Support St. John’s in The Basketball Tournament! Plus DePaul’s power moves

What seemed like a funny and fun idea has become a summer phenomenon. The Basketball Tournament, a 64-team single-elimination tournament featuring ex-NBA players and overseas professionals, has become a fairly large tournament. The real carrot for college basketball fans is that many of their favorites will come back to play in the tournament - and be featured on the ESPN coverage of the games.

The carrot for the players is some fan love and a $2 million prize.

Our interest here, of course, is the team with two former St. John's players, D.J. Kennedy and Paris Horne that has won two years in a row.

So go give that Overseas Elite team a vote. The highest voted teams in the region get a chance to play in the field of 64.

D`Angelo Harrison will be playing in The Basketball Tournament as well - so go vote for his NY Jayhawks, as well.

Meanwhile, as Georgetown has picked up some promising players at center and guard for next season, DePaul has messed around and become a STPRY.

After hiring La Lumiere (IN) prep school coach Shane Heirman, a man connected with a number of top talents - including top-25 wing Brian Bowen - the Blue Demons are having some nice days on the recruiting front.

First, a 6’11” grad transfer from Northern Illinois named Marin Maric who averaged 15 points and eight rebounds in the Mid-American Conference chose DePaul after flirting with the NBA Draft. Maric played for La Lumiere for a year before going to college.

Then a five-star guard in the class of 2019 named Tyger Campbell committed. And announced the was reclassifying to 2018. Campbell talked about wanting to be a player who leads DePaul back. And of course, wanting to play with his La Lumiere high school coach Heirman as well.

Heirman also coached DePaul’s current rising sophomores Al Eichelberger and Brandon Cyrus at La Lumiere. Brian Bowen, a five-star recruit in the class of 2017 and a senior at la Lumiere, is also considering DePaul.

Impressive the power a really good high school coach whose players are loyal can have - and kudos to DePaul for making the power move.