Dunn debuts in Stunning Loss to Vermont

You should never count the chickens before they hatch. There might be a rotten egg in the bunch. Now there aren’t enough chickens.

I thought that St. John’s would go 5-0 before they would have the first opportunity for a loss. Vermont made that prediction look uninformed and premature last night, all with a last second shot that propelled them to victory over the Red Storm. The final score was 70-68 and dropped St. John’s to 3-1 on the season.

Anthony Lamb was the player who stunned the Red Storm with a mid-range jumper that made a furious late comeback moot. Coach Mike Anderson said that there should have been a double-team on Lamb on that last possession. The thought process is don’t let the team’s best player beat you, put it in the hands of someone else. Lamb is a borderline NBA prospect and scored a game high 23 points against the Red Storm.

That’s the bad part. That rotten egg smells bad when it cracks, but usually things start to smell better after some time has passed. Anderson said that same way you celebrate a victory until midnight and then get ready for the next day, you deal with a loss the same way. You feel it until midnight, then it’s time to put it behind you.

However, that loss was very disappointing, especially since nobody really expected a team like Vermont to beat a Big East team. I sure didn’t expect it. I put a check in the win column after the first 30 point win this season and figured that Carnesecca Arena would be a safe haven for victories. I’m guilty as charged.

One bright spot going forward was the debut of Rasheem Dunn, who was ineligible at the start of the season, but was given clearance by the NCAA this week. After a slow start, you can see what Dunn is capable of on the court. He’s aggressive, he can play with some pace, and he is tough. He finished with 13 points in the game.

Yesterday was Dunn’s first official college game since transferring from St. Francis after his sophomore year in 2018. He originally transferred to Cleveland State, but changed his mind after the coach he was going to play for was fired. Dunn is a redshirt junior, so he now gets to play his final two years of his career in a St. John’s uniform.

He didn’t shoot the ball well, but was clutch late, hitting a pull-up jumper and knocking down a game tying three with 19 seconds left. I wasn’t surprised that Dunn did that, because he is a champion at heart.

There may be developing a pipeline of Jefferson point guards playing for St. John’s. Thomas Jefferson high school is usually one of the top high school programs in the city. Shamorie Ponds, who is now a rookie for the Toronto Raptors, came to St. John’s from Jefferson and won a city title with Dunn in the backcourt. They played off each other and Dunn more than held his own weight on that team. Most of the time it was him, not Ponds, who played the lead guard. Both players were heavy contributors to that chip in 2016.

What I saw yesterday was that same Brooklyn grit yesterday afternoon. Dunn stepped up when he had to against Vermont. Anderson went with him in crunch time instead of starter Nick Rutherford and it almost paid off. Of course, Dunn was rusty and it took a while for him to look comfortable on the floor. He hesitated to shoot in the first half and didn’t look confident shooting those first few jumpers. Dunn finally made his first field goal at the first half buzzer. That just broke the ice.

So, there was a bright spot in an otherwise disappointing result. Personally, Dunn was able to finally resume his college career. It would have been devastating for a player to lose two years of his eligibility when he didn’t do anything wrong. It’s good that the NCAA did the right thing and let him play this year. He already sat out last season and that should have been enough.

When it comes to the fans, they will be happy to watch this kid play for St. John’s. He will always play with max effort, and he will do whatever he needs to do to help his team win on the court. Dunn plays with no fear and is exactly what Anderson needs on that court. He’ll have the ball in his hands a lot, even though some might say he is not a pure point guard. Regardless of what experts and non-experts think, Dunn will go get the ball, believe that. It’s a Brooklyn thing.

That Brooklyn thing is not something that can be proved with science. Full disclosure, this writer was born and raised in Brooklyn. I may be a little biased about the merits of basketball players from the borough.

The next game for St. John’s is Wednesday night against Columbia. Last week I checked the win column for the Johnnies, but I’m not going to count the chicken this time. It’s a chance for St. John’s to get back on track and get that rotten egg smell out of the building.