The two games don’t have to be the ones that define this St. John’s basketball season, don’t have to be the ones that summarize Steve Lavin’s tenure as the Red Storm coach. They can be blips, potholes, brief impediments on the way to something else, something better.
Even good teams — well, outside of Kentucky anyway — are permitted to have two-game losing streaks.
There are a great many things at play Tuesday night, when the Johnnies host Villanova in what ought to be a terrific throwback night at Madison Square Garden, recalling a time when heavyweight Big East rivals really could make the old gym rattle and hum with the feel of a heavyweight prizefight.
Maybe a smidge of the sheen has been dulled by the fact that both teams took uppercuts to the jaw from Seton Hall across the past five days, the Pirates asserting their own place in the conference firmament by twice opening trapdoors at Prudential Center and taking out teams that were, at the time, both in the top 15. And St. John’s stumbled again over the weekend letting Butler quiet a sellout crowd at Carnesecca Arena.
So the Johnnies may no longer be rolling. But a loss Tuesday night, and they officially may be reeling, and that’s not the way anyone envisioned this season going. This is Lavin’s fifth year in Jamaica, and it was the target all along of a blossoming in Queens, a realization of all the things he promised when he arrived from the television booth in 2010.
He would recruit not only good players but the right players. He would build a program capable of sustaining success, not merely hinting at it every few years. Instead, to date, what he’s done is win with Norm Roberts’ players. What he’s established is a program incapable of maintaining much of anything due to player defections, a few poor recruiting choices, and an inability to create, or build, anything resembling positive, extended momentum.
Last year’s team was hamstrung by a sluggish conference start, and though there was a good six-week stretch when it played as well as anyone, there was also a dreadful crash-landing at the end. Now there is this 0-2 start to another Big East season, and an unwelcome hearkening to the program’s recent shortcomings.
And now, there is a chance for Lavin to prove he is more than just platitude and attitude and curious wardrobe choices. Now, immediately, he can prove that he can make St. John’s truly matter again. For that is the real pity if the Johnnies do not seize this opportunity: at a time when the Knicks are beyond salvageable, when the Nets remain a schizophrenic puzzle, this really can be a St. John’s town again, at least in the here and now.
Then there is the drama surrounding sophomore guard Rysheed Jordan, who will play Tuesday night after a brief leave of absence reportedly due to the death of his grandmother, and who has, according to several accounts, been a regular source of disciplinary concern for the coaching staff. What’s clear is that Lavin’s incessant coddling of him was disingenuous at best and damaging at worst; now it is Lavin who suffers those consequences.
And if anything, the whole mess reminds us that one of the genuine successes of the Lavin Era is the tough love he showed D’Angelo Harrison two years ago, throwing him off the team, demanding he grow up. And he did. Harrison is now a tough, clutch senior, a terrific player and a better leader. Lavin can make an impact here. He HAS made an impact here.
Just not the one he promised. Not yet. For the season’s first seven weeks it seemed he had, finally, until Big East play began and the varsity games started appearing on the schedule. That’s fine. All is not lost, not at 0-2. Beat Villanova, and we can all settle in for a fun two months ahead. Beat the Wildcats and prove December was no mirage.
Win, and maybe the Garden isn’t destined to be a basketball morgue for the rest of the winter.
If you care about basketball in this town, in this season, it really is the only way to root.