YOU GOTTA LoVETT
Johnnies PG had Stormy trek to court
The future, at long last, is almost here. Less than three weeks away. Finally.
Soon, Marcus LoVett Jr. won’t have to imagine the noise or the energy at Carnesecca Arena and Madison Square Garden, what it will like to be on the floor rather than the bench. Soon, the highly touted 6-foot point guard won’t have to daydream about it. Soon, those fantasies will become a reality.
“I think about it every day, just seeing a packed gym sold out, with our fans yelling their guts out for us,” LoVett told The Post in an exclusive sitdown at the Queens school this week. “That’s what I’ve been imagining every day. I’ve been thinking about that since last year.”
Around this time last year, the unsettling news was delivered. LoVett was ruled a partial qualifier by the NCAA, meaning he was allowed only to practice. St. John’s appealed the decision — in which the NCAA ruled he didn’t fully meet academic requirements for a Division I athlete. St. John’s exhausted all avenues short of legal counsel, but the ruling held. LoVett had to spend a year on the sideline, a year waiting for his turn to come. To make matters worse, he suffered a sprained MCL in his right knee before the ruling, limiting his practice time.
After a long-winding high school career that saw him attend four different schools in as many years and post impressive numbers at each stop along the way, he didn’t let the disappointing ruling get to him.
LoVett used the word “positive” frequently, shining a bright light on his, at times trying, trek to Division I basketball. He made sure to stay fit despite the knee injury, worked on his jumpshot while his leg healed, stayed on top of his classes, and remained a vocal supporter for his teammates. Asked about his star point guard, that is what Red Storm coach Chris Mullin mentioned first, how LoVett did everything possible from last fall until now to make sure he was ready when it was his time.
“He handled it in a mature way,” Mullin said.
LoVETT started high school at Providence High in Burbank, Calif., and finished at Morgan Park in Chicago. His freshman season was a memorable one, leading Providence, a private college preparatory school, to its first CIF Southern Section championship game while averaging 31 points. An ear infection cost him a few games as a sophomore, and his father, Marcus LoVett Sr., took him off the team because of academic issues. In May of that year, LoVett left, and finished the year at Learning Works.
He transferred to San Gabriel Academy, another academic-first California private school, for his junior year, and had a strong season, receiving the 2014 Wooden High School Player of the Year Award for CIFSS Division V. He was on the move again following that year, LoVett Sr. feeling Morgan Park was a better academic fit for his son, and the rugged Chicago Public High School League would test him on the court like never before. By the time LoVett got to Morgan Park, he was behind academically. Providence and San Gabriel were strong schools, and he had trouble keeping up with the work.
“As a dad, as a father, I got it wrong,” LoVett Sr. said. “If I had chosen a basketball school, maybe we wouldn’t have had a problem.”
To make up for it, LoVett took night and summer classes, doing everything he could to get academically qualified. In the first semester, he would be in classes from 8 a.m. until 6:30 p.m., followed by basketball practice or games.
“I was ready to do whatever I had to do,” LoVett said. “If they told me to run to a mountain top, I was going to do it.”
LoVett said he doesn’t regret his journey. Each change, at the time, was made for what he and his father felt were the right reasons.
“It was an adventure, but it was a cool adventure,” LoVett
those… said. “I learned a lot in four years.” L oVETT made a name for himself on the court in the one year in Chicago, playing for Morgan Park. After putting up big numbers at the two small California private schools, he averaged 25 points, eight assists, seven rebounds and four steals in Chicago — which is known for producing pros such as Derrick Rose, Jahlil Okafor and Anthony Davis.
For the first time, LoVett was facing players of his caliber, and the level of play pushed him to elevate his own game. He quickly became popular in Chicago, known for his “Bright Lights” nickname and flashy yet under-control style. The hype was through the roof before his first game, the Chicago newspapers projecting greatness.
Roy Schmidt, a longtime basketball scout in the area, felt bad for the kid, having so much on his shoulders so fast. But quickly, as LoVett piled up points in an impressive victory, he made himself at home.
“He came out as cool as a cucumber,” Schmidt said.
LoVett would lead Morgan Park to the Illinois Class 3A semifinals, and score a tournament-record 45 points, drawing interest from the likes of Kansas, Illinois, UConn and Memphis, among others, before committing to St. John’s in May. Eric Bossi, a national recruiting analyst with Rivals.com, said he was most impressed by LoVett’s creativity and offensive versatility. One time down court, he would hit a 3-pointer. The next, a pull-up jumper, followed by a driving layup, and setting up a teammate. If not for the academic question marks, Bossi said he believes LoVett — a consensus four-star recruit coming out of Morgan Park — would have been one of the most soughtafter guards in the country. “I would imagine any high-major [program] who needed a point guard in the winter or spring of 2015, they would’ve said.… attempted to recruit him,” Bossi D URING the winter break, around the time Lo Vett and his family opted not to pursue litigation against the NCAA, he returned to Chicago, missing a few St. John’ s games. There were rumors at the time of a possible transfer, schools cont acting Lo Vett and his family through inter-medi aries. LoVett admitted “there were schools,” and his father said there were “people concerned with Marcus’s situation.” But whenever the subject was broached, LoVett thought about the support he got, all the positivity he heard. Students always told him to keep his head up, to be ready for next year. Nobody held it against him. The transfer never got serious, both father and son said. “I felt like I needed to stay here. Everywhere I walk, I get love here,” LoVett said. “I can be on this campus, or I get be a couple of blocks off this campus, and there’s people that recognize me. To get that, and to get people to be like, ‘I can’t wait to see you play,’ that’s a great feeling. “I feel like my heart is here at this school.” M ULLIN’S first season as St. John’s coach was a slog, forced to put together a roster in a matter of months, after so little was left for him by the previous staff. The Red Storm won just eight games, finished last in the Big East and often were overwhelmed by more talented teams.
Point guard was the obvious shortcoming. Freshman Federico Mussini was forced to play in that spot, not his true position. It was clear how much offensively challenged St. John’s could have used a playmaker like LoVett — the Johnnies averaging 67.9 points per game, 286th out of 350 Division I teams.
“I used to talk to him all the time on the bench, just point things out that we were trying to do, and I think, when he’s out there, we’ll be able to do,” Mullin recalled.
LoVett’s response was always the same: “I got you, coach.”
Mullin admitted wondering often how different last year would have been had LoVett been eligible, if St. John’s had a breakdown guard who could seamlessly handle pressure and get them into their offense.
“All game,” Mullin said with a chuckle, “every game.”
That’s what bothered LoVett the most about last year, not being there for his teammates. It was that helpless feeing, knowing he could make a difference and wasn’t allowed to, that got to him on occasion.
LoVett showed how invested he was in the program by attending a few high school games in Brooklyn, watching prized prospect and current teammate Shamorie Ponds. The two lefty guards became fast friends. Ponds said LoVett will talk about last year on occasion, what it was like to have to watch
rea… despite all the work he did to get qualified. “He’s beyond dy,” Ponds said. D URING meetings of LoVett’s eligibility status, there would be times nobody would say a word, the frustration mounting. Dead silence, deafening disappointment. But he never broke.
“We went through it together. It brought us together,” said Mullin, who ripped the NCAA during the process and threatened to go to it’s headquarters in Indianapolis on LoVett’s behalf. “We dealt with some adversity, and here we are.”
Indeed, here they are, one year later. There is a place at St. John’s LoVett likes to go by himself, called The Great Lawn, a grassy area to gather his thoughts. He would often sit there, close his eyes, imagine what it would it be like to be on the floor. Soon, he won’t have to dream about it.
“I’m just ready to give the fans what they’ve been waiting on,” LoVett said. “I feel like I can be something that can spark the city up.”