Relatively Speaking Podcast: Saying goodbye to the Red, White and Blue Mamba

The St. John's Red Storm are in a weird phase of its sixth-ish rebuild since the Lou Carnesecca came to an end in 1992. Chris Mullin is entering what will only be his second year (ever) coaching a basketball team, the squad remains disturbingly young, and the annual potential awakening of this New York sleeping giant always appears to prefer to hit the snooze button. What's a dark horse anyway? That's an important question to ask. In Today's U series of Major Conference Dark Horses, certain teams like Kentucky or Duke or Xavier, obviously need not apply. Nor do teams with an overwhelming surplus of hype. After all, how can the horse be in the shadows if everyone -- as well as their respective mothers -- is pounding their chest, screaming about how awesome that team will be. This makes this practice inherently odd. One must find a team who is a combination of not expecting to do well, with rather low expectations, but has the potential do magically find its way to the glorious land of over-achievement. This is where the Red Storm comes into play, as the aforementioned youth, which can be somewhat tied to the idea of potential, gives them a puncher's chance to knockout destiny. Don't get it wrong, however. The Johnnies enter the season a broken, flawed, and riddle with more questions than answers type of team. St. John's returns several key players of consequence. That's the good news. That bad, well, those important pieces to last season's squad only managed to win a grand total of eight collegiate basketball games. For those even inept in the math department, that is less than ideal. Still, those less than ideal players from a previously abominable team have potential. Each of them, with presumed growth, can help turn the Red Storm around. There's Federico Mussini. An irresponsibly confident player. The kind who is crazy fun to watch when playing well, but makes fans sick to their tummies whenever he hurls a 30-foot bomb. Mussini is an inefficient guard. As