Red Storm Nostalgia Preview

St. John's.

I'll tell you, this is a big one to me.

As a child of the 1980's, when we were first getting ESPN and really seeing a lot of college basketball, those Georgetown-St. John's games were just legendary.  Carneseca, Mullin, Jackson, Berry, that whole NYC Basketball vibe.  It's just a huge nostalgia thing.

BG also played St. John's in some big games WAY back in the day.  BG lost to St. John's in the 1944 NIT but beat them in 1945 and 1949.  (Note:  This was when the NIT was the only post-season college basketball tournament).  Those were all Harold Anderson teams. 

Overall, BG is 3-2 against the Red Storm.  The teams last played in 1994 in the Lapchick Memorial, as BG was coached by New Yorker Jim Larranaga.

Of course, they're having some trouble lately.  It started with Mike Jarvis and then there was some success during the Lavin years and Mullin is below .500 for all three of his seasons there.  They were 4-14 in the Big East last year.

They are picked 5th by Blue Ribbon and the Coaches Poll in the Big East, which is probably in the Big Dance.  This will probably be Mullen's best team.

They opened with Loyola-MD at home and beat them 76-55.  They shot over 50% and took advantage of 24 turnovers from Loyola to win the game.

Mullin is embracing the transfer game.  He told Blue Ribbon that his NBA experience made him more able to deal with roster transition than most NCAA coaches.  That is going to need to be true, because they returned only 4 significant players from last year's team.

Nowhere is that more evident Moustapha Heron, who is a transfer from Auburn who won a late waiver to play at St. John's.  He's 6'5" and 218 and brought a 16.4/5.3 line from the SEC and was all-SEC second team.  He had 15 and 7 in the opener.  He's not a great shooter, but will be a match up issue for BG.

Their leading returning scorer is Shamorie Ponds, a 6'1" JR who scored 21 pp last year with 5 rpg and 4.7 assists.  He had 20 and 4 assists in the opener.

They also return 6'7"/230 lb F Marvin Clark II, 12.5 and 4.7, and another big win in Justin Simon who has 12.2 ppg, 7.1 rpg and 5.1 apg.  Their first player off the bench is Quinnipiac transfer Mikey Simon.  (Clark and Simon were also transfers).

Last year's team played excellent defense but was challenged offensively.  In particular, they shot the ball and rebounded poorly.  What they did do was force turnovers very effectively....and did in their opener as well.

This is probably the best team on our non-conference schedule and certainly the most marquee name.  If BG can beat St. John's, they will be on the road to making a name for themselves.

The game is part of the Legends Classic, but I have no real idea what that means.