{"id":72,"date":"2012-01-26T10:37:22","date_gmt":"2012-01-26T15:37:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/?p=72"},"modified":"2012-01-26T11:42:13","modified_gmt":"2012-01-26T16:42:13","slug":"72","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/?p=72","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I walked up to the Garden\u2019s day-of-game window Wednesday night and asked for the cheapest ticket available.\u00a0 It was 45 minutes before tip.\u00a0 St. John\u2019s vs. West Virginia.<\/p>\n

25 bucks.\u00a0 That\u2019ll get you a seat up in the 300 level.<\/p>\n

I bought a ten dollar cup of Heineken on the fancy new main level and scouted out a way to upgrade my seating location.\u00a0 An usher working a section behind one of the baskets said he didn\u2019t mind if I crashed his territory as long as I sat near the rear of it.<\/p>\n

The Johnnies started five freshmen.\u00a0 They were seven and a half point underdogs but came out running and gunning.\u00a0 WVU missed 11 of its first 14 shot attempts.\u00a0 Twelve minutes into the game, St. John\u2019s was up 21-6.\u00a0 They coasted the whole way and won 78-62.<\/p>\n

Attendance was just 6901.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The guy I was most intrigued to see had a big night.\u00a0 Johnnies swingman Moe Harkless (pictured above with the ball) scored 23, pulled down 13 boards and had three blocks.\u00a0 As he\u2019s done four times previously this season, Harkless was on the floor for the entire game.<\/p>\n

The way Harkless plays reminds me of the great Mizzou swingman and fellow Queens native Derrick Chievous.\u00a0 There\u2019s an unusual elasticity in Moe\u2019s frame.\u00a0 Listed at 6-foot-8, Harkless plays the wing on offense but is the primary force underneath when the other team has the ball.\u00a0 He skies over guys his size and uses that rubber-band agility to great advantage.\u00a0 He\u2019s really fun to watch.<\/p>\n

Harkless is the highest rated recruit to play for the Johnnies since Ron Artest.\u00a0 How long he stays is unclear but his tweener-type game may keep him in college for another year to hone his shot.<\/p>\n

A majority of the St. John\u2019s scoring (50 points) came from inside the paint.\u00a0 From an all-frosh lineup, that\u2019s impressive.<\/p>\n

At about 6:45 PM, St. John\u2019s coach Steve Lavin elicited excited murmurs from the crowd when he appeared on the Garden hardwood for a pre-game ceremony.\u00a0 Fifteen minutes later, Lavin had moved up high to a Garden suite as an observer.\u00a0 Lavin says prostate cancer surgery in early October has left him without the stamina necessary to handle full-time head coaching duties.\u00a0 He last worked the sideline on 11-18-11 and says it\u2019s possible he may wait until next season to return to the bench.<\/p>\n

Assistant Mike Dunlap has assumed the role of head coach in Lavin\u2019s absence.\u00a0 Dunlap said after the game that it was Lavin who suggested the all-frosh starting lineup but all indications are that in-game decisions are made without intervention from the sky box.<\/p>\n

As is his custom, WVU coach Bob Huggins wore all black.\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t a happy camper for this one.\u00a0 Huggins seemed especially miffed at the defensive positioning of his bearded Turkish big man Deniz Killici.<\/p>\n

I think I figured out the source of discomfort coming from the newly-installed grey-colored seats in MSG\u2019s lower bowl.\u00a0 Many fans have complained they\u2019re smaller.\u00a0 I believe the problem is that they\u2019re positioned too low to the ground.\u00a0 It\u2019s only when you sit in an old green seat immediately prior to switching to a grey seat that one can make this comparison.<\/p>\n

One other oddity of the ongoing renovation at MSG is the brand new men\u2019s washroom located between sections 102 and 103.\u00a0 The entire bathroom is configured with regular toilet basins equipped with stall doors.\u00a0 No urinals.\u00a0 When you walk into it, you wonder if you\u2019re in a women\u2019s room by accident.\u00a0 The rationale of making an entire men\u2019s room of the sit-down variety is a serious waste of space.\u00a0 While those consuming the Garden\u2018s $19 steak sandwich might appreciate it, those of us doing nothing more than drinking the $10 beers think otherwise.<\/p>\n

-The Times failed to cover the game.\u00a0 Thursday\u2019s newspaper devoted just two lines of wire copy to an event that occurred just eight short city blocks from its newsroom.<\/p>\n

-On the way into the game, I walked by Radioman hanging out on 33rd<\/sup> Street.\u00a0 I wouldn\u2019t have mentioned it, but when I opened up the Post today, there was a picture of Radioman kissing Katherine Heigl on the cheek before the New York premiere of her new movie.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I walked up to the Garden\u2019s day-of-game window Wednesday night and asked for the cheapest ticket available.\u00a0 It was 45 minutes before tip.\u00a0 St. John\u2019s vs. West Virginia. 25 bucks.\u00a0 That\u2019ll get you a seat up in the 300 level. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[3],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s28tEv-72","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=72"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76,"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72\/revisions\/76"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=72"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=72"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=72"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}