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RECRUITING RIVALS REUNITE TONIGHT

St. John’s and Seton Hall more than rivals on the court
By Zach Smart

While the rivalry is no where near the same plane as Calhoun/Calipari or anything of that type, St. John’s coach Norm Roberts and Seton Hall coach Bobby Gonzalez are often competing against each other.

I’m talking beyond the two times a year the teams meet in conference play.

A science that is light years from exact, recruiting has built up continuous competition for the two Big East game generals. Both shoulder the onus of salesman on a 24-hour, 365 days a year schedule. They scout the New York and New Jersey area for talent, looking to sell young stallions on their respective Universities.

The two coaches are spotted at the same events, blazing the recruiting trail for a handful of the same players, sitting down in living rooms and talking with the same parents, employing different sales pitch to get kids to stay local.

“We’re going to try to recruit the best kids in New York no matter what,” said Roberts. Roberts received a major off-season boost when 6-foot-4 New York guard Omari Lawrence committed in late August, following a visit to the urban, Queens, N.Y. campus. Roberts is also in active pursuit of Lance “Born Ready” Stephenson, a highly sought-after 6-foot-5 guard who’s also considering Maryland, Kansas, UCLA, and USC. Stephenson, who plays for perennial power Lincoln in Coney Island, has hinted he would like to stay local (his father is a major presence in his basketball life and both of his parents attend every game). Born Ready has said that he’d like to “bring New York back,” of course easier said than done. St. John’s has faltered since the days of Chris Mullin, Mark Jackson, and even Felipe Lopez. Part of the blame is heaped on Mike Jarvis, whose career was stained by scandal. The career of Erick Barkley (who bolted for the league after two years) along with the one-and-done deal done by Omar Cook (whereabouts currently unknown, anyone know if OC is still playing?) destroyed the program’s credibility to a degree.

“We’re always going to try to. The key is, the kids are not always going to stay home. I think people tend to forget that they don’t look at it from the opposite side. You know, sometimes kids that live in a rural area will say, ‘I’m sick of living in this rural, country area. I want to go somewhere in the metropolitan area.’ Sometimes you have the city kids say, ‘I’m sick of living in the city, I want to go somewhere else.’ And that’s what happens. What we’ve got to do, is get the guys that are the best, the guys that want to stay home, that want to be here and make them as good as they can possibly be.”

Roberts and Gonzalez have been living two different lives the past few years.

At St. John’s, students are demanding more change than Barack Obama. The Johnnies loyalists (well, the ones that are left) have called for Roberts’ job since the beginning of the season. Even while St. John’s reeled off nine wins in their first 12 games of the 2008-09 campaign, students erupted with relentless “Fire Norm!” chants.

Of course, the wins that St. John’s scored over teams like Cornell, Long Island, Eastern Michigan, NJIT, and Bethune-Cookman were only a preamble to bigger, stiffer competition. The Johnnies haven’t handled that competition too well, capturing just three conference wins this season.

After all, we know that the puppies can’t dance with the pit bulls.

Harkening back on it now, the Johnnies have never really benefited from a schedule that’s about as challenging as catching a date via Myspace.com. At least UConn and Syracuse have some barometer games before the Big East slate opens up.

A Google search of “Fire Norm Roberts,” yields an eye-popping 532,000 results.

On the other side of the mountain, Bobby Gonzalez has won over a fan base that couldn’t wait to see Louis Orr punch a plane, train or bus ticket out of town. The Hall came out of the gates in a struggle, starving for a victory through the meat of their Big East schedule. They dropped their first five games until an upset over Georgetown kick-started a five game win streak. The Hall, whose fan base have embraced Gonzalez (bursting out ‘Bobby G!’ chants before their Big East tournament game vs. Marquette last year), look to snap a two-game losing streak when the two teams meet at St. John’s tonight.

As far as bringing in the local metropolitan talent, Gonzalez has had the upper hand on his counterpart. Bobby G brought in a scoring machine in go-to-guy Jeremy Hazell (22.8 ppg), a Harlem native. Robert Mitchell (14.3 ppg) and Eugene Harvey (12.6 ppg, 4.7 apg) hail from Brooklyn.

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