St. John's Basketball Season 2019-2020: The Rundown

This season, the Bolt team will be reporting live from Madison Square Garden on December 7th, January 11th, January 18th, January 28th, February 2nd, February 17th, and March 7th. Be sure to follow us on Instagram so you don't miss the chance to catch us when we go live! After each of these games, a summary of the game, a review of statistics, and predictions for the next game will be published on the Bolt blog. There’s a lot to look forward to this season and we can't wait for you to be apart of it!

Last year, the men’s basketball team graduated three powerhouses--Marvin Clark II, Shamorie Ponds, and Justin Simon; Clark is currently signed with Belgium’s Kangoeroes Basket, Ponds is signed with the Toronto Raptors on a two-way contract, and Simon was waived from the Chicago Bulls in October. We wish the best of luck to Clark, Ponds, and Simon.

But, back in New York City, we are eagerly watching the beginning of the 2019-2020 NCAA men’s basketball season. The team is returning 7 players for the 2019-2020 season: Mustapha Heron, Josh Roberts, Greg Williams Jr., Marcellus Earlington, Justin Cole, LJ Figueroa, and Ian Steere. The returning roster features two All-Met honorees, presented by the Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association-- Mustapha Heron was named to the All-Met Second Team and LJ Figueroa was awarded All-Met Third Team honors.

Amongst the new recruits is Nick Rutherford, a transfer from Monmouth University. During the 2018-19 season, Rutherford was ranked 5th in the conference in steals per game and reached double figures three times. St John’s currently has a 5-2 overall record under the new head coach--Mike Anderson. Anderson’s coaching style is reflected on the court with a visibly different team dynamic. Last season, under Coach Chris Mullin, the team averaged 10 fast-break points over the course of 34 games. This season, under Coach Anderson, the team averages 24 fast-break points over the course of 7 games, which reflects Coach Anderson’s emp

hasis on a strong defense and faster-paced game. This trend is expected to continue but also challenged with teams that operate in similar matters in the Big East (e.g., Villanova). In the past, part of this pace and playing style was dubbed the “40-minute” press. Anderson learned this from Nolan Richarson at the University of Arkansas, where he was an assistant, assistant head coach, and later head coach.

We can’t wait to see how the team will continue to grow under this new leadership and team dynamic. His influence is already apparent in their first games of the season. High scorers on the team range from returning players such as LJ Figueroa--who averages 15 points a game-- and Mustapha Heron--who averages 14 points a game-- to first-year signees with St John’s--and the first of the Mike Anderson era-- such as freshman Julian Champgnie--who averages 11 points a game-- to red shirt athletes such as junior Rasheem--who averages 12 points in the four games he has played so far.