November 15, 2010, feature on St. John's Red Storm men's basketball players Dwayne Polee and Justin Burrell for Metro NYC Newspaper
A mix of old and new for the Johnnies
College sports are a constantly revolving door. A class comes in, another leaves. Athletes stay just as long as they need before attempting a leap to the professional ranks. Coaches leverage job openings against their employers.
And while it appears that nothing ever stays the same at the college level, there is one universal truism: Upperclassmen teach underclassmen.
And for a program that is starting anew, St. John’s is depending on its senior class, including power forward Justin Burrell to be season-long tutors for highly touted freshman Dwayne Polee II.
Polee is the reigning California Player of the Year. A frontcourt star for Los Angeles’ Westchester High School, Polee averaged 20.9 points per game, 9.8 rebounds per game and two blocks per game. New St. John’s coach Steve Lavin has high hopes for Polee, believing that he could be the cornerstone athlete for a rebuilding program. Lavin said at St. John’s basketball media day earlier this month that while he had not determined whether Polee would start or come off the bench, the freshman was versatile enough to play four on-court positions.
For Burrell and fellow seniors D.J. Kennedy, Malik Boothe, Sean Evans, Dwight Hardy, Dele Coker, Paris Horne, Justin Brownlee, Kevin Clark and Rob Thomas the most important aspect of this season is enjoying team on-court success. St. John’s compiled a 42-53 record the last three seasons, including losing 37 of 54 Big East games, under the now-deposed Norm Roberts.
Lavin was hired by the commuter Catholic school on the corner of Union Turnpike and Utopia Parkway on March 30. Seven months is not a large expanse of time. But it was enough for Burrell to determine the differences between Roberts and his coaching staff and Lavin’s.
“It’s a very different atmosphere,” Burrell said. “Every coach is different. (Lavin and his staff) they pay attention to little details than Coach Roberts and his staff.
“On the court, (Lavin and his staff pay attention to) the way you tie your shoes, the way your shirt is tucked in, (if) your elbow is sticking out on your follow-through,” Burrell added when pressed to describe the details. “Are you reaching your potential? On suicides, are you running as hard as you can? Rebounding, they make sure you are chinning the basketball. Touching the line when you’re running. They pay attention to everything.”
Privately, Burrell would like to stay healthy. The only season in which Burrell played every game was his freshman year of 2007-08. He averaged 10.8 points and 5.9 rebounds per game that year. Burrell missed the 2008-09 Holiday Festival, in which St. John’s finished second out of four teams, with hairline facial fractures in his face suffered in practice. He missed five games last season with a high ankle sprain.
Burrell had a cast on his wrist at the media day. He explained that he was running suicide drills and banged the wrist off of Hardy’s knee, fracturing it. “I just hit it in the right spot and popped it,” Burrell said. The cast was removed last Tuesday and the wrist was examined Friday to determine whether it was strong enough to withstand the rigors of basketball.
The two biggest concerns about Polee is that he is 6-foot-7 and 193 pounds, and to help him to keep his confidence while going through Big East rigors. Lavin admitted that the coaching staff will be anxious about Polee’s cardiovascular endurance throughout the season .
“(The seniors) have told me what to expect. They all have. Basketball is basketball, no matter how you look at it. So as long as I go out and play my game, I know I’ll be alright,” Polee said when asked if the upperclassmen had talked to him about the conference. He admitted that his biggest weakness was “just staying in it mentally. It’s just getting through making mistakes. I like to get things right every single time, and if mess up, I get down on myself. That’s the biggest thing.”
Polee and Lavin have already begun to pay off-court dividends for St. John’s. According to ESPN.com, St. John’s has the seventh best recruiting class for 2011-12. Queens product Maurice Harkless, and out-of-state prep stars (Texas’) D’Angelo Harrison and (Ohio’s) Jakarr Sampson, (North Carolina’s) Dominique Pointer, along with JUCO product Nurideen Lindsey officially signed with St. John’s on Wednesday. Henderson, NEV., Findlay Prep) Novel Pelle announced last week that he had decided to play for the Red Storm and (Compton, CA., High School) prep star Amir Garrett was mentioned in conjunction with St. John’s. Garrett and Pelle were at Carnesecca Arena to watch St. John’s 100-42 demolition of NAIA Westmont last Saturday night. Queens point guard Jevon Thomas verbally committed to St. John’s last month, even though he would not be a freshman until the 2012-13.
While grading the incoming recruiting classes has become a cottage industry, there is no guarantee that the incoming players will develop into All-Americans and NBA draft picks, and that the program will experience on-court success. Even Lavin admitted that he thought St. John’s would “take our lumps” next season.
Having incoming prep talent from within the city and across the country creates a positive vibe for a program that had become an afterthought for most of the decade. Still the neophytes will need a veteran voice to guide them through their first Big East year. Polee will be expected to provide that leadership. He will have a year’s worth of lessons learned from Burrell to teach them with.
And the cycle will continue.
DENIS GORMAN
http://www.metro.us/newyork/sports/article/692123--a-mix-of-old-and-new-for-the-johnnies--page0
posted by Denis P. Gorman at 3:12 PM
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