This writer has been out of pocket for a few days, enjoying country life. But I'm back to keeping up with the Red Storm and building the Rumble in the Garden up in its first full year on SB Nation - and in this blogs fifth year overall. It's still the slow part of the summer, but we'll work to keep you entertained, up to date, and informed.
Expect some forward-looking posts about the Big East and the St. John's freshmen in the coming weeks.
Here's what was missed - and what was covered.
1 - Amir Garrett got his MLB money from the Cincinnati Reds, as posted early Tuesday on the Rumble; Steve Lavin had follow-up quotes in the official release. A follow up statement from Coach Steve Lavin:
"We have encouraged Amir to continue working to develop into the best basketball and baseball player he is capable of becoming. His talent, competitive nature and determination has allowed him to have the opportunity to pursue his goals of competing at the highest level of two sports," said St. John's head coach Steve Lavin. "He is a special talent. His length, explosiveness, quickness, and highly-skilled game make him an ideal fit for our system of play. Amir was clearly the most tenacious prospect that we evaluated in the 2011 recruiting class and his highly competitive nature will be critical as we build our program."
2 - We haven't mentioned it yet, but it's pretty ballin' that the PGA championship winner, Keegan Bradley, went to St. John's.
3 - Newly inducted Hall of Famer Chris Mullin spoke at Steve Lavin's St. John's camp. It is a great thing to see a newly Hall-of-Famed alum come to speak not at a great dinner for his honor, not for a halftime presentation, but for a youth camp on campus. That's fairly down to earth in this writers' eyes.
4 - This was posted as a fanshot (which any reader can do), but a reminder: MSG's Jon Rothstein writes a preview of the Big East, and has St. John's at 12th.
5 - Maurice Harkless is itching to help St. John's finish much higher than 12th. At the end of the West 4th Street Tournament, Harkless is fully focused on his career at St. John's; teammate Amir Garrett watched the action. I hope Amir took his boy out for a falafel afterwards. That McDonald's across the street's no good for you.
6 - St. John's will host the Dribble for the Cure run/ walk with a basketball fundraiser on September 24th; proceeds go to pediatric cancer research.
7 - St. John's will play the University of Texas-Pan American on December 21st. (I bet they won't play that game at Madison Square Garden like the UTPA Broncs coach hopes).
8 - Welcome back to the redmen.com forum/ message board. That site was a part of many people's lives, as Johnny Jungle's forums are. Good to see both sites up and running, giving folks (hopefully collegial) places to chat about St. John's basketball.
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