BY JOSEPH STASZEWSKI
Ho Ho Ho…
The big man in the red suit is finished for another season and now it's time for the guys in the red jerseys to continue theirs. Here are a couple of quick items before Friday’s Holiday Festival game against Marist at 8 p.m. at the Garden.
Norm Rogers (It’s not a typo. Read on)
Prior to the Aeropostale Classic on Dec. 20, a radio ad for both that and the Aeropostale Holiday Festival came on during my drive to work. After mentioning Duke and Pittsburgh, the announcer shifted to the Holiday Festival. He said, come see St. John’s and head coach Norm Rogers take on Marist. Norm Rogers? Who is Norm Rogers? You have to be kidding me. Who let that ad on the air? I’ve made plenty of mistakes in my career, but you are telling me no one listened to that before it was released and said, wait I think something sounds funny. I guess Norm ROBERTS hasn’t quite made a name for himself yet. Today on my way to work and ad solely for the Holiday Festival came on the radio. I waited to hear Norm Rogers again, but this time they got it right.
St. John’s on the XBOX 360
On Christmas Eve I opened my College Hoops 2K8 for XBOX 360 and immediately set up a St. John’s versus Pittsburgh match up with my brother at Carnesecca Arena. The Johnnies came storming out of the virtual locker room not into replica of Carnesecca Arena, but into something that looked more like a glorified high school gym. There were no multiple levels of seating and the bleachers had fans standing in the front row. On the bland walls behind the hoops were a few Red Storm and STJ posters. (Some people will say that Carnesecca Arena is a glorified high school gym).
The play-by-play announcer called Mike Cavataio, Cav-at-tie-o. The court looked perfect though, down to Lou Carnesecca’s signature by the hash marks. The other piece of good news was the Red Storm pulled out a seven-point comeback victory with the help of some nifty outside shooting and some full-court pressure.
Larry….(W)Right?
A poster named Pico left me a comment over Christmas about “Larry Wright’s "disappearing act" the last two games. It’s a great point that I failed to touch on after the Rainbow Classic. He is becoming a forgotten man in Norm’s rotation. Seven points in 31 minutes the last two games will not cut it. Early he looked like he was going to be the perimeter scorer St. John's needed to compliment Anthony Mason Jr. and Justin Burrell. Yet since Mason's return, outside of a decent game against Ohio, his minutes and production have dropped. Roberts has seemed to favor the longer and stronger D. J. Kennedy and Paris Horne, to an extent. Kennedy is a different player than Wright, but Larry is more polished and a better outside shooter than Horne.
I'll check back after Friday’s game.