Five Reasons St. John’s G Rysheed Jordan is the Big East Player to Watch
By Joe Nardone
Rysheed Jordan
There were not many players in the Big East Conference who came to the league as hyped as Rysheed Jordan did last year. That resulted in a few things before the season even started. Media members started to call the St. John’s Red Storm one of the top sleeper teams in the entire country, folks started to wonder if Jordan and D’Angelo Harrison would compose one of the best backcourts in the Big East and fans of the Johnnies started to lose their mind and put other-worldly expectations on the program.
Other, less harmful things also happened. Steve Lavin limited Jordan’s media availability, the Red Storm failed to live up to the crazy preseason hype and Rysheed Jordan has become — slightly — an afterthought as far as players with the possibility to dominate in the Big East is concerned.
Regardless, Rysheed Jordan now has a complete year under his belt. That means a few new things await the crazily hyped St. John’s point guard. Jordan is now faced with people expecting crazy development by him, eyeing the Red Storm’s recruitment of another crazily hyped guard Isaiah Briscoe and the fact that St. John’s desperately needs to make the NCAA Tournament in order to get the program back to a point of respectability and keep the Big East Conference as a league of relevance.
No pressure, really.
Those things aren’t squarely on the shoulder of Jordan, though. It is unfair — and unrealistic — to expect him to carry the Johnnies, the Big East and help in the recruitment of Briscoe (in fact, Jordan, unless turning pro, would probably prefer Briscoe staying away).
Nevertheless, Rysheed Jordan is in a position where he could end up being the Big East player to watch for the season. Not just because he possesses some awesome improvement from year-to-year gene, but for other reasons. What reasons? Well, I am glad you asked. That’s why we are going to look at five reasons why Rysheed Jordan is the Big East player to watch for the 2014-15 season.