By Dylan Butler
The St. John’s men’s basketball team will face a familiar opponent to start the 2001-02 season as the Red Storm will take on the Gonzaga Bulldogs in the first round of the Great Alaska Shootout on Thanksgiving night. Tip-off is slated for 11 p.m. and will be televised live on ESPN.
The tournament begins a day earlier, Nov. 21, with a double-header as Indiana takes on Alaska-Anchorage and Marquette takes on Tennessee. The St. John’s game will be the final contest of the first round as Oregon State and Texas battle at 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 22. The two winners are slated to meet the following night at 6:30 p.m.
The championship game will be Saturday, Nov. 24, and will be televised live on ESPN at 9 p.m.
Gonzaga defeated the Red Storm 82-76 in the second round of the 2000 NCAA Tournament.
In addition to their three games at the Alaska Shootout, the Red Storm will face Manhattan, Hofstra, Fairfield, Wake Forest and Duke in non-conference games next season but will not play longtime rivals Georgetown or Syracuse in Big East play.
The conference announced, in addition to two games against division foes Boston College, Connecticut, Miami, Providence, Villanova and Virginia Tech, the Red Storm will host Notre Dame and West Virginia and play at Pittsburgh and Seton Hall in cross-over games. Dates, times and locations of games have not been released by St. John’s.
In other Red Storm basketball news, St. John’s assistant coach Mike Jarvis II has returned from his first stint as head coach as he led a group of college all-stars to a 4-2 record in exhibition games against Greek, Czech and Macedonian teams as well as Italian professional teams. St. John’s sophomore swingman Willie Shaw averaged 14 points per game. UCLA senior center Dan Gadzuric led the team in scoring, averaging 18 points per game.
St. John’s head coach Mike Jarvis is set to coach an all-star team in Greece in August. The team will be comprised of returning Red Storm players Mohamed Diakite and Shaw as well as newcomers Eric King and Marcus Hatten. Joining them will be Arizona’s Jason Gardner and Ricky Anderson as well as Al Anagonye and Adam Ballinger from Michigan State.
Deepdale’s Zahringer edges SJU’s Svoboda to win Ike Championship
George Zahringer III of Deepdale, who is the only player to win both the Met Open and the Met Amateur Championship in the same year in 1985, carded a five-under par 67 to win the 46th annual Ike Metropolitan Golf Associations/Met Life Strokes Play Championship at the Fairview Country Club in Greenwich, Conn. last weekend.
St. John’s junior golfer Andrew Svoboda finished second.
Svoboda, playing out of Winged Foot Country Club, fired a three-round score of one-under par 215, finishing two shots off the pace set by Zahringer.
Svoboda carded a two-under par 70 in the first round and was tied for the tournament lead with Zahringer and legendary amateur golfer Jerry Courville Jr. of Shorehaven. Another two-under par 70 during the morning round June 25 gave Svoboda a temporary lead, but he fired a three-over par 75 in the final round as Zahringer carded a five-under par 67 to claim the crown.
James to play professionally with Philadelphia Force
Former Newtown standout Brian James has been selected to play professional basketball with the Philadelphia Force of the National Rookie League, a league designed to be a showcase for players who are hoping to sign professional contracts overseas.
James, a 6-foot-1 guard, graduated as the third all-time scorer at Division II New York Institute of Technology. Holy Cross guard Chris Fileti will try and fill the void left by James as he has signed a letter of intent to play for Sal Lagano next year at New York Tech.
The NRL, made up of six teams on the East Coast, is limited to players 24-years-old and younger.
132 Red Storm Student-Athletes named Big East Academic All-Stars
The Big East Conference announced that 132 St. John’s student-athletes were named to the conference’s academic all-star team. Student-athletes must have maintained at least a 3.0 grade point average to be named to the team. St. John’s ranked seventh among the 14 Big East schools with 132 student-athletes honored.
The following is a list of the 132 student-athletes named to the 2001 Big East Academic All-Star team:
Baseball (20)
Charles Bilezikjian
John-Paul Cirigliano
Brian Dorsey
Chris Fallon
Jason Fischette
Jeffrey Ford
Marc Goldberg
Billy Grasier
Asa Grunenwald
Bryan Hedgecock
Greg Holmes
Kevin Hughes
Jonathan Kahn
Jason Kane
Vincent Mannese
Steve Pesce
Angel Resto
Michael Rozema
Henry Varum
Shane Zarzycki
Women’s Soccer (17)
Kristy Bergen
Theresa Bulman
Amber Carr
Jaime Clark
Heather Cook
Kristina Fogg
Maria Karis
Phyilis LaTour
Michele Lukianovich
Karyn Lundgren
Sarah Minnich
Claudine Morgan
Jennifer Pugsley
Lisa Rinaldi
Heather Shouldis
Marissa Stork
Jennifer Taylor
Men’s Soccer (14)
Chris Bennice
James Bentley
Omar Chavez
Matia Damiani
Alberto Duenas
William Gaudette
Patrick Lonergan
Jeff Matteo
Ernest Murdukhayev
Dave O’Donnell
Angel Rodriguez
Jeff Stoklosa
Paul Szewczyk
Chris Wingert
Men’s Track and Field (14)
Peter Alfano
Douglas Bradley
Benjamin Catziano
Blessing Chimwanda
Matt Cotter
Thomas Grandy
Ed Hausdorf
Andrew Jancaick
Mohamed Kanu
George Maringapasi
Philip McLean
Eric Stoddard
Sean Tremblay
Dietrich Washington
Softball (12)
Alesha Argeras
Cecilia Baston
Marilyn Brown
Michele Crokus
Jeanine Giammarino
Kelly Houghton
Brianna Leary
Courtney Nilan
Ann Raab
Danielle Sweeney
Lisa Tropea
Christine Wellington
Men’s Swimming (10)
Milos Cerovic
Karoi Ciechanowski
Gregory Danner
Jerrod Janes
Daniel Miyoshi
Danillo Perunovic
Thomas Rueger
Jaak Savvi
Michel Szapiel
Daniel Wells
Volleyball (10)
Alyssa Bak
Amanda Berg
Emily Blosser
Christie Brough
Meaghan Creedon
Tiffany Holder
Robyn Kurasaki
Stephanie Luehr
Kristy Mercein
Sterie Varghese
Women’s Swimming (9)
Jen Alger
Kristen Beal
Bernadette Gaddis
Carly Goepel
Melissa Kolackovsky
Elizabeth Mallnowski
Laura Nuudi
Denise Telford
Lisa Zuffante
Women’s Track and Field (7)
Renee Castelo
Roslyn Coddette
Erin Hayes
Jennifer Lebowitz
Lynn Medjuck
Tiehise Shell
Kristyn Zajac
Women’s Basketball (6)
Crystal Bowen
Sladjana Cvijetic
Nora Gyuris
Eukeisha Iton
Katrina Johns
Latasha Thompson
Men’s Tennis (5)
Cameron Lore
John Maxwell
Brian Scharf
Erik Scharf
Nikhil Teppare
Women’s Tennis (4)
Connie Cetateanu
Vera Efstathiou
Carolina Miccolis
Vanessa Sanmartin
Golf (3)
Gary Blados
John DeForest
Andrew McKay
Men’s Basketball (1)
Curtis Johnson
