rat.The Houston series, Griffin said. Thats something th

NEW YORK -- Chris Mullins first season as coach at St. Johns ended with an 8-24 record, including 1-17 in the Big East. Along the way there was a school-record 16-game losing streak and the Red Storm closed the season by losing 21 of their last 22 games.Whatever Year 2 brings will have a different look because of the depth the team will have this season. There are backups at every position and the players and coaching staff have had a summer together. And there are some pretty good players joining the program.The talent level has improved tremendously, Mullin said Thursday at St. Johns media day. Our focus has been on practice, daily improvement and working together. The biggest advantage has been the guys who returned know what were looking to do within our system. That experience is invaluable.Guard Federico Mussini leads the returners and his role will change dramatically with depth allowing him to spend time away from the point where he put in a lot of time last season.Shamorie Ponds was chosen Big East preseason freshmen of the year by the coaches, and redshirt freshman Marcus LoVett is eligible after sitting out last season. Sophomore Malik Ellison is hoping for an injury-free season.Every one of us can play both guard positions, Mussini said. When we play together, anyone of us can control the ball and that will allow us to run more.Kassoum Yakwe and Yankuba Sima both added some weight over the summer and they will be joined up front by Tennessee transfer Tariq Owens, junior college swingman Bashir Ahmed and freshman Richard Freudenberg from Germany.That means Mullin will have a lot more options.One of the biggest advantages we will have this year is being able to play multiple lineups, he said. We practice different lineups to see who functions well together and weve liked a lot of different combinations. We might want to force another team to play big or small and we have the ability to do that now.The Red Storm were picked eighth in the 10-team conference by the coaches, ahead of Providence and DePaul.THE SCHEDULEThe Red Storm open the season at home Nov. 11 against Bethune-Cookman. Theres a trip to the Battle 4 Atlantis where they open with Michigan State. The last game of the nonconference schedule is Dec. 21 at Syracuse. Big East play opens Dec. 29 at home against Butler.THE STAFFMullin had to replace assistant coach Barry Rohrssen, who left the program, and he did it by promoting Mitch Richmond.Not many college coaching staffs can brag it has two Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famers but Mullin and Richmond, longtime teammates with the Golden State Warriors, have the rings.Everybody learns from them every day, LoVett said. They have so much experience and its great just to sit and talk with them.STRAIGHT SHOOTERMullin is considered one of the best shooters to ever let it go and it appears nothing has changed since he stopped playing. Word around campus is nobody has even come close to beating him a game of H-O-R-S-E.He makes everything, Freudenberg said.He is the best shooter in the gym every day, Ellison said.He doesnt even warm up and he makes 10 in a row, LoVett said.Owens thought for a second about the question if Mullin could still shoot. He smiled and simply replied, Is water wet? Mark Andrews Womens Jersey . Houston won 3-0 to advance to face New York in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Last in the game, Di Vaio and Romero got into a shoving match with several Houston players. Romero appeared to elbow and kick Houston defender Kofi Sarkodie. Miles Boykin Jersey .5 seconds to play in the game, Kevin Love never stopped believing that they would come out of there with a win. http://www.ravensrookiestore.com/Ravens-Hayden-Hurst-Jersey/ . Isner, ranked No. 14, won his eighth career singles title and took the title in New Zealand for the second time after his victory in 2010. The match was similar to Isners quarterfinal victory over fifth-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber which went to three sets, all tiebreaks and contained no breaks of serve. Justice Hill Womens Jersey . On Saturday night, the normally free throw-challenged centre did just that. Howard scored 18 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter, including 13 of 19 free throws in a 2 1/2-minute stretch, and the Houston Rockets beat the Denver Nuggets 122-111. Baltimore Ravens Jerseys . -- The Bishops Gaiters are showing they belong among the countrys top varsity football teams. LOS ANGELES -- It really is hard to find a narrative that LA Clippers coach Doc Rivers isnt willing to indulge in. The other night he even asked a group of journalism students from USC, who were observing his postgame news conference, for extra questions at the end of what had already been a lengthy session after a blowout 127-95 win against the Brooklyn Nets.But there is one subject he isnt touching right now.And its a topic the rest of the league most definitely is talking about with the Clippers off to a franchise-best 10-1 start.So you know theres all this talk of the Clippers being the best team in the NBA now ...Noooo. Mmm, mmm. Nooo. Nooo, Rivers said before the question was even asked.Part of Rivers caution is the youngness of the season. Eleven games is hardly a large enough sample size to start making judgments, let alone boast about anything.But mostly its because Rivers and his team have been stung by all manner of playoff scorpions in recent years.You get tired of losing, Rivers said. The whole second-round [playoff ceiling the franchise has yet to break through] ... I dont think our guys care about that, they just want to win. At some point guys just get tired of losing. I think our guys are at that point.There are all sorts of metrics that would make a compelling case for the Clippers as the best team in the NBA right now.According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the Clippers have outscored their opponents by 183 points this season, the fourth-best margin through 11 games of a season in NBA history behind only the 1996-97 Chicago Bulls (plus-212), 1964-65 Boston Celtics (plus-194) and 1971-72 Milwaukee Bucks (plus-193).Theyre leading the NBA in defensive efficiency and have the most dominant five-man lineup in the league. (According to ESPN Stats & Information, starters Blake Griffin-Chris Paul-J.J. Redick-DeAndre Jordan-Luc Mbah a Moute are 98 points better together than any other five-man lineup in the league.) They also feature a vastly improved bench with the additions of Raymond Felton, Brandon Bass and Marreese Speights.Still, Rivers isnt going there.I dont care really, Rivers said, dismissing the best-team-in-the-league talk. We like us. As good as were playing, we can play a lot better.Griffin actually started his postgame interview on Monday by saying his team had a couple of defensive lapses and couldve played better during a first quarter in which it led the Nets 35-7 at one point.Challenged to explain where any lapses couldve been in a 35-7 game, Griffin laughed and sheepishly said, Yeah, a couple.In other words, this team really doesnt want to take any bows yet.Rivers said it reminds him a bit of the 2007-08 championship team he coached in Boston. That was the NBAs first super team, if youre into those sorts of labels, where Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen joined forces to win each of their first titles.Oh yeah, Rivers said. It was the exact same thing with Paul and KG and Ray. They were tired of losing and they were like, Well, we gotta do it together.But that team was all about Ubuntu, a philosophy and rallying cry used by Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu as they fought against apartheid in South Africa that roughly translates as, I am because we are.This years Clippers team has no such higher calling. Pierce was in Boston when Rivers explained it and ingrained Ubuntu into the DNA of that team. Hes in Los Angeles now -- although he has yet to play this season -- and says its vastly different.Its a lot different, Pierce told ESPN.com. This team has a lot of built-up frustration. They have first-round lossees, second-round losses.ddddddddddddUbuntu -- we dont have that. Its a totally different team. Different style, different team. This looks like built-up frustration over here.The biggest difference really is that the 2007-08 Celtics were about three future Hall of Famers coming together after a decade-plus of failing apart, with other teams. These Clippers have mostly been together for six years, sharing all these painful playoff losses.It all looked so promising in the first year of Lob City when the Clippers rallied to win a Game 7 on the road in Memphis in the first round of the 2012 playoffs. They were swept by San Antonio in the next round, but the season went down as a success for such a young team.They went backward in Year 2, losing to the Grizzlies in a bruising six-game first-round series. The Clippers won the first two games, lost the next three, then lost Griffin to a high-ankle sprain during walk-through practice. According to one insider, they were practicing traps to get the ball out of Zach Randolphs and Marc Gasols hands. Griffin spun, leaped, got bumped, landed on Lamar Odoms foot and let out the kind of scream that makes everyone in the gym cringe.The Clippers lost Game 6, fired coach Vinny Del Negro and turned to Rivers to get them over the hump. Instead, the Donald Sterling scandal landed like a stink bomb in the middle of a first-round series against the Golden State Warriors. The Clippers somehow pulled out the series in seven games, marking the last time theyve been ahead of the Warriors. But they basically collapsed out of emotional exhaustion in the next round against Oklahoma City. Which seemed like the worst thing that would ever happen in their careers, until they blew a 3-1 series lead against the Houston Rockets the next season.Last season was just stupid. Griffin and Paul went down with season-ending injuries in the same game of a first-round playoff series against Portland, and Damian Lillard put them out with four straight wins.You sort of have to bunch all those memories together to deal with the emotional trauma they evoke. Put it all in a run-on, stream-of-consciousness sentence and swallow it whole. Down it like a snake trying to eat a huge rat.The Houston series, Griffin said. Thats something that we still think about.Of all the Clippers playoff losses, thats still the worst because it was entirely in their hands. There wasnt a freak injury or twist of cruel fate. They just melted down.It happens, Griffin said. You saw it happen to Oklahoma City, you saw it happen to the Warriors in the Finals, the Indians if you want to go baseball. Thats part of it. As a team when you go through something like that, it can do one of two things: It can make you grow apart and resent each other, start pointing the finger. Or it can make you closer together. I think thats what thats done.Even last year, going through that season and that ending, I think its brought us closer together.Closer together, maybe. But still galaxies away from vindication. As good as theyve played this season, they still have many of the same weaknesses as before. They could use an upgrade at small forward to match up with the Kevin Durants and Kawhi Leonards of the world. Teams will still foul Jordan late in games to try to force Rivers to use a smaller lineup. And someone other than Paul needs to be able to make a clutch shot.But thats how thresholds always work. They are guarded until you finally overcome them. ' ' '