http://www.newsday.com/sports/columnists...954.column

last great player at St. Johns was Ron Artest- alocal product.

Before that, they had Philipe Lopez- a local high school phenon that was a total bust on the college level. Lopez came out of high school to the cover of Sports Illustrated. He carried St Johns to the NCAa tournament once- in his senior year. I think they lost in the first round to Dayton.
Artest kept the Duke/St Johns series competitive. Ever wonder why Coach K schedules St. Johns in NYC for all those years? You got it- He's recruiting. Probably inviting prospects to the garden to watch Duke dismember St. Johns and then choose which coach they want to play for.
Why St. Johns can't find good five ball players in NYC is a mystery. Their facilities must really suck.


Also the writer left Rutgers out of the mix. Oh well, I guess they don't really matter this year anyway unless you are talking about the women. These are dark days for BB in NYC. Thank God for the Yankees and the Giants too.

The Yankees? They'll finish behind the Red Sox again this year.

He could't throw Wagner a little plug.

Mike Jarvis was a great on court coach, tough to replace a guy like that.

esayem Wrote:Mike Jarvis was a great on court coach, tough to replace a guy like that.

Mike Jarvis ran an already shaky Redmen program right off the tracks. In many ways they still haven't got on track.

Four years ago, the two teams picked to challenge for 16th place, were Georgetown and St. John's.Georgetown went from last to first in three years.
St. John's moved from 16th to 12th.

Felipe Lopez couldn't match the hype as the #1 rated HS player but I wouldn't exactly call him a bust. He finished as the third all time scorer in St. John's history. He entered St. John's with Zendon Hamiliton and Tarik Turner. They all put up decent to good statistics for their careers but were unable to win a national championship. In relation to the hype/expectations/national ranking of that recruiting class, they were a bust, but that had as much to do with coaching and the team as a whole than their individual careers.

The current state of St. John's goes beyond facilities and the causes are open to debate, ie recruiting from current staff, coaching, administration leadership, desire for NYC kids to leave the area, etc.

Lopez info http://redstormsports.cstv.com/sports/m-...names.html

Felipe Lopez finished his St. John's career as the third all-time leading scorer, behind fellow NBA stars Chris Mullin and Malik Sealy, with 1,927 points. He recorded a final average of 16.9 points per game while playing in 114 games in his four year St. John's career.

Lopez's statistics are among the top 10 in nearly every offensive category. He ranks second in career 3-point field goals made with 148, fifth in total field goals with 670, second in field goal attempts with 1,615, seventh in free throws made (439), fifth in free throw attempts (667), ninth in steals with 135 and first in three-point field goal attempts with 500. A former McDonald's All-American, Lopez was the number one rated player in the country in 1994 out of Rice High School in the Bronx. He will forever be remembered as one of the classiest players, on-and-off the court, to ever wear the St. John's uniform.

Felipe Lopez's Career Statistics
Year G FG-FGA Pct. FT-FTA Pct. Reb. Avg. Pts. Avg.
1994-95 28 166-404 .411 131-174 .753 160 5.7 498 17.8
1995-96 27 156-384 .406 99-145 .683 168 6.2 437 16.2
1996-97 27 142-349 .407 119-192 .620 183 6.8 430 15.9
1997-98 32 206-478 .431 90-157 .573 152 4.8 562 17.6
Totals 114 670-1,615 .415 439-667 .658 663 5.8 1,927 16.9

I remember Jarvis and a top 10 team. If he was still there they'd be in the tourney.

esayem Wrote:I remember Jarvis and a top 10 team. If he was still there they'd be in the tourney.

Yeah, that is why he is an analyst for ESPN now instead of coaching somewhere else. The guy ruined the St. John's program, that is why they are at the level they are at now.

esayem Wrote:I remember Jarvis and a top 10 team. If he was still there they'd be in the tourney.

Please tell me you are joking. Jarvis is a fat slob and a joke of a coach who cheats. The only thing worse than his accent when he calls games is his ethics.

esayem Wrote:I remember Jarvis and a top 10 team. If he was still there they'd be in the tourney.

Except that Jarvis cheated. And even if he didn't, he lost total control of that program. Or have you forgotten the Strip Club scandal of 2004?

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.ht...A9629C8B63

http://media.www.dailyorange.com/media/s...0292.shtml

And yes, it happened after he was dismissed, but the seeds of that whole entire mess started with him.

If you check my first post I said he was a great on court coach. Check his stats against ranked teams. I remember him knocking off UMass when they were elite. He could coach, he may not have been so nice off the court. If SJU could get O'Brien that would be great, but they really can't because they just hired that other dude.

esayem Wrote:I remember Jarvis and a top 10 team. If he was still there they'd be in the tourney.

he had problems recruiting locally and apparently was alienating the local AAU and high school coaches. he became more and more dependent on JUCOs. Jarvis isn't the sole reason for the current state of St. John's basketball, but he certainly contributed. Personally, I feel like there has been a compounding of errors before and after Jarvis on the part of the school.

The only thing St. John's is going to get is a whipping. It arrives on Saturday.

trephin Wrote:Felipe Lopez couldn't match the hype as the #1 rated HS player but I wouldn't exactly call him a bust. He finished as the third all time scorer in St. John's history. He entered St. John's with Zendon Hamiliton and Tarik Turner. They all put up decent to good statistics for their careers but were unable to win a national championship.

You make very good points about Lopez but I wanted to cut your quote here at national championship. They couldn't even make the NCAA tournament until Lopez' senior year and then they wnt out in the first round. Lopex played in just one NCAA tournament game. An unworthy NCAA legacy for a decent offensive player like Lopez.

St John's is a perfect example of why the Big East needs to split. The old Big East was small east coast catholic schools that played basketball only. Now the Big East is a football conference and a school like St John's is no different than Hofstra. Seton Hall, Providence and St John's should move basketball to the atlantic ten. The enrollment numbers are more similar. Big East is more large schools now.

OUBOBCATJOHN Wrote:St John's is a perfect example of why the Big East needs to split. The old Big East was small east coast catholic schools that played basketball only. Now the Big East is a football conference and a school like St John's is no different than Hofstra. Seton Hall, Providence and St John's should move basketball to the atlantic ten. The enrollment numbers are more similar. Big East is more large schools now.

Not sure what you mean here. St. John's has close to 20k in enrollment. It's second in enrollment in the BE for the 'BB schools' behind DePaul (~ 23,500). Gtown has the 3rd largest at 13,600 so there's quite a gap between them. SJU is bigger than all of the A10 schools except GW, Temple, UMass, and UNCC. I agree that Seton Hall (~ 10k) and Providence (~ 4k) have enrollment numbers more in line with the A-10.