D’Angelo Harrison Vital to Everything SJU Related Right Now and for the Future

There are only so many different ways and different times we can talk about the importance of D’Angelo Harrison. Last year we talked about his possible lasting legacy at St. John’s. How his off the court trouble could be cured by a change of behavior and on the hardwood success. But that was then. It is much different now. Harrison’s legacy as a Red Storm player is now not only important to him, but to everything St. John’s related.

We are talking about everything. St. John’s future as possible Big East Conference players (not as beers), the chances of the Red Storm ever returning to being nationally relevant and the job security of Steve Lavin. Seriously, literally, everything is riding on the volume-shooter’s shoulders.

The rest could be said about every player on the Red Storm’s roster, but Harrison — now a senior — is as much an embodiment of the Steve Lavin era as the coach himself. Talented, came to to the program with high expectations, had some ups and downs, and now here we are — in the same spot the team was in after the Norm Roberts‘ era leftovers were gone and a slew of Lavin recruited players joined the team.

Not a soul on this team has played in the NCAA Tournament. Only Lavin, using Roberts’ players, has participated in the Big Dance while being a member of the St. John’s family. Which, basically, has put the pressure on Lavin because fans have grown tiresome of being promised the world through media hype, but ending up in NIT Land after the end of each season.

All of that brings us back to D’Angelo Harrison. The volume-shooter. The guy who seems to love the game of basketball as much as any other player in the Big East, but can sometimes let bad play deter him from being a great teammate. It’s his perceived lack of leadership when things go wrong for him that has kept him from being as endearing a Johnnies figure as he probably should be.

Make no bones about it. St. John’s has a slew of other really talented players. Like Harrison, though, some came to the program with extremely high expectations and have yet to remotely crack the level of success that Harrison has had (looking at you, a growing yet not finished, Rysheed Jordan). Others, like a Chris Obekpa, are pleasant surprises that add a lot to the program — and maybe a little one dimensional — but no one can really expect him or players of his ilk to carry a team to the promise land. Plus, let’s be honest, no one is holding Phil Greene and the like to the same standards as Harrison. Well, except Greene himself.

Nope. That’s a job for someone like D’Angelo Harrison. A veteran, scoring monster who can light up any team in the country when his game is on.

Harrison’s numbers while with the program have gone pretty much unaltered. That does not mean, however, that he has not become a better player. Yes, he still sometimes relies upon 30-foot bombs too much, but he has become much more than a guy who just chucks it from all over the court. Harrison has become more than capable at getting to the basket, creating contact and finishing. And, even though he still handles the ball a ton, he has decreased the amount of turnovers he has had, going from 2.2 turnovers a game his sophomore year to 1.5 his junior season.

How he will be used this season will be interesting as well. Will Lavin continue to let the offense run itself? Meaning, will there be as many plays that seem to just be of a free-flowing offense without much design to it? Maybe Lavin, learning from past mistakes, will be forced to design more plays, get Harrison off the ball more and create space for him via screens. Or, possibly, changing the tempo of the Red Storm’s offense to the point of getting a shot up before the other team has a chance to realize where any St. John’s player is on the court.

But make no bones about it; Lavin needs D’Angelo Harrison as much as Harrison needs the coach. The two of their futures are linked together. Harrison, who is unlikely an NBA player but can certainly make a career overseas, still has a chance to leave a lasting legacy at the program. Lavin, on the other hand, may have finally lost all the built in goodwill he had with Red Storm fans — most of whom have seem to grow impatient of the lack of success the program has had under the truly likable cancer survivor.

Everyone knows what Harrison can do on the court. There may not be a soul in the Big East who will have the ability to score in bunches like him. However, did Harrison grow in enough other places on the court — including his demeanor — to result in a happy ending for everyone and everything even remotely related to the St. John’s Red Storm basketball program?