Lance Stephenson won a record four Public Schools Athletic League titles with Lincoln High School and experienced his greatest triumphs at Madison Square Garden.
Yet when he returns to the Garden Wednesday for the first time as a collegian to face St. John’s (10-5, 0-3 Big East), he doesn’t expect a friendly response.
“Yeah, of course. Everyone wanted me to go somewhere close to home so I think they’re gonna boo me much harder than Rutgers did,” Stephenson, a 6-foot-5, 220-pound freshman from Brooklyn who plays for Cincinnati (11-5, 2-2), said Monday on a conference call. “It makes me play harder.”
He went to enough St. John’s games with Stretch to recognize how apathetic the fanbase has become as a result of the continuous losing throughout the Monasch/Roberts era. The only booing that may occur is if Roberts loses yet another home game.
The poor vendors’ll be lucky if the two teams can draw 8k to the game.