D’Angelo Harrison knows his season-ending suspension may have cost St. John’s an opportunity to reach the NCAA Tournament, but he plans on being back next season and expects to be part of a team as good as any in the nation.
“We’re going to be just as deep as the Louisville team this year,” Harrison said last night at the NIT/Met Basketball Writers Assocation Haggerty Awards dinner in Tarrytown. “I might not even start next year.”
Unlikely, even with the team confirming that Big East Rookie of the Year JaKarr Sampson will return for his sophomore season. But Harrison and coach Steve Lavin are both optimistic the suspended star guard will be playing when next season begins, even though Harrison has not yet been fully reinstated.
Harrison, the Red Storm’s leading scorer who was suspended by Lavin on Feb. 28 for conduct detrimental to the team, currently is participating in individual workouts with the coaching staff. But Lavin said Harrison will have to complete a multi-tiered process, without any “major incidents,” before Lavin allows him to rejoin the team.
When Harrison does return for his junior year, Lavin said he will have a clean slate.
“He’s gotten off to a strong start both in his response to the suspension and in his academic and workout responsibilities as well,” said Lavin. “He has momentum going for him because he responded in a mature fashion and genuinely expressed the desire to be a part of what we’re building here. I couldn’t be more pleased for this stage of the process in terms of him working his way back into the fold.
“I never expect any player to be perfect, that’s part of working on the college level.”
Speaking for the first time since the suspension, Harrison was vague about what happened but resolute it would never happen again, revealing nothing more than being late to the team bus and not shaving on game days.
“It was just a lot of little stuff. I violated some team rules,” said Harrison. “It wasn’t nothing out of the ordinary, like I got in trouble with the police.”
Harrison, who was named to the All-Met First Team, described how tough it was watching the team’s final games of the season, but he never considered transferring. He said that any issues were between him and Lavin and did not involve other coaches or his teammates, but that him and the head coach are on “the same page now.”
Harrison even thinks the suspension may have been the best thing for him, having taken away the pressures of basketball, while allowing to him to mature.
“It was about [Lavin] caring for me outside of basketball,” Harrison said. “This was about me becoming a better man and a better leader for the team. Lavin made it clear, ‘This is for you.’ I understood everything he was saying.”
Next season, Harrison doesn’t expect his attitude to be the only thing he’s improved.
“I’ll be a different kind of guy and a way better player,” he said.
* Lamont “Momo’’ Jones of Iona won the Haggerty Award as player of the year and Stony Brook’s Steve Pikiell was named coach of the year. Rookie of the year was JaKarr Sampson of St. John’s.
Joining Jones and Harrison on the All Met First Team were Jamal Olasewere and Jason Brickman of LIU Brooklyn, Fuquan Edwin of Seton Hall and Sean Armand of Iona.