It's awesome baby! St. John's playing at Detroit, December 5th

St. John's will trip to lovely Detroit on Monday, December 5th:

Dick Vitale Court at Calihan Hall will be dedicated in conjunction with a nationally-televised event against Big EAST foe St. John's on December 5, 2011 on ESPN2.

Vitale will be celebrating his 32nd anniversary of calling games for ESPN at the event. 

Congratulations to Dick Vitale for finally getting the court named after him at the school where he coached in the 70's. Will this mean that someone else will be announcing the game while he is feted by Detroit fans?

Steve Lavin is getting his young roster a lot of time on television this year. Along with tilts at Kentucky for the SEC/ Big East challenge, and the games against Duke and UCLA, and the Coaches vs. Cancer 2K Sports Classic, and the Holiday Festival against Fordham, this is shaping up to be a strong and daunting schedule for the almost all-freshman team. 

Detroit is a tough Horizon League team (10-8 in the conference) that almost never shot three pointers; their stars are former Indiana Hoosier Eli Holman (famous for throwing a potted plant at Tom Crean in his exit interview) and Ray McCallum, son of coach Ray McCallum Sr. They have a lot of height with 6'10 Holman, 6'11 LaMarcus Lowe, and 6'8 Nick Minnerath, and they like to run.

More info from Red Storm Sports.

I will definitely try to go, being midwestern now; my first knowledge that there even WAS a University of Detroit was when they beat the Johnnies in 1998...