St. John's Midnight Madness Friday night

St. John's celebrates Midnight Madness starting at 7:30 Friday night at Carnesecca Arena with a celebration that will be televised on ESPN3, and that should be especially meaningful to Maurice Harkless and DeAngelo Harrison. They were spectators at last year's basketball season-opening event as part of a group of recruits new coach Steve Lavin brought in, and now they are part of the revamped Red Storm.

Recalling that night recently, Harkless said, "I knew most of the [recruits] from the AAU circuit, DeAngelo especially. Ever since I first met him at Midnight Madness, we clicked. We talked about how we thought we could do big things here. I committed and he committed and it got the ball rolling. I spoke to Dom and actually anybody they were recruiting."

Harkless, who is from Queens, was referring to swingman Sir'Dominic Pointer, who is another of the stellar six-man class recruited by Lavin.

The recruiting class originally numbered nine players and was ranked among the top three in the country, but three players were ruled ineligible. That leaves Lavin with his six incoming recruits -- a group that also includes two junior college transfers, junior God'sgift Achiuwa and sophomore Nurideen Lindsey, along with freshman guard Phil Greene.

The only players returning from last season's NCAA Tournament team are backup point guard Malik Stith and Jamal Thomas, a walk-on who received a scholarship this year.

This has to be considered a rebuilding year because of the lack of experience and depth, even though the quality of talent is high. But the real victory for Lavin was in putting St. John's back on the map to attract top national recruits.

"People were confused, like 'St. John's who?' " said Harrison, who comes from the Houston area. "It helped that they had a very good season last year. After that, everybody was like, 'Oh, now I see.'

"I thought if I committed, some others might commit. That's really how it worked. After I committed, Dom came and then Nurideen and Gift started coming. That's how we're building. We're becoming a family now."

Pointer, who hails from the Detroit area, knows how difficult the road will be at first, but he's looking forward to the experience.

"It's New York, the media is good, and the players we had coming in really convinced me," Pointer said. "I knew them from the circuit, and I knew how good they were. We're a good bunch of freshmen who can grow together."