Red Storm seniors Dwight Hardy and Justin Burrell will compete in St. John’s uniforms one last time.
Hardy and Burrell will be in Houston, the home of this year’s Final Four, representing St. John’s in the State Farm 3-Point and Slam Dunk contests, respectively, on Thursday, March 31.
In leading the Johnnies in scoring this year (18.3 points per game), Hardy displayed his range hitting two threes a game while shooting over 35 percent from behind the arc.
“Hopefully those guys will miss more than I will,” joked Hardy on Stormtracker All-Access on redstormsports.com.
Wooden Award finalist Hardy will also take the court in the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Reese’s All-Star game on Friday, April 1. Hardy will suit up for the East team against the West in a game that will pit the top seniors from around the country against each other in Houston as part of the week’s Final Four festivities.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity to play with some if the best seniors in the nation,” Hardy told All-Access.
In addition to participating in these events Hardy, the three-time Big East player of the week, conference’s most improved player and all-conference first teamer, needs to make room on his mantle for one more prestigious award. Hardy was named an honorable mention All-American; the first St. John’s player named to the team since Erick Barkley in 2000.
In the college slam-dunk championships, Burrell has a chance to display the dunking prowess he often displayed in pre-game warm-ups. A powerful dunker, the 6’ 8” Big East sixth man of the year will try to impress the judges in Houston the same way he did the Red Storm fans.
The Johnnies duo will be competing against seven other seniors from around the country in their respective competitions.
The contests will air at 9 p.m. Thursday night on ESPN2. You can also watch Hardy on April 1 at 3:35 p.m. on TruTV in the college all-star game.
And on Sunday, April 3, you can watch four St. John’s incoming freshman, Sir’Dominic Pointer, Maurice Harkless, JaKarr Sampson and D’Angelo Harrison, compete in the All-American Championships, a double-header between some of the best high school talent from around the country. The games were air live on ESPN3.com beginning at 3 p.m. April 3 and will re-air on ESPNU at 9 p.m.
