With St. John's nonconference schedule being finalized today, we check in with Jason Schott, who profiles the opening half of the season for Steve Lavin and the Red Storm in his latest installment of the "Three-Point Schott."
St. John’s announces big non-conference schedule
By Jason Schott – Twitter @JESchott19
The St. John’s Red Storm released their complete schedule on Wednesday, July 11th, and it features an opening game as part of ESPN’s 24-hour season opening event.
St. John’s will open the regular season at Carnesecca Arena on Tuesday, November 13th at 2:00 pm in a matchup against Detroit as part of ESPN’s College Hoops Tip-Off Marathon. They lost to Detroit on the road last season to commemorate Dick Vitale’s Court Dedication game. The Red Storm will then compete in the 2012 DirecTV Charleston Classic on November 15, 16, and 18 at TD Arena in Charleston, S.C. Along with St. John’s, the field includes Auburn, Baylor, Boston College, Charleston, Colorado, Dayton, and Murray State. Each team will play a game per day and advance in a bracket-tournament format. The two teams that are undefeated will meet in the final.
St. John’s Head Coach Steve Lavin said of the Charleston Classic, “Three games in four days at the Charleston Classic in November will allow us to learn more about the makeup of our team. Baylor returns an outstanding squad from its Elite Eight run last season, Colorado was an NCAA Tournament participant, Murray State is coming off its best season in history and Auburn participated in the 2012 NIT. The Charleston Classic field looks to be as strong as any 2012 early-season tournament and will prove to be a valuable experience for our young squad.”
St. John’s will them return to Carnesecca Arena for games with Holy Cross on November 21st and Florida Gulf Coast on November 24th. The next big game on the schedule is on Thursday, November 29th, when Frank Martin and his South Carolina Gamecocks come to Carnesecca Arena in a game that will be shown on ESPN2 or ESPNU.
NJIT comes to Carnesecca Arena on Saturday, December 1st, and then the Red Storm hits the road for a December 4th matchup with San Francisco. Coach Lavin’s father, Cap Lavin, played for the San Francisco Dons from 1949-52 and played for two Naismith Hall of Fame Coaches, Pete Newell and Phil Woolpert.
St. John’s will take part in the Holiday Festival at Madison Square Garden on December 8th. St. John’s will take on Fordham in that for the second straight season as part of a doubleheader, with another game to be announced. The following weekend, St. John’s will take on St. Francis in the Brooklyn Hoops Festival at the new Barclays Center on Saturday, December 15th. That event will be a triple-header, with the other matchups being Michigan vs. West Virginia and Fordham vs. Princeton.
Lavin said of this event, “To play a local school like St. Francis at the new Barclays Center in Brooklyn is a natural fit. Some of St. John’s most-prolific players and loyal fans throughout our storied history have roots that trace back to the borough of Brooklyn. This game and new venue presents a nice way to pay homage to that dimension of our legacy.” Their last non-conference game will take place on Friday, December 21st against UNC-Asheville at Carnesecca Arena before Big East play commences in January.
For those of you wondering what happened to Duke and UCLA, the following statement from St. John's basketball SID Mark Fratto explains the absence of the Blue Devils and Bruins on the schedule:
ReplyDelete"The Duke series is on hiatus, not discontinued. The ACC is going from 16 to 18 conference games this year. Duke needed non-conference relief."
"The series with UCLA was a two-year, home-and-home in '11 and '12."