Red Storm Tip Off 2015

A brief interlude between seasons, in which dancing occurs, gender disparities are noted, fashion is critiqued, and cheerleaders are dropped.

Good evening, wanderers in the offseason wilderness!

It's that time again. They used to call it Midnight Madness back in the day, when it took place at midnight and ceremonially marked the beginning of allowed basketball activities. These days, it's less of a thing, more for appearances than anything else, and it's more likely to end before midnight than start after it. Now it's just St. John's Tip Off, but it's still good to be back at Carnesecca.

The only bad news is that we're not in our usual seats in Section 2 tonight, next to the band, rocking out to "Thriller" and "The Pretender". The good news is that we're in the third row behind the bench- Veronica came through this time. They're still trying to figure out how they hand will call tickets, but that's a familiar problem.

It looks like we're going to get an opening act, and not just the incessant ruckus of the DJ. Basketball-related entertainment is even better than most entertainment, and Black Jack Ryan and his daughter put on a good show.

I feel bad for the guy in the band with the Pirate blue trombone. Either he got pranked pretty badly or someone forgot to tell him the school's color scheme. It's not like it's in the team name or anything.

The place is starting to fill up, though I'll note they started opening the doors before the noted 7PM opening time, because it's only 7:04 now and I've definitely been sitting here for more than four minutes.

Bless your heart, guy in the Steve McNair shirsey. You have good taste in football skill sets.

I guess having some idea of when things get started would be helpful, huh? Battery's down to 53%, so I'll be back in an hour or so.

Pregame entertainment also included a burrito-eating contest that involved suicides, which just does not seem like a good idea. I've already seen people throw up on a basketball court at both the professional and collegiate levels, and I'm glad I didn't see a repeat this time.

So many different uniforms. I don't know how the guys are doing it, but the women are garbed by class- freshmen in white, sophomores in red, juniors in navy, and seniors in gray.

So much dancing. Some of it was even good.

Someone needs to take that selfie stick away from Danaejah Grant. It's for her own good.

Da'Shena Stevens still looks like she could go out there, play 30 minutes, and drop a double-double on an NCAA tournament team. Hey, now I can see for myself whether Sox Alexander looks as much like her as I thought.

Sorry, guys. I don't care about your NCAA banner, or Chris Mullin. I do appreciate whichever men's staffer that was who was getting his groove thing on during intros. Shake what your mama gave you.

Jade Walker looks like she's toned up. I like- we need her. Also love that Sandra Udobi is moving without the brace- we need her even more, with all the posts graduating. (I'd like to see her do more upper body work, though.)

I'm amazed at how many internationals there are on the men's team. We might have our own seven nation army going on here. (Okay, we might have to loan them Sandie to pull that off.)

How many people here knew who the university president was, or would have chanted his name, without Chris Mullin egging them on? It's amazing what people will do for the sake of celebrity. The part where he had the ref's shirt under his jacket was pretty awesome, though.

I liked the video of the teams' combined history- it looked like a men's video at first, but then you remember how long it has taken to get women's basketball started at most schools. They included footage from the first era of our success, and Shenneika's three, and the announcement of Nadirah's draft pick.

Cheer team is trying some really audacious things, but they definitely need to hit the weight room- there were a lot of drops, including one that turned into an eight-cheerleader pile-up. Dance looks like they're on point early (no, not en pointe), though I don't get the point of doing the suspenders and bow tie routine in the dark.

Danaejah isn't shooting around, but I'm not sure whether it's because she's hurt or because the selfie stick has adhered to her hand. (We did eventually see her with the phone but without the selfie stick.)

And that shootaround was really the last we got to see of the women. After both teams shot around, the men scrimmaged for about twenty minutes. Then they started setting up for the concert, at which point one of the WBB staffers got all WTF. Four of the women participated in the shooting contest (and the day someone can explain why Aliyyah and Sandie were involved, when they have three made threes in their combined NCAA careers, I think pigs will fly). At least Aaliyah can shoot them, and I don't know enough about Akina to judge.

After the disaster that was the three-point shooting contest, there was a plug for the men's trip to Maui for the Maui Invitational. And then the musical entertainment came on, though I'm not sure how much of that should be in quotation marks.

So yeah, that fizzled out disappointingly. I think cheer and dance might have had more court time than women's basketball, which is frustrating when you're there for women's basketball and to maybe see Liyyah do Liyyah things.

When we walked out of the arena, we looked at the schedules and posters on the table. Men's basketball schedule and season ticket form; men's soccer pocket schedule and group sales ads; what looked like soccer posters. You notice what's missing...

This is what bothers me about St. John's, and why it can be so hard to stay with them. It's not a problem with the team- I really like these kids. It's not a problem with the gameday atmosphere- the band is into it, cheer and dance are into it, the school's other athletes are into it, the students who do come get into it. It's not even a problem at the coaching level- I disagree with Joe's decision-making, but that's not related to the issue at hand. It's an institutional issue. It's the knowledge that no matter how good any other sport at St. John's is, it will always take the back seat to men's basketball, no matter how good or bad men's basketball is. Look at baseball- look at the soccer teams- look at golf. Look at Panik, look at Bradley.

And it raises the question: why should I throw my money and my time and my love down this hole when it's going to go to waste? Why should I give this athletic department any money when I know it's likely going to go towards a program that doesn't need it? I'm tired of having men's basketball overshadow women's basketball. I've been tired of being asked what I think about the men's team. The truth is I don't really care, except that when they win, the team I care about is happy. Why shouldn't I devote that passion and that small amount of money to a school I know is trying to make things happen? I'm watching reclamation projects at other schools.

There are reasons, don't get me wrong. Liyyah doing Liyyah things... Nae's jumper... Tiny Aaliyah's crisp passing... Jade with the fadeaway... Sandie blocking shots... Sox's bubbly personality... Crystalina's defense... Imani and the freshmen's potential... Day coming home... the affection I have for these players and the trust they have in us. I support them and I don't want to let them down. But I'm starting to get jaded, and not in the sense of having a nice smile and getting low low low on the dance floor.

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