St. John's still awaiting NCAA ruling on freshman Marcus LoVett

St. John's will face Wagner University Friday to kickoff the 2015-16 season, and the NCAA still has not ruled on the eligibility of freshman Marcus "Bright Lights" LoVett Jr.

LoVett is eligible and cleared to practice, but has not been cleared through the NCAA Clearinghouse to play in games for the Red Storm.

LoVett transferred to Chicago Morgan Park (Chicago, Illinois) for his senior season after playing at San Gabriel Academy (San Gabriel, CA) and Providence High School (Burbank, CA). The focus of the NCAA investigation is the fact that LoVett played for three different high schools.

The 6-foot freshman guard is expected to be among the best scorers on the Red Storm this season.

LoVett was a four-star, consensus top-25 point guard. He finished fourth in the 2015 Illinois statewide vote for Mr. Basketball after averaging 25 points, eight rebounds and seven assists.

During the press conference after Saturday's final exhibition game, Head Coach Chris Mullin expressed his frustrations with the LoVett issue.

"It's absurd and I'm 100 percent frustrated," Mullin said. "I'm thinking about flying to Indianapolis myself. I have some friends there with the Pacers, I may fly to Indianapolis myself to investigate."

It makes sense for Coach Mullin to question why the NCAA's process is taking so long, but LoVett first has to get healthy. He has been out with a knee injury throughout the Red Storm's preseason.

It's not clear if LoVett will be healthy in time for the start of the season and it's also not even clear whether or not the NCAA will clear him.

But one thing is for sure; the Red Storm desperately needs LoVett to play this season.