NEW YORK — One year after winning just one Big East game, St. John’s was picked to finish eighth in the league this season.
Still, there are some bright spots as head coach Chris Mullin enters his second year at the helm of the Red Storm. Brooklyn point guard Shamorie Ponds – ranked 36th in his class by ESPN – was named Big East Preseason Freshman of the Year..
“He’s been good,” Mullin said Tuesday at Big East Media Day at Madison Square Garden, where he played with St. John’s in the mid-1980s. “He’s a talented kid. He’s very smart on the court. Got good feel, and he’s got a natural instinct for the game. I think he has the type of game and type of personality where he just knows how to fit in with any group. He really has a good feel.”
On the recruiting front, Mullin believes Ponds can help St. John’s lands other New York-area stars.
“He is the type of kid we want,” he said. “A kid who wants to stay home, play in front of his family and friends, and play here at ‘The World’s Most Famous Arena.'”
For the rest of the team though, there are plenty of holes to fill after an 8-24 season that featured 17 conference losses. Sophomore forward Kassoum Yakwe sees last seasons struggles as an opportunity to move forward and build on the experience.
“We’ve been really working on our chemistry,” said Yakwe, who wore a black top hat to media day along with teammate Bashir Ahmed. “When you’re playing the game of basketball, you need to be a good team to beat the other teams. We’ve been working really hard with the coaches to try and understand the game more and trying to learn from last season.”
Mullin knows that last season wasn’t pretty, but he also understands that a champion isn’t built overnight. A rough go around like the 2015-16 season can provide a foundation for success to come, and Mullin sees that in his basketball team.
“The whole season was a good learning experience,” Mullin said. “Nobody likes to lose, but I think when you put the effort in and you prepare, you live with the results. I thought our guys did a really good job of that each and every day, kind of wiping the slate clean and giving a good honest days work and preparation. I think it’ll pay off. When you’re building that’s what it’s all about, not so much the results but how you handle them and what you do about it. From that standpoint I think it’s going to be a tough, but useful, foundation.”
Along with the addition of Ponds and the return of Italian Federico Mussini to the Red Storm backcourt, Mullin finally has the opportunity to bring four-star point guard Marcus LoVett into the fold. The Chicago native was ruled partially eligible by the NCAA last season and subsequently redshirted his freshman season.
After missing a year of basketball on the court and suffering a knee injury last season while practicing, LoVett put in impressive work to get better on and off the court, and is expected to contribute right away to a team who was shaky last season from the guard position.
“I’m really, really impressed with Marcus,” Mullin said. “After not being able to play, and then having an injury, he had a really great focus on taking care of his body and did a good job in the classroom. He really picked it up this summer. I was very impressed with his approach, very mature approach. It was a tough year for him, he thought he was going to be able to play. He actually improved in that time. Very mature type of attitude.”
Mullin said he may play LoVett and Ponds together in the backcourt at times.
“Marcus and Shamorie are both really talented guards with somewhat different skills,” Mullin said. “It’s only been a week, but they seem to function really well together. Marcus might be a little more of a pure point guard, Shamorie more of a scorer, but he’s also a willing passer. When we’ve used them together, they’ve looked good.”
With a clean slate for the new season, St. John’s has some pieces in place that they didn’t hold last year to help ease their struggles. Guards drive success in the Big East, and Mullin is happy to have two talented guys manning his backcourt.
“Every level guards are really, really important,” Mullin said. “A guard that can handle the ball, control tempo, and get his teammates involved is as important as any position on the floor.”
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