Game On!

For most teams, it would be bedlam. A preseason injury to a key player; another twist of bad luck to a team that New York desperately wants to see rise again.

But when it was announced that St. John's redshirt senior Anthony Mason Jr. will miss four to six weeks after a hamstring injury in practice over the week, Red Storm head coach Norm Roberts didn't flinch. He played without Mason for the majority of last season and his team is capable of holding serve until he returns.

"We might be able to deal without him because we've dealt without him before," Roberts said. "Our kids were used to not having him there last year and they'll be able to deal with it."

While Mason remains an integral piece to the Red Storm, he isn't the sole piece anymore. Juniors Paris Horne and D.J. Kennedy took their games to another level last year with Mason out of the lineup, becoming two of the more improved players in the Big East. So far in practice, they've been terrific for St. John's.

"No one is taking their minutes," Roberts said of the junior duo. "The way they're playing, they're by far our two best players every day."

Roberts has also assembled a strong group of newcomers to give him the deepest roster he's ever had in Jamaica in his six years on the job. He's added quality depth in the backcourt with freshman Omari Lawrence and JUCO transfer Dwight Hardy. Forward Justin Brownlee is another JUCO transfer who can create matchup problems at 6-foot-7.

"In practice the other day, someone wasn't going through a drill at full speed," Roberts said. "I said let's get someone else in here. We couldn't always do that. Now I can tell people that if you don't play hard, you're not going to play."

While most coaches in the league expect the Red Storm to make a jump in the standings, they'll have to pass a few difficult early tests before they deal with the rigors of the Big East.

St. John's plays at St. Bonaventure and at Duke while playing Siena in the first slate of games during the season and Temple in the Philly Hoop Classic at the Palestra on Thanksgiving weekend. They will also open the Holiday Festival at Madison Square Garden on Dec. 20 against Hofstra and star guard Charles Jenkins, the 2008-09 winner of the Haggerty Award, which goes to the top college player in the metropolitan area.

THIS AND THAT:

• Cincinnati head coach Mick Cronin raved about Lance Stephenson's passing ability on Wednesday at Big East media day. "He's by far the best passer every day he steps in the gym," Cronin said of the former Lincoln high school standout. "He's going to get our big men a lot of easy baskets."

• Word is Mount Vernon's Sherrod Wright has blown away the George Mason coaching staff with his strength level for a freshman. The 6-foot-5 Wright is in a perfect setting at the perfect level to have a monumental college career.

• Seton Hall will have a busy weekend starting on Oct. 30. Bobby Gonzalez and Co. will entertain recruits Devon Collier (St. Anthony's) and Kyrie Irving (St. Patrick's), along with Jesse Morgan (South Kent Prep) and Fuquan Edwin (Paterson Catholic). Morgan and Edwin have already verbally committed to the Pirates in the Class of 2010.
  
  While Irving still remains a longshot, the 6-foot-8 Collier could be a monumental addition. The lefty big man reminds me a lot of Tyrone Grant who played for Fran Fraschilla at St. John's in the late 1990s.

• Check out this link to a wonderful story in USA Today on Manhattan freshman center Kevin Laue.

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• Five Observations on St. John's
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