St. John's' Moe Harkless expected to enter 2012 NBA Draft

St. John's has scheduled a press conference for Monday at Madison Square Garden and the New York Daily News is reporting that freshman Moe Harkless is expected to announce that he will apply for the 2012 NBA Draft.

Harkless, who was the first big name recruited by head coach Steve Lavin at St. John's, paved the way for Lavin's third-ranked recruiting class last year.  The Queens native was also the first blue-chip player from the New York City high school system to come to St. John's since Ron Artest over a decade ago.

The rangy 6-feet-8 Harkless was named Big East Rookie of the Year and is expected to be picked somewhere between No. 15 and No. 25.

If everything goes as is expected, the 18 year-old Harkless will end all the speculation about his future at the 2 p.m. press conference.

Harkless had an outstanding freshman year even if the Red Storm struggled at times.  He averaged 15.5 points and 8.5 rebounds— sixth and second best, respectively,  among freshmen nationally.  Harkless' stock skyrocketed at the end of the season and, with a little added weight (he weighs 208 pounds), could flourish in the league.

If Harkless chooses not to hire an agent, he will have the option of removing his name from the draft and could return to St. John's.  Once he hires an agent he is no longer considered an amateur.

The guard/forward's exit would be the latest hit for the the already thin Red Storm.

Lavin is recovering from prostate cancer surgery and has limited his time coaching on the sidelines.  He has been concentrating on recruiting and watching games from a suite at Madison Square Garden on occasion.

The team itself has had trouble keeping all of the scholarship players on the roster this past season.  Three players were declared academically ineligible at the beginning of the season and two others transferred.

Not to worry.  St. John's already has another top point guard lined up.  Jamal Branch, a transfer from Texas A&M, will join the team in the middle of next year and St. John's already has commitments from 6-8 blue chipper JaKarr Sampson and 6-3 Felix Balamou.

Lavin will attend the news conference and has publicly said that whatever Harkless decides, "we will enthusiastically support him."

St. John's women win on coast-to-coast buzzer beater

St. John's fought off a second half charge by Creighton and beat the Bluejays on an amazing coast-to-coast basket by the Red Storm point guard Nadirah McKenith with only :01 left on the clock at the end of a nail biting NCAA Women's first-round matchup.

After Carli Tritz of Creighton tied the game at 67-67— by sinking two free throws with 5.4 seconds left—  McKenith took an in-bounds pass about 10-feet in, dribbled up the court zig-zagging through the Bluejays defense and tossing up a tear drop shot that went about six feet above the rim before swishing through the net.

McKenith tumbled to the floor as the St. John's bench erupted in cheers and Creighton players put their hands over their faces in disbelief.  A futile full court shot by Creighton (20-13) fell short as St. John's (23-9) almost became the first third-seeded team to fall to a 14th in the history of the women's tournament.

Red Storm head coach Kim Barnes-Arico must have had a lot of faith in her junior point guard.  She gave the green light for McKenith to single-handedly end the game on her own.  It's the kind of play that will be shown on highlight reels for a long time.

McKenith (an All-Big east second team point guard) finished the game with 21 points as a relieved St. John's moves on in the NCAA tournament.

One person who is probably really happy about the 69-67 St. John's win is President Obama.  He has the Red Storm in his Final Four bracket.

St. John's scores basket for Notre Dame; But still upsets No. 20 Fighting Irish

St. John's is starting to play its best basketball of the season and— despite scoring a basket for the visiting team— held off a frenetic come-back by Notre Dame to post its first victory over a ranked team this season.

Even if the Red Storm wasn't perfect for 40 minutes, they definitely played their best first half in 2012.

The Red Storm won their third straight game by shocking the 20th-ranked Fighting Irish, 61-58, in Madison Square Garden on Saturday afternoon.

St. John's (13-16, 6-10) had lost 10 consecutive games against ranked opponents this season when— with three minutes to go and a 56-52 lead— a missed shot by Notre Dame's Pat Connaughton was inadvertently tipped in by St. John's Sir'Dominic Pointer to close the gap to two points.

It looked like another Red Storm collapse was inevitable.

Notre Dame's Jack Cooley was credited with the score, but replays showed he never even touched the ball— it was all Pointer.

It was a bucket that the Red Storm couldn't afford to give the visiting team.  St. John's went more than five minutes without scoring a field goal and were up only 57-56 with 44 seconds left after Notre Dame scored on an inbounds pass.

Notre Dame (20-9, 12-4) stormed back from a double-digit deficit and had momentum on its side.  Only Amir Garret's drive through traffic in the lane with no time on the shot clock and only 8.9 seconds left  saved the game for the Johnnies.  Garret's runner clinched the victory and snapped the Fighting Irish's nine-game win streak.

Notre dame's Alex Dragevich missed a long three-point shot at the end of the game.

Moe Harkless— the freshman phenom— finished with 22 points  and nine rebounds.  D'Angelo Harrison had 15 points and Garret had 11.  Cooley and Scott Martin finished with 18 apiece for the Irish.

Both coaching staffs sported blue bow ties to help raise awareness of prostate cancer.  St. John's head coach Steve Lavin is still recovering from surgery for the disease.

St. John's beats UCLA to snap 4-game losing streak

D'Angelo Harrison scored 22 points and Phil Greene made a huge rebound with 6.5 seconds to play but it was Sir' Dominic Pointer's crowd-pleasing dunk that set the tone as St. John's defeated UCLA 66-63 on Saturday  at Madison Square Garden.

Pointer's dunk with 13:16 left seem to invigorate the Red Storm and got the home crowd into the game.

"Climbing the imaginary ladder" as CBS announcer Ian Eagle called Pointer's jam.

St. John's (11-16) snapped a four game losing streak and the win might be called sweet revenge for last year's loss at UCLA.  The California school was Red Storm head coach Steve Lavin's former team.




Lavin, who is still recovering from prostate cancer, watched the game from a suite high above the Garden floor.

In an interview with CBS, the smiling Lavin said he is taking the recovery "week-to-week and is still focusing on recruiting."

"I come in to watch films with the players," he said.  "I will be back next year."

The head coach discussed his long absences from the team and said,"We try to have a meal with them every week and get them to spend time with my wife.  She's more inspiring than I am in terms of their spirits."

Lavin coached UCLA for seven seasons and took them to the NCAA tournament six times.  He took over at St. John's last year and led the team to their first NCAA tournament appearance since 2002.

UCLA (15-12) had too many turnovers and couldn't keep up with St. John's athleticism. 

Pointer finished the game with 13 points and seven rebounds while Moe Harkless had 10 points and 12 rebounds for the Johnnies.

Linsanity seems to have rubbed off on the Red Storm.  They Sir-tainly looked like a better team today.