Former St. John’s guard Shamorie Ponds signing Two-Way Contract with Toronto Raptors
By ADAM ZAGORIA Former St. John's guard Shamorie
By ADAM ZAGORIA Former St. John's guard Shamorie
By JACOB POLACHECK The Los Angeles Athletic Club
By ADAM ZAGORIA
The Big East Conference currently features three of the best guards in the nation in Marquette’s Markus Howard, St. John’s Shamorie Ponds and Seton Hall’s Myles Powell.
Howard set a Big East scoring record Wednesday night when he went for 53 points in an overtime win against Creighton. He eclipsed his previous career-high of 52, which was tied with former Providence guard MarShon Brooks for tops in Big East history.
Powell went off for 31 points in Seton Hall’s victory over Butler later Wednesday night.
Ponds, meantime, is coming off a 23-point outing in a loss at Villanova on Tuesday, and has scored 30+ points four times this season, including two games of 37 points.
By ADAM ZAGORIA
NEW YORK — Nearly 30 NBA scouts were credentialed for the Legends Classic on Monday night, and boy did they see Shamorie Ponds put on a show.
Ponds, who tested the NBA draft waters last spring before opting to return to campus for his junior season, went off for a game-best 32 points with 5 assists and 2 rebounds as St. John’s won an entertaining 82-79 affair over Cal in the Legends Classic. Ponds and the Johnnies will play VCU (4-0) for the title on Tuesday night at Barclays Center after the Rams beat Temple, 57-51.
“He can really score from all three levels and is comfortable using both hands to handle and finish [which] helps with the diversity in his game,” one NBA scout in attendance said “He’s really fun to watch when he’s cooking like that.”
NBA legend Julius Erving, former Cal and NBA star Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Knicks guard Allonzo Trier were among those on hand to watch Ponds’ performance.
With St. John’s trailing 72-71, Ponds scored nine straight St. John’s points — including this 3-pointer shown below — to give the Johnnies an 80-76 lead. Marvin Clark II hit two foul shots in the final seconds for his team’s last points.
By JACOB POLACHECK St. John's junior guard Shamorie
By ADAM ZAGORIA
A slew of players from New York and New Jersey were honored on Preseason Watch Lists.
The Basketball Hall of Fame has been putting out 20-player “watch lists” for its five positional awards this week, and when the final one was issued Friday, four players from New York and New Jersey made the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award watch list of top centers.
Moses Brown, who played at Archbishop Molloy and is now a UCLA freshman; Jessie Govan, who played at Wings Academy (N.Y.) and is now a senior at Georgetown; Naz Reid, who played at Roselle (N.J.) Catholic and is now an LSU freshman; and Nick Richards, who competed at The Patrick School (N.J.) and is now a sophomore at Kentucky, all made the Kareem list.
The Bob Cousy Point Guard list included former Iona Prep standout Ty Jerome, now a junior at Virginia; former Thomas Jefferson (N.Y.) star Shamorie Ponds, now a junior at St. John’s; and former Hudson (N.J.) Catholic standout Jahvon Quinerly, a freshman at Villanova. Connecticut native Tremont Waters, a sophomore at LSU, also made the list.
The Jerry West Shooting Guard list featured former St. Joe’s-Metuchen and Gill St. Bernard’s standout Tyus Battle, now a sophomore at Syracuse; former Seton Hall Prep standout T.J. Gibbs, now a junior at Notre Dame; and former Queens (N.Y.) High School of Construction standout Justin Wright-Foreman, now a senior at Hofstra. Connecticut native Mustapha Heron of St. John’s also made the list, giving the Red Storm two players on watch lists.
Somehow Seton Hall’s Myles Powell was left off the Shooting Guard list after averaging 15.5 points and 2.8 assists last season.
“It just adds more fuel to the fire,” he said. “I’m not surprised by it though, it’s been like this my whole life.”
The Julius Erving Small Forward list featured Louis King, the former Hudson Catholic standout now a freshman at Oregon.
By ADAM ZAGORIA
Chris Mullin isn’t the only person connected to St. John’s on the West Coast these days.
While Mullin has been featured in The New York Times watching the Golden State Warriors with his fellow “Run TMC” members, St. John’s guard Shamorie Ponds is out West working out for several teams.
As he continues to test the NBA Draft waters leading up to the May 30 for underclassmen to withdraw and return to school, Ponds has worked out for the Nuggets and Lakers and is slated to be at the Jazz on Wednesday and then the Pistons. The Jazz workout will also include Keita Bates-Diop (Ohio State), Chimezie Metu (USC), P.J. Washington (Kentucky), Mustapha Heron (Auburn) and Matt Mobley (St. Bonaventure).
Ponds worked out with the Nets and Cavaliers before the NBA Combine, for which he was snubbed.
