St. John's men's basketball and women's basketball teams will begin their seasons with a Midnight Madness event at 7:30 p.m. ET on Friday, Oct. 14 at Carnesecca Arena. The event is free and open to the public, but space is limited. It will be streamed live on ESPN3.com.
The men's basketball team will barely resemble the squad that made the NCAA Tournament last season. Only one scholarship player (Malik Stith) returns, and he will be joined by a highly-touted, six-member freshman class. Coach Steve Lavin, who is battling cancer but does not expect his illness to affect his coaching, originally signed nine recruits to play this year, but Amir Garrett, Norvel Pelle and JaKarr Sampson have been ruled ineligible for the fall semester.
Even so, Moe Harkless, Sir'Dominic Pointer and D'Angelo Harrison were all top-100 recruits. They'll need to play a major role as the Red Storm look to replace 96.3 percent of their scoring and 97.8 percent of their rebounding from last season.