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...

Two St. John's men's basketball players and one Notre Dame player were suspended for a game each following a fight at the end of their game Tuesday.

Sir'Dominic Pointer of St. John's and Notre Dame's Cameron Biedscheid were both ejected immediately after exchanging blows at the end of Notre Dame's 66-40 win in Souith Bend, Ind. Amir Garrett of St. John's was also ejected or leaving the bench.

By...

No matter how many times the NCAA reviews the eligibility case of St. John’s forward Orlando Sanchez, it keeps coming to back to the same conclusion – under a rule that says any organized basketball activity after the age of 21 constitutes a year of eligibility, the three-minute, 38-second appearance Sanchez made with the Dominican Republic national team in 2010 counts as one full year.

In...

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 University

Last year: 8-7

Coach: Jason Miller (29-54)

Players to Watch: A: Big East preseason player of the year Kieran McArdle (28 goals, 32 assists), Kevin Cernuto (24,11). M: Dillon Ayers (65 groundballs), Brandon Ayers (21), Ryan Fitzgerald (13 g, 3 a). D: Joe Addona (19 groundballs, 16 caused turnovers) G: Jeff Lowman; Face-off: Jordan Rothman (.508 percent, 59...

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...