In The New Big East St. John’s Must be a Force

In the glory days of The Big East, St. John’s could hold their own with
anyone in the conference. Led by head coach Lou Carneseca, The Johnnies
went blow for blow with The Georgetown Hoyas for conference supremacy.
This culminated with The Red Storm making The Final Four in 1985. St.
John’s gave fans a tease in the late 90’s as they made The NCAA
Tournament in three consecutive seasons. In 1999 under head coach Mike
Jarvis, The Red Storm made the Elite Eight. In 2000, The Johnnies were a
#2 seed in The West Region in The NCAA Tournament only to be upset by
The Gonzaga Bulldogs in the second round. Little by little the wheels
fell off under Jarvis until he was fired in 2003 amid NCAA violations.

Steve Lavin took over in 2010 and finally got St. John’s back to The
NCAA Tournament in 2011. Lavin was forced to sit out the past season to
recover from prostate cancer. Lavin hopes to return next season as he
looks to get St. John’s back on the winning track. Lavin is one the
better recruiters in college basketball. During his tenure as the head
coach of The UCLA Bruins, Lavin was able to recruit future NBA players
such as Jason Kapono, Baron Davis, and Matt Barnes to Westwood. Lavin
has brought that same mindset to Queens as St. John’s boasted The Big
East Freshman of The Year this season in Moe Harkless. Lavin and St.
John’s stand to benefit from Pitt and West Virginia leaving the
conference. Head coaches Jamie Dixon (Pittsburgh) and Bob Huggins (West
Virginia) have relied heavily on The New York City area to land talent.
When The Mountaineers made The Final Four in 2010 they did it with a
squad full of talent from The Metropolitan Area led by De’Sean Butler
from Newark, New Jersey. Dixon has made a habit of coming to Brooklyn to
get players such as Levance Fields and Chris Taft. I am not sure if
both Dixon and Huggins can have that same success in new leagues in
recruiting New York City. St. John’s must put a blanket around the area
in not allowing the best talent to leave for other conferences.

In 2005, The Big East expanded to 16 teams with the addition of The
Marquette Golden Eagles, Cincinnati Bearcats, Louisville Cardinals,
DePaul Blue Demons, and The South Florida Bulls. Mike Tranghese was the
commissioner of The Big East and decided that the conference tournament
would only have the top 12 teams in the conference. This format was
adjusted in 2009 allowing all 16 teams to participate. This decision
might have been made in favor of St. John’s as they had become one of
the bottom feeders in Big East failing to finish in the top 12.

Lavin inherited a senior laden team in his first year that finished
fifth in the conference once again creating a buzz in New York. This was
evident when The Red Storm took on Syracuse in The Big East
Quarterfinal. Half of the fans at The Garden were clad in orange while
the other half was wearing red. It took fans back to the glory days of
the conference when Pearl Washington led Syracuse against Chris Mullin
and St. John’s. The rivalry between St. John’s and Georgetown will be
key for The Big East going forward. The conference might also be able to
generate some buzz between two Philadelphia based schools in The Temple
Owls and The Villanova Wildcats as well. In order for The Big East to
retain the powerful New York City market, they must paint the town red.