Big East Notebook

Big East Conference Notebook

by Zach Smart

Stephenson Considering SJU, Rumors Are Rumors

Basketball is our city’s game. So how come, for the better of a decade, has there been a search warrant out for top-profile players at St. John’s University?

In the heart of a traditional basketball breeding ground, the New York City-based school should shoulder an arsenal of the city’s top talent. The Johnnies should ink five-star recruits from each of the five boroughs year after year, competing with the likes of first-class schools like North Carolina, Kansas, and UCLA.

Instead, the hoop tycoons at schools such as UConn, Pittsburgh (always front-loaded with some of New York’s finest) and even Kentucky sell players on the notion of leaving the city streets and hardscrabble basketball courts for the fresh suburban air, tall trees with leaves crumbling under the weight of autumn, burgeoning basketball culture and fanfare, and the blazing blue-eyed beauties from down south.

The days when Action Jackson shined, the late Malik Sealy soared, and Chris Mullin shot MSG to a power outage are long gone.

Playing in the media capitol of the world was a distraction for some of the New York neophytes who flamed out. The hype machine that fueled Omar Cook and Erick Barkley to declare early for the draft contributed to the backcourt tandem’s similar fade into obscurity.

Still, the city hopes its basketball culture can be restored at St. John’s.

For the few Johnnies fans left out there, there could be a glimmer of hope. Lance Stephenson, widely regarded as one of the top recruits in the nation, has entertained thoughts about staying local for his college career.

The 6-foot-5 off-guard/wing, who stars for Abraham Lincoln high school, has listed St. John’s amongst his elite eight. The finalist group additionally includes UCLA, Memphis, USC and Kansas.

Word around the hoop junkie rumor mill was that head coach Norm Roberts and the Johnnies were going to accept a Lance Stephenson-Tiny Morton (Stephenson’s head coach at Lincoln) package, a seductive recruiting move that would entice Stephenson to pen with SJU and bring basketball back to New York. A recent story from USA Today sports bloggers Reid Cherner and Tom Weir, however, squashes any such rumor.

“That’s New York City for you, everybody thinks they know a little bit about everything,” Roberts said, denying that a vacant assistant coaching position was available for Morton. “They know nothing about nothing. No, no, no. I haven’t offered it. We lost Will Lanier and he went on to work for (Marist head coach) Chuck Martin as basketball operations, so it opened up an (administrative) position for us. But I haven’t done anything with that, probably won’t do anything with that position until maybe sometime in August.”

Still, the thought of the Lincoln senior sporting a Johnnies uniform is enough to help restore basketball order at a place where it seems to be sorely lacking. A near-fight that broke out between two SJU teammates during a pick-up game at a camp run by St. John’s coaches is indicative of this.

The book on Stephenson is an easy read. He’s a hard-nosed wing with an NBA body who attacks the cup and scores at will.

“Sticks” Staying Put

The road to redemption nearly hit an early pothole for the University of Connecticut men’s basketball team this off-season. Stanley Robinson, a freakish 6-foot-9 junior forward and a significant cog in the starting lineup his freshman and sophomore seasons, entertained thoughts of leaving the NBA factory he was sold on as one of the top high school players in Alabama.

It turns out the kid the UConn fan base knows as “Sticks” won’t be taking his 10.4 points, 6.5 boards and ultra-athletic frame that screams NBA Draft elsewhere. Whether or not he will suit up for the 2008-2009 campaign, one which looks promising for the Huskies, is still up in the air.

Jim Calhoun, the eccentric, longtime Husky coach has made it clear that Robinson’s services will not be available for the first semester of the season. Robinson has said he still needs to pass a sociology course that he’ll be taking via the internet (at his uncle’s house in nearby Vernon, Conn.) and he’ll be ready to return before the start of the second semester.

Robinson has indicated that he’d like to return to UConn, just weeks after weighing his transfer options.

“I don’t want to jinx myself and say I’m coming back and then the class doesn’t go well,” said Robinson during a recent interview with the New Haven Register. “But I’m determined, because I have to be back in that uniform.”

But is it really an academic issue?

Throughout Robinson’s stay at UConn, he’s been a big man with a big question mark tattooed on his forehead. He’s shy around the media and is known to keep to himself. He’s a polite kid, with a smile as wide as the Withlacooche River who UConn fans love and his teammates would love to understand.

“Few people understand Stanley Robinson and I’m not one of those people,” said teammate Jeff Adrien, following the Huskies’ early-season drubbing of Buffalo in the 2K College Hoops Classic at Storrs. Robinson registered his presence that game (10 points, 13 rebounds, six blocks), after being called out by his coach for a paltry 0-point, 0-5, six turnover performance the previous game (Morgan State).

He’s the kid who hit up Maine for 32 points and 11 rebounds, but went to sleep against Providence (four points, five turnovers) despite cracking an ESPN Top Ten Play with a vicious rim-rattling putback in the first half.

He’s feast or famine. A ball of athletic potential, Robinson finds the frantic-pace northeast colossally different from his stomping grounds of Birmingham, Ala. It’s fitting, as the UConn family finds him to be different as well.

One second he’ll be chatting it up with Hartford Courant writer Mike Anthony. Moments later he’ll duck away from a media interview, as he did following his 18-point, eight-board effort in a 96-51 walloping of Cincinnati. UConn Sports Information Director Kyle Muncy said he literally chased Robinson down, to no avail, following that game.

Like Robinson’s game, this whole situation is inconsistent.

“Right now, he’s in a pretty good place,” Calhoun said. “He always wanted to go home to Alabama, then he couldn’t wait to get back here. He’s a young man that has a lot of work to do.”

While Robinson may need some time off and possibly a redshirt season, he’s certain he wants to continue to play in a Huskies’ uniform.

“There were so many rumors back at home – the papers were like, ‘he’s going to UAB, he’s going to Alabama.’ But I never said that,” explained Robinson.

“People asked me what I’m going to do, I said I’m still a part of the UConn family, I never left, I don’t want to leave. It’s my home, so I’ll keep it a home.”