Transfers Where are they now

With Pittsburgh on the schedule tomorrow it made me thing back to the scandal almost 5 years ago and made me think of the recruiting mess and shambles it left our program. Many 3 star recruits wouldn’t touch us after the mess and why would they when we’re not post season eligible for the ensuing two seasons. Rodney Epperson who was a pretty good player wound up having bogus transcripts never to be heard from again. His JUCO counterpart Jermaine “Murder” Maybank tore his ACL slipping while going up in a dunk contest preseason riding the pine the rest of his time here transferring with one year left of eligibility to Kansas St. where he is mostly remembered for his 27pt performance in an upset win against Kansas. Well thats really all he did there to boost his scoring average from 2.7 to 3.4. Yet if you were to ask a typical St. John’s fan he would say Maybank was tearing it up at Kansas St. Umm hardly.

In addition to Maybank we saw Dexter Gray, Cedric Jackson, Ricky Torres, Avery Patterson, and Qa’rraan Calhoun all say, “check please?” before finishing their meal.

So where are they now? Most avid fans know from day to day message board banter but really what are they doing now? Are they lighting up Kansas for 27 points or are they averaging 3.4ppg. The truth comes out.

Dexter Gray 6’7 F Iona MAAC Conference

Dexter was always a player I liked because he offered stability. He was never a flashy guy and perhaps this is why he got overlooked but he just seemed to put a consistent 10 points 5-6 rebounds every night. I loved that midrange stroke he flashed from the FT line extended as I thought he was a zone buster for a poor shooting St. John’s team. However on the other side of the ball he was a liability against Big East opponents being too small to guard PF’s and not quick enough to guard SF’s which limited his playing time.

Dexter took his game to the MAAC conference where he has enjoyed a nice career averaging that consistent 10ppg and 5rpg shooting at a high percentage but did most of his damage against out of conference teams in losing efforts. He scored 10 points or more in 11 out of the first 12 games. He only had 3 points against Louisville and 6 against Vanderbilt resting my case of when he plays big athletic opponents. Sure Dexter could have helped out front line but there isn’t much love loss here and we’d all be complaining about his 3topg he is sporting this season at least thats an improvement from his 4.3topg last season.

Cedric Jackson G 6’4 Cleveland State Horizon League

Cedric mostly known for his in your shorts defense and his ugly jumpshot was a player we all had a love/hate relationship with. Sure he was great to watch play defense but our anemic offense consequently suffered. He did force a great amount of steals however gave many of them right back with just as many turnovers and his 34% shooting percentage didn’t help win too many games either. I’m sure many don’t know about Ced Jackson/Ryan Williams who’s baby love child saga didn’t help Ced stay in Queens and perhaps some growing up and change of scenery was in order.

Cedric has seen some success after sitting out a year where he averaged 20ppg over his first 7 games getting many St. John’s fans panties in a bunch. Cedric is averaging 11ppg in his last 10 games and has come back to earth is his scoring shooting an improved 42%. Cedric has averaged 2.6 spg but like I said earlier he gives them back with his 3.9topg. We got to give credit where credit is due he has led his team in scoring and to a perfect 7-0 record in conference play and 14-5 record overall but its the Horizon League. To be fair they have produced #14 Butler who they took down last week and Milwaukee-Wisconsin which made some noise in recent NCAA tourneys playing cinderella but this isn’t exactly the Big East but you can’t argue with results. Good for Ced it seems the transfer has paid off.

Ricky Torres G 6’3 UMBC??

Ricky was the hot shot local who was supposed to make it rain from the outside but the only rainbow I’d want to have is a pack of skittles not Ricky’s jumpshot. My feeling on Ricky was he was a player you needed to let him see major minutes in order for him to be successful he was obviously uncomfortable coming off the bench seeing limited minutes. Ricky’s problem was he did nothing to warrant extending playing time with his poor attitude and laziness in practice which I witnessed first hand on a daily basis. Ricky would often skip out on team sprints making excuses and having sudden cramps that suddenly disappeared after running ended. Ricky was tight with Aaron Spears if that gives any indication. Ricky was going to play at UMBC but transferred out and his where abouts are unknown.

Avery Patterson G 6’3 Tarleton College Texas D2

Avery could stroke it from 3 point but couldn’t do anything else and didn’t even do that too well. Avery was a product of beating up on weaker competition and failing to rise up to Big East caliber ball. Avery was a pretty good defensive rebounder for a guard at his time at St. John’s but his lack of bringing anything to table besides standing on the perimeter with his hand up in the air calling for the ball. Avery the big time JUCO player went back to play for lesser competition where he can be the big fish in the small pond going to Texas to play for Tarleton College. Avery is still same old Avery scoring 15ppg on 39% shooting and the best stat is that he averages 7.5 3pt attempts a game shooting more than double the amount any other player has on the roster in fact he’s shot more 3 pointers than all other 4 starters combined. Good for Avery glad he’s cowboying it at Tarleton.

Qa’rraan Calhoun F 6’8 Barton Community College Kansas

Qa’rraan was the best freshman we had last season considering his size and versatility. We were really counting on Q to be an impact player for the Johnnies this season and lets be honest he could have righted the ship this season making St. John’s a contender in the Big East. I think Q would supersede Tomas’ 3ppg and 3rpg in the starting lineup but hey thats just me.  Q showed that he had some outside range, inside presence, could run the floor well, and was hungry for offensive boards. He is easily the only transfer who really made us bleed and perhaps the bleeding hasn’t stopped. Qa’rraan went out to Kansas to play for Barton which was the JUCO for no other than Rodney Epperson. Q has played well for Barton boasting a 16ppg scoring average, 7rpg, and more impressively 2bpg. Barton is 14-5 and seems like everyone is scoring at will with a team shooting percentage of 49% leading me to believe they are just dominating weak competition. Since conference play began the team has gone 2-4 and wouldn’t you know it but Qa’rraan lost his starting role. Perhaps his work ethic can be best shown in his 60% free throw percentage. Q has had a rep for being lazy since high school from my days of playing against him in NJ and its too bad because he has a great deal of talent and he’s really wasting it.