PM Rumble: new Athletic Director, Mussini gets Big East honors

As we get ready for tonight’s game against Binghamton, let’s take a moment to look at a pair of news stories about St. John’s.

First, the Red Storm will announce a new Athletic Director today.

He’s Anton Goff, he comes from Hartford (and worked at the University of Maryland’s large program), and no, he was not on the most recent list of candidates for the job initially. There are rumors that the job doesn’t pay very well, which might be part of why the gap between AD’s has been sixteen months.

Still, described as a rising star in the press release, Goff is to be announced this afternoon.

Some of Anton Goff’s accomplishments include:

• a rebrand of the Hartford athletic logo, which was very 1970’s up until the rebrand in 2014;
• the creation of a women’s lacrosse program to ensure full compliance with Title IX;
• partnering with Under Armour for gear;
• the creation of the Hawk Nation Club to manage all fundraising efforts for the athletic programs.

There’s no question St. John’s needs to leverage the Chris Mullin era for more fundraising money in order to keep up with the rest of the league. Meanwhile, the look of the team and the court experience at Carnesecca could use a refresh, in some fans’ eyes.

The introductory press conference to welcome Goff to St. John’s will be held today at 4 pm in the President’s Room Lounge located inside Carnesecca Arena.

What can Goff do to raise the profile of the bigger-league exposure of St. John’s? Let us know in the comments.

Federico Mussini gets Big East Honor Roll nod

Federico Mussini’s sparkling sophomore debut did not go unnoticed.

The 6’2” guard scored 20 points on 5/7 shooting (5/6 from outside the arc) and hit 5/6 from the free throw line to lead St. John’s in a blowout of Bethune-Cookman - in 18 minutes of playing time.

The Big East player of the week was grad transfer guard Rodney Pryor from Georgetown and Marquette freshman Sam Hauser won Freshman of the Week.

Also named to the Big East Honor Roll were Creighton’s Maurice Watson, Marquette’s JaJuan Johnson, Seton Hall’s Khadeen Carrington and Xavier’s Trevon Bluiett.