Certainly the local papers will have more coverage of Big East Media Day, so expect more updates from the event in the coming days - Red Storm basketball news, analysis and links.
But from Goodman on Fox, I'm going to parse some quoted words from forward Justin Burrell:
BURRELL KNOWS ROLE
St. John’s sophomore big man Justin Burrell admits he didn’t understand his role last season.
That’s changed.
"I know what I need to do now," Burrell said. "I’m excited about the season. People are writing us off, but people don’t understand we were freshmen."
Burrell, a native New Yorker, said the toughest part of last season was not having an upperclassman to go to for advice.
"I had no senior leadership at my position," he said. "I had nobody to go to and that’s a big difference in college basketball."
While I normally hate the "I know what I need to do now" line, I am going to give a touch of credit to Burrell - the players were freshmen, and at the very least, the frustrations seemed to get to their heads. No senior leadership at position... that's not a great excuse though. I do think that perhaps the concept of senior leadership for the Red Storm is both overblown (follow me kids, do what I do?) and maybe not as existent as one might think (what did Geno know about coaching up his teammates whose games are entirely different?).
Not understanding one's role, though, comes down to the coach. Purdue had 4 star frosh and they knew their roles.
What is Justin's role now? There is some credence to the idea that Burrell, and to a greater extent, DJ Kennedy, had some trouble meshing with Anthony Mason Jr.'s proclivity for shooting. But Justin should look to dominate on the boards; make quicker offensive moves; hold on to the ball and see the pass before he makes it; and beast his way into post position, yelling for the ball the whole way.