s Basketball Media Day – Tuesday, Nov. 3 – Carnesecca Arena
3:00 p.m. – Head Coaches’ Press Conferences
3:30 p.m. – Interview Session I
4:00 p.m. – Interview Session II
4:30 p.m. – Media Day Ends”
You can catch all the action on Storm Tracker All-Access.