On campus

The pieces are falling into place for St. John’s coach Steve Lavin, who landed the most important one yet when Philadelphia point guard Rysheed Jordan verbally committed to the Red Storm Thursday morning. With the help of top recruiter Tony Chiles, Lavin essentially wooed Jordan out from under the nose of Temple coach Fran Dunphy as well as third finalist UCLA, Lavin’s former employer.

That’s...

St. John’s coach Steve Lavin found it difficult to reflect on the end of the traditional Big East conference in the immediate aftermath of the Red Storm’s 66-53 second-round loss to Villanova in the league tournament Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden. And really, Lavin has just three years coaching in the league and sat out most of last season recovering from prostate cancer surgery.

But...

Everyone on St. John’s was crushed when Marquette’s Vander Blue drove for the winning layup in the Golden Eagles' 69-67 overtime victory in the regular-season finale Saturday at Madison Square Garden. But no one took it harder than Sir’Dominic Pointer.

Ordinarily, Pointer (No. 15 pictured) would have been assigned to cover Blue, but he was suspended for a game for throwing a...

Operating without departed Moe Harkless to relieve the defensive pressure this season, St. John’s leading scorer D’Angelo Harrison has struggled mightily in a couple of big spots. On Feb. 2 in Washington, Harrison recorded the first 0-fer of his collegiate career with a 0-for-9 shooting performance at Georgetown, and he came close on Sunday in St. John’s 63-47 loss to Pitt in which he made just...

St. John’s coach Steve Lavin playfully took issue with the notion that his emotional outburst during the Red Storm’s recent win over South Florida was something out of the ordinary. Guard D’Angelo Harrison described it as “blowing a gasket,” but Lavin said that was one of a series of blown gaskets and added that he’s probably broken five clipboards this season.

“All along the line, gaskets...

On the surface, St. John’s did what it had to do in dispatching South Florida, 69-54, Wednesday night at Carnesecca Arena. If the Red Storm wanted to have any chance of receiving an NCAA bid, it had to win the most winnable game left on its regular-season schedule against the worst team in the Big East.

It wasn’t pretty in the second half. After taking a 22-point lead, the Red Storm (16-10,...

St. John’s three-guard offense essentially was reduced to a one-guard offense by Georgetown in its 68-56 victory over the Red Storm on Saturday afternoon at Washington’s Verizon Center. D’Angelo Harrison was held to a career-low two points, and Jamal Branch suffered a left knee sprain with just over 17 minutes to go after scoring only two points, leaving only Phil Greene among the starting backcourt...

Steve Lavin’s dream of having Moe Harkless and JaKarr Sampson together on the floor at Carnesecca Arena finally came true Tuesday afternoon. The only problem is that, while freshman Sampson was practicing, Harkless was just dropping in for a visit while in the area with the Orlando Magic.

St. John’s first “one-and-done” player was drafted 15th by Philadelphia last spring and then traded in...

Barring injury, St. John's sophomore guard D'Angelo Harrison should pass the 1,000-point mark for his young career in the next three or four games. He scored 24 Sunday afternoon at Madison Square Garden to lead the Red Storm's 71-67 win over Seton Hall and push his career total to 940 points.

Harrison said he's not thinking about that benchmark number because he's focused on winning enough...

St. John’s center Chris Obekpa remains the shot-blocking leader in NCAA Division I with an average of 4.83 per game, but it might be hard to maintain that pace now that he has moved from the starting lineup to a more limited role off the bench. The Red Storm (11-7, 3-3 Big East) has won two straight since coach Steve Lavin chose to go with a three-guard lineup with Jamal Branch starting in...