DAYTON, Ohio — The player didn’t have to sell himself. The coach had already fallen hard for him, watched him excel on the AAU circuit, seen enough that he’d gotten him to sign on the dotted line. No, Shamorie Ponds already had quickened Chris Mullin’s pulse plenty. That wasn’t going to change.
Still?
Summertime AAU ball is the sport’s wild, wild west, and it’s sometimes hard to tell just how well a player might fit into a unit. This was different. This was March 12, 2016, and Mullin and his St. John’s staff were sitting in the stands at Madison Square Garden for the PSAL championship game between Ponds’ Thomas Jefferson High School (which had last won a PSAL in 1954) and Abraham Lincoln, which had won 11 since 1949).
It may sound quaint. But some coaches still like to see how players respond when they’re playing for something as simple as their school colors, and for their friends, and for their teammates. Especially on the biggest stages.
“I remember sitting there, thinking, wow, this is going to be tough to figure this kid out, if he can play with other good players and high-level competition,” Mullin said Tuesday, the day before his Red Storm will play Arizona State in the last of the First Four games at Dayton Arena, the winner drawing Buffalo in Tulsa on Friday afternoon.
Thirty-two minutes of basketball later, whatever question marks Mullin might have had vanished like they were printed in invisible ink. Ponds had 31 points, 12 rebounds, six steals and five assists as Jefferson flew past Lincoln, 90-61. He scored 21 in the second half. And he electrified the Garden in a way that had to feel awfully familiar to Mullin.
Three years later, Mullin has seen Ponds grow as a player and, as important, a leader, and when the Johnnies make their grand return to NCAA play it is Ponds who will shoulder most of the load, most of the burden, most of the responsibility. As far as his coach sees it, that is a natural progression of things.
“I think it’s underrated how much he’s improved,” Mullin said. “He’s obviously had three incredible seasons historically with his numbers and his stats. But his improvement, I think, has been overlooked from his strength, his play making. And his defense has improved.”
And there’s the most relevant aspect, as far as St. John’s is concerned:
“Not many players can really influence the game in a lot of different ways like he does,” he said. “He doesn’t have to score to influence the game. And he draws so much attention that just being on the floor he makes his teammates better.”
Chris Mullin and Shamorie Ponds
Chris Mullin and Shamorie Ponds
Paul J. Bereswill
One of those teammates, senior forward Marvin Clark II, knows precisely the personal benefits of playing alongside Ponds.
“I talk about Shamorie all the time,” Clark said. “Great player. Really great player. But for me he helps my game so much because he draws so much attention that I get a lot of open shots because of that.”
These things are hard to quantify, of course, but there does seem to be a difference in the St. John’s players, and their coach, the past few days. The season was a daily study in expectations set and expectations met – and when the gap between the two started to grow you could see the pressure get to them, to all of them.
Now: that doesn’t mean they are playing with house money against Arizona State, and it certainly doesn’t guarantee them any kind of success against the Sun Devils. But they do seem more relaxed, Ponds especially. This is the stage he’s craved his whole life, or at least since his show-stopping turn at the Garden three years ago.
“It’s definitely a blessing,” Ponds said. “It’s something I’ve dreamed of. I’m just glad to share it with my brothers, and definitely try to go far in the tournament.”
The opportunity is there, for the Johnnies and for their star player. People still talk about what Ponds did in the Garden three years ago. Imagine how long they’ll talk about him if he takes to this stage the way he took to that one.
