St. John’s basketball unheralded forward key to Red Storm’s attack

An unheralded St. John’s basketball forward will be key to the team’s attack this season.

Marcellus Earlington was the best player on the St. John’s basketball team at the end of the 2019-20 season and the forward is looking to pick up where he left off.

Coming on strong in the last third of the season, Earlington still isn’t being talked about enough within the St. John’s community as newcomers such as Posh Alexander, Vince Cole, Dylan Wusu, and Isiah Moore are brining in all the headlines.

But that’s just the way Earlington likes it.

The 6-foot-6 forward brings his lunch to work, gets his job done, and goes home.

Nothing fancy about it, just a hard-nose player that fits the perfect mold of a future Big East star.

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Despite being undersized as a power forward and oversized for a small forward, Marcellus Earlington is a bowling ball coming down the paint but he’s light enough on his feet to put the ball on the deck and kick to the corners.

Earlington even proved late in the season that he was capable of knocking down the 3-point shot, and if that continues, it only will improve his stock in the coming seasons.

After not seeing any time as a freshman, in his first season under head coach Mike Anderson, Earlington averaged 9.0 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 1.0 steals per game on 46.2 percent from the field and an improving 27.9 percent from 3-point percentage.

How to utilize the St. John’s basketball forward in 2020-21

Throughout his sophomore season, Earlington proved to be his best coming off the bench, for whatever reason.

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As the 6th-Man, the Stony Point, New York native was most comfortable and that could be his role once again as a junior with the incoming front-court firepower and a veteran presence would be an added boost to the second unit.

Marcellus Earlington won’t be the star on a consistent basis for the Johnnies, but he will be a menace to try and bottle up for Big East opponents.