I hope you stayed awake and watched the thrilling 118-107 win over Spain for the gold medal in Beijing. Or perhaps you were tired from enjoying newly minted Vice Presidential candidate Joe Biden's speech; did you know he has photos on Flickr? Or maybe you were too busy reading your fantasy football cheat sheets to pay attention to politics and the Olympics. I understand. Now, for the recap:
St. John's has been in the news a bit this week, so this week's recap is mostly about the Red Storm.
+ The biggest news this week was the commitment of Omari Lawrence, covered here early in the day and again once the story was confirmed. Johnny Jungle has a post-verbal interview with Omari as well.
+Durand Scott will unofficially check out St. John's and Seton Hall, and give one official visit to a local school. Which is better than him laughing when St. John's is mentioned, I suppose.
+The hirings of staff members Kimani Young and Oswald Cross were made official, and St. John's adds some grassroots flavor to their staff. The coaches should be a help in bringing in top city talent for a few years; this blog hopes that the reach can extend at least until 2012, the year after the 2007 class would have graduated (including any medical or otherwise redshirts).
+A couple of stupid freshman basketball moments. Kansas' Markieff Morris and his shooting of a BB gun is less serious; Cal Poly's Anthony DiLoreto's bank robbery attempt is obviously much more serious.
+Preseason NIT pairings are announced; with full brackets.
+Coach Roberts praises the work sophomore center Dele Coker has done in terms of conditioning. He has a chance to be a huge part of the coming year; he only played 10 minutes a game and fouled too much to be useful with his shot blocking and rebounding.