AM Rumble: St. John’s grad transfer target, Big East departures, Purdue’s Haas in lawsuit

Get up to speed: the NY Knicks have fired coach Jeff Hornacek, because that’as what you do in the NBA after a couple of losing seasons. Former St. John’s great Mark Jackson is a candidate to come back as head coach; he had successful coaching years with the Golden State Warriors.

On to college hoops:

St. John’s recruiting news

Auburn grad transfer DeSean Murray is hearing from St. John’s.

Why yes, he is 6’3” and a forward. Why yes, as an Auburn player, it means he’s been compared to Charles Barkley.

But he is productive on both ends of the floor, grabbing 19% of defensive rebounds, 12% of offensive boards, shooting 84% from the line and getting there a lot.

He’s undersized, but can shoot from outside the arc a little, connecting on 32% of his shots. He scored on 49% of his two-pointers — 58% at the rim and 30% on longer two-pointers.

Here is an isolated highlight video of him:

It’s early still, and Matt Abdelmassih is still beating the bushes and checking in on graduate transfers. But with incoming forward Marcellus Earlington, who is 6’5”, it would be nice to have a player who can model how an active undersized forward can make a difference on the high-major level.

In-home visit week: The visits for top-ten duo Lewis & Antoine:

Today’s links

Yankuba Sima leaves Oklahoma State. Yankuba Sima, who transferred from St. John’s after a year and a half, is leaving the Oklahoma State Cowboys after a half season on the court to pursue professional opportunities. While Sima was there, the coach he committed to (Brad Underwood) left for Illinois.

Sima led the Cowboys in blocks and was a solid offensive rebounder, but he saw fewer touches, was a less effective defensive rebounder and struggled at the free throw line.

Good luck to him.

Myrtle Beach for a November Tournament? Can you still play golf there in November? Whether you can or not, the Myrtle Beach Invitational kicks off November 15-16 and November 18th at Coastal Carolina University. Wake Forest, West Virginia, Cal State-Fullerton, St. Joseph’s, Central Florida, Valparaiso, Western Kentucky and an eight team will participate.

Solid lineup.

Xavier lands a tall grad transfer wing. Ryan Welage is going to Cincinnati to drop threes for new Xavier coach Travis Steele. The 6’9” shooter is originally from Indiana but played at San Jose State. Welage joins grad transfers Kyle Castlin (from Columbia) and Zach Hankins (Division II Ferris State) at Xavier.

Maybe it’s the hair, but when I see Welage I think, that could have been Richard Freudenberg’s game...

He’s thinking of going. Georgetown’s Jessie Govan has declared for the NBA Draft, but has not hired an agent, unlike Marcus Derrickson (discussed yesterday).

He’s gone. Creighton wing/ forward Ronnie Harrell is headed back to Denver for his last year of eligibility.

(Who’s left in the Big East next year? Gonna be a whole new set of faces!)

Not cool, wear protection! Purdue’s Isaac Haas is accused in court of spreading herpes to a hookup... and a few others.

Haas, the 7’2” Purdue center who fractured his elbow in the NCAA Tournament, is a senior.

The dirty underbelly on streaming video: Netflix has a new movie called “Amateur” that should be of interest to those who follow high school basketball recruiting.

Also

Write like an artist: Would you like your handwriting to look like David Bowie’s or Kurt Cobain’s? You can download the fonts! [Oh wait, now you can’t. Cool idea, though.]