stj vs niagara

New post at the East Coast Bias-- pre-game quotes from the ST. John's Red Storm, who play Niagara at 4 PM Eastern time.

Niagara Purple Eagles at St. John's Red Storm this Saturday

New post on the upcoming St. Johns vs. Niagara basketball game at THE East Coast Bias, your source for Red Storm news, pregame information, and recaps.

New Look, New Style, New Insight.

We're moving the blog:

http://theeastcoastbias.wordpress.com/

Bookmark THE East Coast Bias in your readers. We're stepping up the game. It'll still have the same St. John's Red Storm news and analysis, with more player notes and information, stats, and other goodies culled from firsthand viewing and all the best online sources. The U Mass, New York Mets, and Boston Red Sox components are also coming. I promise.

And I left more gracefully than Petrino:

Mets Links

Mets in the Dominican:

Reyes, training and at rest in the Dominican. And a photo gallery. Reyes will also be on the cover of Major League Baseball 2K8. Which will be available on the Wii!

2 Rule 5 picks: Steve Register (taken in the major league portion) from the Rockies organization and Garry Bakker (taken in the Triple A portion) taken from the White Sox organizaiotn. The Rule 5 explained by Baseball America:

The Rule V Draft is held annually during baseball's Winter Meetings. Teams must file a 40 man roster with the league office by November 20. Any player who fits all of the below criteria is eligible for the Rule V Draft:

* Player is not on the 40 man roster
* Player has been in the minor leagues for at least 4 years if he was signed after age 19 (was 3 years before the 2006 CBA).
* Player has been in the minor leagues for at least 5 years if he was signed before age 19 (was 4 years before the 2006 CBA).

Any player drafted must stay in the major leagues all season. Before he is sent to the minors, he must be offered back to the club who had his rights for a $25,000 waiver fee. Often, teams will send a player in lieu of the fee.

Minor league teams can also participate in the draft. AAA teams can draft any player eligible from AA for $12,000, and AA teams can draft any players that are eligible from A for $4,000. Players chosen in the minor league part of the draft do not need to return to the original teams for any reason.

John Maine was Impersonated. Dammit, I Was Diggin' The X-Dress Action.

A New Refutation of Time and Space Identity:

The Mets say pitcher John Maine is the victim of an impostor who has been asking women for their outfits. Thursday, a woman named Abby Cohen called the club Touch to get "John Maine" a table at their opening night. When the man arrived, he identified himself as the Mets pitcher and asked several young ladies if he could try on their dresses (even offering a reporter $200 for hers). Despite being "recognized" as Maine by doormen and publicists for Touch, the Mets insist that he has not been in New York since October and was in Virginia on the night of incident.

John Maine is the Kind of Man Made for the New York Nightlife

I really love it when a New York athlete really gets into being a New York athlete-- the parties, the gossip column mentions, some gambling, and not being afraid of going out in drag. Even if Rudy "Lieutenant 9/11" Giuliani did it too.

John Maine, in fact, welcomes a touch of gender-bending:

At the opening of Touch nightclub on Thursday, Mets' pitcher John Maine approached a twentysomething club-goer and offered her several hundred dollars to try on her dress.

The Virginia-born ball-hurler later approached PageSix.com and asked to test-drive our frock as well. “I’m John Maine. I pitch for the Mets! I’m a hot piece of ass!” he kept repeating. He claimed that he was on his way to a drag party later that night.

“Come on, I’ll give you $200 to try on your dress,” he begged. “Just to take a picture. It’ll be fun.”

While I'm not going to throw around money to rock a stranger's dress (and at 6'4", 200 lbs, I have no idea where he's readily going to find a woman that is his size), I love this. John Maine, keep the solid pitching up and with nightlife stories like this, you will be legend-- wait for it-- I'm not going to jack How I Met Your Mother, I respect the show too much for that. But still. David Wright needs to hang out with you, man.

John Maine: second coming of Joe Willie Namath?

Jets Football Song

Taken from The Sports Hernia:

"The Garv" on trying out for left guard of the Jets in this year's training camp. Seriously, watch this. Over an over again. This man is serious about protecting Chad Pennington. His verbal style will... oh, just watch the video.

Game #5: St. John's 47 at Miami Hurricanes 66

It was an ass-whoopin', clean and clear. More notes on the game later, but basically, Miami's bigger athletes overpowered the Johnnies. The first half was ugly but St. John's tied the game at the half. Then they came out and got abused in the second half by Anthony King, who was Tyler hansbrough for one small stretch of his life. That will be his highlight reel to eastern European teams when he's done with this, his 6th year of eligibility.

The Red Storm looked confused, out of sorts; Larry Wright couldn't hit the sidewalk with his shot; Burrell was handled on both ends of the court; and the coaches had no good answers.

Game #5: St. John's at Miami Hurricanes

So this is what passes as a big game this year-- St. John's at Miami, the first road test for the young Johnnies. I can't say i know what to expect, exactly; under Coach Roberts, the team has not been a road warrior:

Including St. John's Super Bowl Sunday win at Cincinnati on Feb. 4, 2007, the Red Storm owns four road victories since the dawn of the Norm Roberts Era...

4 victories in 4 years? Well, that's a trend to turn around, isn't it? Coupled with the Vegas point spread (not that I bet or condone betting), which has MIA favored by 10 and a 135 point over under, there are less-than-positive indicators for the Red Storm men's basketball squad. Part of that has to be the amount of information we just don't know about this team. There will be one player on the court who received significant minutes last year in Eugene Lawrence. i don't know how Norm Roberts is going to coach the game-- will Sean Evans get lots of time? Will Larry Wright play half the game? If it were me 3 or 4 guys would be playing 35 minutes each.

Miami is 6-0, seems pretty effiecient and solid defensively. They've beaten Providence College. They rebound well, especially on the offensive side, shoot quite a few free throws, and depend on their three point shooting, because their two-point shooting is suspect. Statistically, they play a little slower than St. John's. The teams that have hung close with the Hurricanes seem to shoot the ball well. They play man to man, physical defense, kind of like St. John's (but sometimes the Johnnies aren't really getting in guards' grills). Norm and Justin Burrell on the Miami squad:

Norm:

"The other thing they do a great job is getting to the offensive glass. What's going to be a huge key for us is our ability to rebound the ball and defend the first shot and get open looks. The big guys all hit the glass, they all have double figure offensive rebounds in the six games they played."

Burrell:

"We're definitely going to need a big team effort to rebound this weekend. Their three big guys have about 50 rebounds together so far, we're going to need Dele Coker, Tomas Jasiulionis and Sean Evans and our guards as well to rebound in order to get it done.

This afternoon, the Miami team may be without starting guard Jack McClinton, but will start their top freshman Eddie Rios, who has had a pair of 2-10 shooting games recently. Anthony King weighs in at 246 lbs and 6'9"; the rest of the team is strong but not tall.

Some notes from the Miami Herald:

The Hurricanes didn't just improve in the paint, they also made their free throws. After going 8 of 21 from the line Saturday, they went to the free-throw line a season-high 42 times and converted 31 attempts.

Something else got better, too, Wednesday -- attendance. There were 2,339 fans at the game -- 600 more than Saturday's game. More are expected Sunday, when UM faces former Big East rival St. John's (4-0). It is expected to be UM's stiffest test before it plays at Mississippi State on Dec. 13.

Haith hopes to have co-captain Jack McClinton back by then. McClinton, the team's leading scorer, missed his second consecutive game because of an injured left thumb. Haith said he is hopeful McClinton will be able to play Sunday.

''I know Jack is anxious, he wanted to get back tonight,'' Haith said. ``. . . I think we're looking to take the cast off in the next couple days. I think we want to see what it looks like, feels like, and we'll go from there.''

Freshman point guard Eddie Rios got his second consecutive start in place of McClinton, and again shot 2 of 10 from the field.

But he showed positive signs running Miami's offense, finishing with 11 points, five assists, four rebounds and three turnovers in 35 minutes.

Keys to the game:

Composure. Not that those 3000 fans are going to be overwhelming. The Red Storm play in front of about that many people at home games against crap teams, and Miami has historically had bad attendance for their basketball games. But being on the road for the first time as freshmen, and on national television will certainly get a few players to press, to try to impress. Burrell, especially, has to concentrate on his game and not imagined fouls or the fouls that will be called on him as he goes against the veteran Anthony King defensively. The talent is there to win, but the team has to try not to play above their heads.

Mano-a-mano. This is obviously the most talented team the Red Storm has had to play defense against, and they have to be up to the challenge early. In other games, the defense on the guards has been more lax than it needs to be, and while they have been able to step it up in the second half, this is a different weight class. The 'Canes have some strong guards, and that will favor Eugene Lawrence on defense, hopefully. St. John's will need to screen to get Larry Wright free, and Burrell will have a chance to show what he can do on offense and defense with his incredible quickness and skill around the basket. If Coker (and Jasiulionis, if he plays) can stay on the court, they may be difference makers. And DJ Kennedy will slip inside and make plays.

Make it Ugly. Paris Horne and the other guards need to force turnovers, keep them out of rhythm-- especially if freshman guard Eddie Rios is starting. And collect the rebounds.

Big Time 'Em. Burrell, Kennedy, here's your showcase. Go get them.