amir garrett – Rush The Court

Tipping Off the Big East Countdown: #9 St. John’s

Dan Lyons — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 19:22:45 +0000

Few programs in the country went through the adversity that St. John’s found itself facing last season. Head coach Steve Lavin underwent surgery to treat prostate cancer in October of last year, and he was only able to coach four games in early November before deciding to sit out for the rest of the season. Multiple key players left during the season for various reasons, and at times the Red Storm were only able to play with a six-man rotation of scholarship players. This year should prove to be a challenge for the Johnnies, especially after the departure of Moe Harkless following last season, [...]

Checking In On… the Big East Conference

Brian Goodman — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 18:59:34 +0000

Brian Otskey is the RTC correspondent for the Big East conference. You can find him on Twitter @botskey.

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The Week That Was

Temple In Big East Talks: The Big East may have a new all-sport member as early as this fall if the reports are true that the Temple Owls are in discussions about joining the conference. Adding Temple to the mix would be terrific for Big East basketball. While Syracuse is irreplaceable, you could make an argument that Temple and Memphis offset the departures of West Virginia and Pittsburgh. The enhanced stature of these two programs in the [...]

St. John’s Freshmen Making the Most of a Rebuilding Season

EJacoby — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:43:56 +0000

Evan Jacoby is an RTC contributor and correspondent. You can find him @evanjacoby on Twitter. He filed this report after Georgetown’s win over St. John’s on Sunday.

As a basketball program, St. John’s and its fans have not had a whole lot to smile about this season. Sunday afternoon was no exception, when Georgetown came into Madison Square Garden and handed the Red Storm their fourth loss in five games with a 69-49 victory. But despite the result, freshman forward Maurice Harkless dazzled a packed crowd with 21 points and 10 rebounds in a comeback effort when his team was [...]

Checking In On… the Big East Conference

Brian Goodman — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 15:30:49 +0000

Brian Otskey is the RTC correspondent for the Big East conference. You can find him on Twitter @botskey.

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The Week That Was

A Pair of Upsets: How many of you had Wagner winning at Pittsburgh? The Seahawks won their first game against a ranked team since P.J. Carlesimo was the head coach at the school in the late 1970’s, knocking off the Panthers 59-54. Even without point guard Tray Woodall, this is not a game Pittsburgh should have lost. While Ashton Gibbs certainly has to carry more of the load, his shooting has been sub-par this entire season. Against [...]

Big East Morning Five: 12.27.11 Edition

Patrick Prendergast — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 12:30:11 +0000

We ate. We drank. We were merry. We took some TUMS and are back. Hope everyone had a happy and safe holiday weekend. While we are not necessarily looking at marquee matchups, Big East conference play kicks off tonight and that is a good thing! There are two games on the docket this evening to get things started and despite a lack of glitter, there is intrigue. #22 Pittsburgh (11-2) heads to South Bend, Indiana, to take on Notre Dame (8-5). The Tim Abromaitis-less Irish would love a signature victory to get things rolling but this one may end up occurring [...]

Morning Five: 12.21.11 Edition

nvr1983 — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 12:00:14 +0000

As we mentioned yesterday the big news in the college basketball world (or at least the media world) was the first-person column by Todd O’Brien describing how St. Joseph’s and Phil Martelli have denied his attempt to use a graduate school exemption to transfer to UAB. Yesterday, the media got a chance to chime in with columns of their own. Outside of the expected “Martelli is a symbol of all things wrong with college sports” there were a few interesting posts. One of them comes from Gregg Doyel who urged the public to wait for St. Joseph’s side of the story to come [...]

Checking In On… the Big East Conference

Brian Goodman — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 22:27:54 +0000

Brian Otskey is the RTC correspondent for the Big East conference. You can find him on Twitter @botskey.

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Khem Birch Leaves Pittsburgh: In what was certainly a surprising development, Pittsburgh announced that highly-touted freshman Khem Birch would be leaving the program for personal reasons. No future destination for Birch was announced. The 6’9” freshman averaged 4.4 PPG and 5.0 RPG in 15 minutes per game for Jamie Dixon, including a season-high 15 points at Pennsylvania on November 25. Birch, a Canadian, was a five-star prospect out of Notre Dame Prep. Birch’s departure will be felt [...]

Jumping To Conclusions: The Wheels Are Coming Off The St. John’s Rebuilding Bus

mlemaire — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 20:46:00 +0000

In 2010, after six lackluster seasons — including zero NCAA Tournament appearances — under head coach Norm Roberts, St. John’s basketball needed to make a switch. But the program didn’t just need a coach who could develop players and win games. They needed a walking, talking defibrillator. Someone who could inject some life and enthusiasm back into one of the country’s most storied programs. What they got was Steve Lavin, an affable former television personality with plenty of coaching pedigree and the desire to talk to everybody he ran into.

Steve Lavin Was Hired To Rebuild At St. John's [...]

Big East Morning Five: 12.02.11 Edition

mlemaire — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 12:31:05 +0000

We know there is only so much of the Bernie Fine scandal that people are willing to stomach, but like it or not, the story isn’t going away for awhile. For those interested in the latest developments, Syracuse Chancellor, Nancy Cantor, wrote a short but detailed open letter to USA Today explaining the university’s decision to fire Fine and why it didn’t happen sooner. The crux of the letter is that the SU claims it didn’t know about the recorded conversation between accuser Bobby Davis and Fine’s wife, Laurie. Cantor basically explained that if Syracuse had been made aware of [...]

Who’s Got Next? Poythress Picks, Carter Commits and More…

Josh Paunil — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 17:50:18 +0000

Who’s Got Next? is a weekly column by Josh Paunil, the RTC recruiting guru. We encourage you to check out his website dedicated solely to college basketball recruiting, National Recruiting Spotlight, for more detailed recruiting information. Once a week he will bring you an overview of what’s going on in the complex world of recruiting, from who is signing where among the seniors to who the hot prospects are at the lower levels of the sport. If you have any suggestions as to areas we’re missing or different things you’d like to see, please let us know at rushthecourt@yahoo.com.

Lead Story: [...]

Big East Morning Five: 11.17.11 Edition

Patrick Prendergast — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 13:00:15 +0000

The St. John’s recruiting exodus continues. Norvel Pelle is the latest player to de-commit from Steve Lavin’s program. The news was initially reported by Johnny Jungle.com on Wednesday morning and confirmed by Pelle via Twitter later in the day. The 6’10” Pelle originally signed with St. John’s as a class of 2011 recruit but was declared academically ineligible in September along with fellow highly regarded signees, small forwards JaKarr Sampson and Amir Garrett. Garrett remains committed and is currently enrolled at Bridgton Academy (ME). However, Sampson re-opened his recruitment shortly after being declared ineligible and re-enrolled at Brewster Academy (NH), the same prep school he attended last year. St. John’s remains in [...]

RTC Conference Primers: #1 – Big East Conference

Brian Goodman — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 10:01:08 +0000

Brian Otskey is the RTC correspondent for the Big East. You can find him on Twitter @botskey.

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The Realignment Circus Continues: The latest blow to the Big East came just recently as West Virginia was accepted into the Big 12. That leaves the Big East with 13 basketball schools remaining and a handful of others (football schools) desperately trying to flee the sinking ship. Commissioner John Marinatto has said he is committed to holding Syracuse, Pittsburgh and West Virginia to the 27-month notice provision in the conference’s bylaws but one has to wonder if a financial [...]

Who’s Got Next? Gary Goes Green, Mitchigan for McGary and More…

Josh Paunil — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 19:20:10 +0000

Lead Story: [...]

Who’s Got Next? Elite Talents Commit, Top Classes Crumble and Prospects Discuss Realignment

Josh Paunil — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 15:00:12 +0000

Introduction

Head coaches [...]

Morning Five: 09.16.11 Edition

nvr1983 — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 14:36:45 +0000

St. John’s was dealt a major blow yesterday when the NCAA ruled that three of its prized freshman recruits–Amir Garrett, Jakarr Sampson, and Norvel Pelle–were ruled ineligible by the NCAA for the fall semester. This will be a huge blow for Steve Lavin, who was looking to build on his success last season with one of the top freshman classes in the country. St. John’s is planning on appealing to get the trio eligible for the spring semester, but the earliest that they could join the team would be for a practice on December 19 and see their first game-time action [...]