Report: suspended guard D`Angelo Harrison wants to remain at St. John's

For those looking for updates, D`Angelo Harrison is likely to come back to the St. John's Red Storm after some "time away" from basketball... but the former team leader has to grow and learn discipline, patience, and respect to earn his roster spot.

According to Lenn Robbins of the New York Post,

Star guard D’Angelo Harrison has decided he wants to remain at St. John’s and is optimistic about his future as a Red Storm player, his grandmother Angela Harris told The Post last night....

"He's very optimistic and extremely relieved," Harris told The Post in a telephone interview. "The pressure is off. D'Angelo is a smart kid. He wants to be the best person he can be and he's willing to work at it." Harris said a strategy has been laid out that hopefully will result in Harrison suiting up next season.

[Harrison] led the team in times being kicked out of practice, times being late to team functions and times not being respectful to assistant coaches and support staff. His behavior the week Lavin was in Northern California mourning the loss of his father was the deal-breaker.

Here, we see how not having the head coach can affect the team - not in terms of player development and game planning, but in what Dan Dakich mentioned (while doing analysis for the St. John's/ Syracuse game) as the effect of having a "substitute teacher" in charge.

Sources indicate that "being not respectful" to assistant coaches was a real problem this year and last. Did his frustration and competitiveness boil over into a toxic brew of bad teammate cola?

The talented Harrison is suspended for the rest of the season, while his teammates work on an outside shot at the NCAA Tournament. Losing the Pittsburgh game was likely a real end to the team's realistic at-large hopes; though a win over either Notre Dame tomorrow or Marquette on Saturday could give those hopes a heartbeat.

The NIT is a likely postseason destination for the developing Red Storm this year, and that's not such a bad thing. The slightly lower level of competition (but still playing some of the best 100 teams in the NCAA) should allow the secondary players such as Phil Greene IV, Jamal Branch, and Sir`Dominic Pointer to develop into offensive threats, so that Harrison does not have to shoulder the responsibility for St. John's scoring.

Harrison averaged a shade under 15 points per game, adding 2.5 assists and 4 rebounds in Big East play. He scored just under 18 points per game in all competitions.

While on the season he shot more two-pointers than threes, Big East play has seen him forced to the outside, taking 53% of his shots from distance and missing under opponents' pressure, only shooting 27% from beyond the arc.

Next year, with a junior-laden class and Orlando Sanchez, hopes will be high - and D`Angelo Harrison's leadership will be analyzed during every outing. St. John's has to hope that with maturity, discipline, and teammates learning to score without him, Harrison can become the effective shooter/ scoring star the Johnnies will need to make a leap in the standings.

And along with making up with his teammates... D`Angelo will have to earn the fans' trust again. New York can be a hard place when the fans aren't on your side.