STF Fan Rant: Trouble At St John's

by Dave K. from Johnny Jungle

St. John's had a great deal of buzz coming into the season, with a highly touted recruiting class of seven players entering the program, which desperately needed a shot in the arm. Entering year four of the Norm Roberts era, many saw this as a real measuring stick of where the program has come under his tutelage.

Let me start off by saying that watching St. John's basketball is an expensive habit, because our ticket prices are very high. $15 for students and $35-85 for non-students in addition to the poor play. You can't help yourself but to have at least two $8 beers at the Garden to ease the pain. No wonder why we only fill the Garden to 25-30% capacity.

Fans question if we truly run an offense, and I'm here to tell them that we do. For example one of our most commonly ran plays is our PG will dribble at the top of the key and wait till the shot clock hits around 20, we'll run some type of keep away game passing it around the perimeter until it gets back into the hands of the PG where he steps out a little past NBA range and hoists up a 3 pointer as time expires on the shot clock. Our coach said to expect a much more uptempo team this season and its quite evident by this play that happens at least twice a game.

If for some reason we are doing well and have a lead its common to see 4 sometimes even 5 players go to the scorers table waiting for the next dead ball. After these subs occur we usually let the other team run off at least 12-15 points before we score our next basket to find ourselves down double digits. If we so happen to call a timeout our plays coming out of them are largely unsuccessful usually resulting in a turnover and fast break dunk the other way.

There are some bright spots on our team like Larry Wright who is lights out from 3 point range and you would think he would be the cure to our offensive woes except he doesn't play! Coach has buried him on the bench giving him 10-15mpg if lucky. Usually the only time you hear applause at a St. John's game this season is when Larry stands up from the bench to check in the place goes crazy despite the fact we're usually losing. What is not to like about the kid though? He has a 38'' vertical and has a silky smooth J from anywhere on the court.

Anthony Mason Jr. missed the first 6 games due to a sprained ankle but looks back to form with back to back 29 point games and is trying to keep his NBA hopes alive despite playing on such a poor team. Justin Burrell our best freshman is going to be a serious impact player in the Big East but is struggling this season because we fail to give him the ball enough partly due to double teams he is drawing. We have no other post presence besides Burrell and its quite obvious that opposing teams pay no attention to our centers and primarily focus on Burrell.

The future looks bright in New York though because we have no where to go but up. There is a good amount of young talent that continues to develop, and remember UConn failed to make the Big East Tournament last year and they might give Georgetown a run for their money to win it all this year.

The question that remains for all St. John's fans is if Norm Roberts is the man for the job or not? He runs a clean program and is a good honest man but he is terrible x's and o's guy. The team saw their worst fall semester in the past decade in the standings but the team saw the best GPA in school history. What's more important to the St. John's administration? I know the fans have ranted every game with their opinion in the form of Boooooo's. Another season goes by and we're still left saying, "Maybe next year"