Afternoon Rumble: Dominic Artis?, women's soccer, the NFL works on its image

Is point guard Dominic Artis back in play for St. John's? Apparently, the disgraced guard, who was kicked out of the University of Oregon, received a visit from Steve Lavin.

St. John's (Lavin) was in last week to watch Dominic Artis (sitting out at Diablo Valley CC). St. Mary's and San Fran have also been in

— Brad Winton (@JucoRecruiting) September 25, 2014

Now, we've covered this before. Dominic Artis, now in a JUCO and hoping for his next chance on the Division 1 level, is talented. Dominic Artis also got kicked out of school after being part of a night that should have resulted in criminal charges, but did not. Dominic Artis' recruitment garnered enough negative press that St. John's backed off.

Temporarily, it seems.

But Steve Lavin is leaving no stone unturned in the late push for talent and depth next year.

Our friends at Anonymous Eagle (covering Marquette) are experts in the non-revenue side of the Big East. And so, they did a rundown of the league's soccer teams - including St. John's women's squad, a team that has struggled despite the skills of Rachel Daly.

Here's an excerpt - go and read the whole thing.

Last year, when recapping St. John's trip to Marquette, I led with knowing that two things were likely for that game: Rachel Daly would score a goal and Diana Poulin wouldn't give one up.  Only the first ended up being true, and it appears that this problem has magnified this season.  Poulin has given up 15 goals already this season after allowing 20 all of last season.  Daly's offensive might has also been mitigated after a 2013 season where she averaged more than a goal per game.

As we noted on these electronic pages, the Red Storm will have a few opportunities for marquee wins. But Big East Coast Bias notes in their Schedule Analysis that that the Johnnies also have a baking tin full of cupcake teams to toy with.

BECB also remarks on how the end of the Big East season could be rough skies for the Red Storm, facing teams with legitimate league title hopes in Georgetown, Xavier and others.

On the other tracks - struggling with the public face edition

Longread of the Day: The NFL's message maker? --> Deadspin takes a long look at the political messaging/ public relations advisor who was likely behind the wording of Roger Goodell's press conference last week on the NFL and the discipline/ domestic violence problems the league is having trouble addressing.

Also of note: that political messaging advisor, Frank Luntz, commented on Fox about the speech, being the sole voice of praise for Goodell's presentation, and sidestepped the likely level of his involvement with the speech itself. A dive with some depth from Deadspin.

And for those who saw the presser - was it as awful as people say?

Leadership is sometimes learning --> Goodell is and NFL union head DeMaurice Smith are looking to meet with the University of Texas head coach Charlie Strong about his strong takes/ core values covering domestic violence, guns, and other criminal activity.

It seems that the NFL could probably create their own core values, no? And it would look similar? Like "don't be an a-hole, don't be a rapist, don't punch or headbutt or kick women, don't flash guns"...

Common sense stuff. And then, the NFL can lay down punishments and/ or interventions/ help for the accused and accuser to educate them on how to be better people.

Real leaders don't get snitched on -->It's not the NFL, but the apparent issues in the Rutgers athletic department are laid bare in the way that staffers are willing to comment about negative activity around Julie Hermann, according to NJ.com's Jerry Carino.