Sports

Suspension over: Rysheed Jordan returning for St. John’s

Rysheed Jordan’s suspension was short-lived.

The freshman point guard from Philadelphia practiced with St. John’s on Monday, a source said, and will play in Tuesday night’s game against Longwood. He was suspended by head coach Steve Lavin for Friday night’s victory over Monmouth for a violation of undisclosed team rules.

Jordan, the highest-rated recruit of the Lavin era, didn’t practice last Thursday and wasn’t seen on the bench for the game against Monmouth, causing concern about his standing in the program. At the time, Lavin didn’t put a time frame on when Jordan would return, saying he would be back, “when he takes care of his team responsibilities”.

A source said he spent the weekend back home in Philadelphia — St. John’s didn’t practice — but another source said the suspension was for “small things” and despite rumors to the contrary, the 6-foot-4 point guard is happy at St. John’s (3-1) and doesn’t plan to leave the program.

He committed to the Red Storm over UCLA and Temple last April.

The gifted prospect struggled in his first three games, averaging 4.3 points and 2.3 assists in over 18 minutes. He saw limited action in the second half of the latter two games, though Lavin said there were no problems with Jordan related to playing time or his behavior during games.

“It’s like I’ve always done: If I feel it’s out of bounds, kid’s suspended; if it’s not out of bounds, it’s inbounds, kid’s not suspended,” Lavin said after Friday’s victory. “It’s just like parenting. … You hope they learn from it, move forward with the maturation of a young person.

“I don’t know any other way. It’s tough love. … We got to hold kids accountable.”

Lavin has said Jordan “will be central to everything we do,” so getting him back would be beneficial, especially with the schedule about to get tougher.

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St. John’s will compete in the prestigious Maui Invitational for the first time in school history, joining the likes of Kansas, UCLA, UNLV, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest and Chaminade in Hawaii in 2015, it was announced.

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After scoring 22 points in Friday’s win, to go along with a team-high eight rebounds, and notching 16 points in a 67-63 come-from-behind win over Bucknell, junior guard Phil Greene IV landed on the Big East honor roll. Seton Hall freshman Jaren Sina was the Rookie of the Week and Creighton senior Doug McDermott was the Player of the week for the second straight time.