It had to have been one of the most surreal team meetings in the history of St. John’s basketball, beginning with the upsetting news one of the most talented scorers in program history might never play again.
Yesterday, Lavin suspended star sophomore guard D’Angelo Harrison for the rest of the season, leaving his future at St. John’s very much in doubt.
Exactly how the Johnnies will respond tonight when they play at Providence in a suddenly crucial late-season Big East game seems almost irrelevant.
In a one-hour interview session yesterday, neither St. John’s coach Steve Lavin nor players Jamal Branch, Sir’Dominic Pointer and Orlando Sanchez were asked a single question about the Friars (15-12 overall, 7-8 in the Big East).
Years from now this might be remembered as the defining moment in Lavin’s tenure as the Red Storm coach.
“I was definitely shocked and a little upset,’’ Branch said.
Harrison, the team’s leading scorer at 18.3 points per game, will not wear his No. 11 St. John’s jersey again this season. In almost two years at St. John’s, Harrison has thrilled his coaches and teammates with his passion and scoring and frustrated them with his immaturity and irresponsibility.
After suspending Harrison from a preseason game and not starting him on two other occasions for tardiness, Lavin decided to put all of his Harrison chips in the middle of the table and call.
“As the leader of this program, I have to make decisions that are very difficult,’’ Lavin said. “In the ideal world, I don’t want to lose a leading scorer in the home stretch of the season, but I owe it to the families of the kids I coach and the players themselves to try and get the best out of them.’’
The 6-foot-3 Harrison, despite suffering some horrid shooting games this season, was clearly improving as a player, winning the Notre Dame game with a last-second blocked shot of 6-foot-10 Tom Knight. But for all of his clutch shots and winning smile, Harrison continued to challenge authority.
Lavin said there was no defining incident that led to the season-ending suspension. But The Post has learned when Harrison turned his back on a huddle during the team’s nationally televised game at Syracuse, it did not sit well with high-ranking members of the administration.
The suspension came as a shock to Harrison, who sources said was very upset and devastated he let down his teammates. Pointer and Branch said they saw nothing out of the ordinary in Harrison’s behavior lately.
Whether Harrison returns for his junior season is up to he and Lavin, who said Harrison told him he wants to return. Lavin said he did not give Harrison a list of requirements he has to meet to return, but he rattled off a laundry list of expectations, including: Be on time; go to class; don’t embarrass the basketball program.
“The good news is he wants to be a part of our program,’’ Lavin said. “And finish his collegiate playing career at St. John’s.’’
That’s not a done deal. There are relationships that need repairing.
The suspension caught Harrison and his family by surprise. His grandmother, Angela Harrison, said she and her grandson were caught off guard. Lavin acknowledged he did not have a shape-up or ship-out talk with Harrison in recent weeks.
Angela Harrison declined to go into details about the suspension but made it clear her grandson had not violated any NCAA rules. Nor did he have any substance-abuse issues.
“This is not about any illegal drugs or alcohol,’’ she told The Post. “D’Angelo is an emotional young man, but he is never been involved in anything like that. We were caught off guard by this suspension.’’
Harrison’s coach at Dulles High in suburban Houston, Mike Carrabine, declined to comment, but said Harrison would remain enrolled at St. John’s for the rest of the semester. He will not participate in any team activities, but Lavin said he would keep an open dialogue with his star guard, who led the team with 58 3-pointers, seven more than the rest of the team combined.
* Lavin told his team the team the 6-foot-9 Sanchez finally had won a season-long battle with the NCAA and would be eligible to play next season.
“I almost cried,’’ said Sanchez. “Everyone started throwing water and getting it all over me.’’
The loss of Harrison might be the pin that bursts the team’s NCAA Tournament bubble. The Johnnies are 16-11 and 8-7 in the Big East, but were already a woeful outside shooting team before losing Harrison, who joined the university’s exclusive 1,000-point scorers club this season.
When Pointer was asked if he were confident this team could still secure an at large berth, he said, “One hundred percent.’’
It seems that nothing is that certain with St. John’s this season.