St. John's elevates Joe Tartamella

It didn't take long for St. John's to recover from the unexpected departure of Kim Barnes Arico. In fact, it took about six days for the Red Storm to settle on her successor.

The school didn't have to look far as associate head coach Joe Tartamella was elevated to the top post on Friday. The decision to promote the St. James native was made on Thursday evening.

Truth be told, it was the right decision. Tartamella was more than just a recruiter, he had a hand in everything that went on in the program. For nine years, including the last four as associate head coach, Tartamella worked behind the scenes to get many of its players to sign on, including current stars Da'Shena Stevens, Shenneika Smith and Nadirah McKenith.

His knowledge of the region and familiarity with the program made him the right fit.

“You’d like to have continuity, but you have to have the right person to be able to take advantage of that," said St. John's athletic director Chris Monasch. "The beauty of this is, it’s stabilizing to the current players, it’s stabilizing to this year’s recruiting class and we don’t lose stride, we don’t lose a step, we just keep going."

The players breathed a sigh of relief when they found out the new head coach was a familiar face.

“We feel relieved because we really didn’t know what was going on. I’m very excited and I’m very happy that Joey T is going to be our coach," said junior point guard Nadirah McKenith. "He recruited the Fab 5 when we came in as freshmen. There are only four of us now, but he recruited us so he knows the program and he’s been here for a while and he knows our style of play.”

With Tartamella's knowledge of the roster and the program overall, the transition should be smooth and seamless.

All of the positive talk aside, the Smithtown High School graduate has big shoes to fill. St. John's (24-10) is fresh off a record-breaking season where it made national headlines after knocking off Connecticut on the road and halting its 99-game homecourt winning streak.

The Red Storm followed that up with a trip to the NCAA Sweet 16 for the first time in program history. St. John's finished 14th in the final AP Top 25 and 15th in the coaches poll. With six of its top seven scorers and rebounders returning, including four starters, the Red Storm could begin next season as a top 10 program.

Tartamella said he's ready for the challenge.

"We've built this program from where it was 10 years ago to now," said Tartamella. "It's a completely different team, different program, different mindset and we are not going backwards. We will stay where we are and of course, try to get past that next round."