St John’s survived St Peter’s Tuesday night at Carnesecca Arena 79-69 and when I say survived that’s not an exaggeration. St John’s led by 22 (28-6) at the second TV timeout and were outscored thereafter 63-51, including in the second half for the third or fourth time this year, which see also half time adjustments. Still, SJ’s had a comfortable 73-55 lead with five minutes left when Coach Third Choice called a timeout to impart some much needed wisdom to his young charges. I don’t know what he said to them but whatever it was he should never impart it again, because it resulted in a 2-14 run that got SPU within six with a minute to play. If LJ Figueroa – a career 60 percent free throw shooter – hadn’t hit his last four, who knows what might have happened.

There’s good and bad news in the box score. The good news is that SJ shot respectably from the field – 47 percent from the floor and 40 percent from three – and had 26 assists, which seems like a lot, because the ball movement in the often-ossified half court offense leaves something to be desired. The bad news is that SJ was outrebounded, turned the ball over 19 times and once again were moribund from the free throw line: they were 9-16 (56 percent) before LJF made his last four. If SPU wasn’t so spectacularly awful – they shot 37 percent from the floor, 33 percent from three, 40 percent from the FT line and committed 20 TO’s– things would be as glum in Queens this morning as they are here in upstate NY every morning … It’s still way too early to pass judgment on a team with a new coach integrating what are essentially eight new players but there are however warning signs that disaster looms. These I won’t bother rehashing. On the bright side SJU has beaten everyone they “should” have beaten except what looks like a bad home loss to Vermont, loser of three of their last four. Saturday’s game at MSG against undefeated West Virginia – which maybe who knows SJU was looking past SPU at, which even if a good excuse for yesterday is itself a bad sign for tomorrow – should be a good measuring stick. Obviously I haven’t seen WVU but Huggins is Huggins, even when he’s faced, which he usually is.

PLAYERS: LJ Figueroa – who finally got called for the push-off he uses to get free on his step-back three – led all scorers with 19 points in 26 minutes … Heron had 17 points on 13 shots and contributed almost nothing else (one assist/steal/block/rebound). He did commit four fouls though, which makes 13 over his last three games. If he’s committing 4.3 fouls a game against Wagner and St Peter’s he’ll be fouled out by the first TV time out against Villanova. His propensity to foul seems a pattern: he committed last year more than four fouls 12 times while fouling out of four games … Julian Champagnie double doubled. As impressive as he’s been early lest we get over our skis recall that he’s a three star recruit playing with four and five star recruits against no star recruits … Josh Roberts (infra) had four points, four blocks and eight rebounds … Rasheed Dunn and Nick Rutherford had a combined four points, ten assists and six turnovers. That’s not a very good stat line for a PG with one head, much less two … Damien Sears (three points) played the same number of minutes (11) as Earlington (six points), which isn’t in anyone’s best interests. It might be me but CTC seems to have little patience with Earlington’s exuberance on the offensive end … I’ll come right out and say that David Cadaver annoys me, which I think maybe it’s the Donald Trump Jr bouffant. Not that I have anything against DTJ, I mean Kimberly Gilfoyle, come on, that’s a woman. No wonder Eric Bolling was sending her dick pics … Once again I almost forgot that Greg Williams played. He showed flashes last year, so maybe he is in fact injured

NOTES: The bad news is that under the expert tutelage of Steve “Some things are more important than winning” Lavin (for those of you scoring at home those things are pasta and gravy) former SJU point guard Rysheed Jordan went from a borderline lottery pick – he was in high school a higher rated recruit than Joel Embiid – to being a janitor at the Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Center where he was until recently awaiting trial for a slew of felonies, including attempted murder, aggravated assault and robbery. The good news is that Rysheed was released from prison this week. I suspect without knowing that he pleaded guilty to some lesser charge in exchange for time served, Jordan not having been brought to trial within 365 days, which is the statutory speedy trial term in Pennsylvania. The reaction from St John’s fans was mixed: some wondered whether he had any eligibility left and others wondered why he not had the book thrown at him. My opinion is somewhere in between. Subscribing as I do to the old Russian proverb “This German may be a good fellow, but better to hang him” I think that most people should be drawn and quartered on general principles. And yet one cannot help but feel compassion for a teen who fell from grace so far and so precipitously. One minute the world is yours and the next your world is shit and you’re being raped in the prison shower. At the risk of being mawkish let us hope Rysheed makes more of his future opportunities than those he’s had in his past … In the NOTES section of the Wagner recap I mentioned as is my wont famous alumni which at Wagner I noted included … “Hall of Fame coach Rich Kotite; and a former valued SJ basketball forum poster called WeAreSJU who passed away this past fall at the untimely age of 51.” For those of you with lives WASJU used to be active on various fan forums and was in my estimation an intelligent and jolly fellow, but he no longer posts regularly anywhere except for occasionally with the geriatric D listers at Redman dot dumb. So anyway I just meant to give him a shout out, knowing that he reads (or used to anyway) this dopey blog. In hindsight it’s quite predictable that a fan base that takes to the divan with smelling salts every time some drama queen pretend insider changes his forum avatar and that traffics in rumors and innuendo like a gaggle of yenta fishwives would have taken my little jape seriously. This despite being preceded by “hall of fame coach rich kotite,” which you’d think was a bit of a dead giveaway. So soon commenced wailing and gnashing of teeth, OMG poor WASJU is daid, and condolences poured in and go fund me pages were being arranged. NEWSFLASH: I was joking and as far as I know WASJU is in good health and teaching his adorable first born the finer points of free throw shooting. And if by some odd eerie coincidence WASJU passed away on the very day I mentioned him passing away in passing, some of you better start putting your affairs in order, because if I’ve the power to kill by dropping names there’s going to be bodies dropping all over the five boroughs … Speaking of Redman dot dumb, there was this week a thread about Josh Roberts, who no one can deny has been having a surprising sophomore season. This led various posters to suggest analogies between Roberts and other basketball players. In general this can be a fun exercise. For example someone might say you know what, Tomas Jasionustein reminds me a bit of Sean Muto with a severe head injury; or another might opine David Caraher reminds me of Marco Bourgault with taller hair and a worse jump shot. This week Josh Roberts, a second year player averaging a three points and three rebounds per game over the course of his brief career was compared to Leroy Ellis (a first round draft pick who averaged a double double over the course of his career), hall of famer Dennis Rodman, Buck Williams (averaged a double double in college and the same over a 20-year NBA career), two time All-American Hakim Warrick, and most spectacularly Bill Russell, who might (other than Wilt Chamberlain) be THE GREATEST BASKETBALL PLAYER WHO EVER LIVED. Even if not the GOAT Russell dominated his sport like no athlete in any sport ever: he won two national championships in two years in college, then won an Olympic gold medal, then won seven NBA championships is nine year in the league. This is Bill Russell

That is not Josh Roberts. The guy who made the comparison first said of Russell – who averaged 20 points and 20 rebounds in college – that like Roberts he “couldn’t make a shot greater than five feet. His total offensive game was putting in follow ups.” He finally walked that back a bit, saying that the comparison “was strictly based on body frame.” Which is like comparing Mr Ed to Secretariat because they both have four legs and a tail. Josh Roberts is 6’9″ 210. You know was 6’9″ 210? Phil Missere. I don’t recall anyone comparing Phil Missere to Bill Russell. I anticipate your protests. Fun you’re thinking, what the fuck? What’s the big deal about some contemporaneous off the cuff hot takes in an obscure corner of the internets. These are fan forums, places where people come to speculate and blow off steam. What do you expect? The short answer is I don’t expect anything, but then I have a low opinion of most people. But if you were to ask me what I’d like, what I’d like is a little introspection and a little circumspection and a little comity. Or in the words of the sort of people who populate these forums, I’d like just a little bit of class. But as I said I don’t expect that, because SJ’s fans comprise the worst most hysterical and dare I say dumbest fan base in all of sports. (Not you obviously, the other guy.) But then again maybe I’m wrong. Maybe mindless speculation based upon groundless rumor is the way to go. Maybe Rysheed Jordan should rot in prison unless he has some eligibilty left and maybe Josh Roberts is Bill Russell and worst of all maybe poor WASJU has left us. If so and once again, RIP.