Thursday is day two of the Big East men’s basketball tournament, and there’s a full slate of games on tap at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n
First up: No. 1 seed St. John’s taking on No. 9 seed Providence. Tipoff is at noon.<\/p>\n
For the second year in a row, the Johnnies are Big East regular season champions, and now, they\u2019re looking to follow it up with back-to-back Big East tournament championships.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
Rev. Richard Rock is the campus Minister for Athletics at St. John\u2019s University, offering spiritual guidance to student-athletes on all 17 Red Storm teams \u2014 but he never misses a men\u2019s basketball game
\n
Father Rock grew up in Astoria, Queens as a big sports fan, and dedicated his life to giving back to the homeless and poor. He travels with the team, sits with them on the bench, and before every game, leads a pre-game prayer\u00a0
\n
Off the court, Father Rock goes with student-athletes to soup kitchens and shelters, inspiring them to give back to their communities<\/p>\n
And they’re turning to the extra edge on their bench: their “Rock” in the Red Storm.<\/p>\n
Rev. Richard Rock is the campus Minister for Athletics at St. John\u2019s University, offering spiritual guidance to student-athletes on all 17 Red Storm teams \u2014 but he never misses a men\u2019s basketball game.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether they’re religious or not religious, I think the thing is, it’s spirituality that kind of grounds them in what we do,\u201d Father Rock said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Father Rock grew up in Astoria, Queens, and has devoted his entire life to giving back, especially to the homeless and the poor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now, he inspires student-athletes to do the same.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For senior Zuby Ejiofor, his message resonates.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s not always about yourself, but it’s about what you leave behind and how you make others around you better as well,\u201d Ejiofor said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s trying to pass on an experience of what faith is all about,\u201d Father Rock said. \u201cThere’s something about faith, no matter what faith a person has, it needs to ground their lives, it gives them meaning, it gives them value.\u201d<\/p>\n
Players say his role on the team is invaluable, and it all begins in the locker room, where before every game, he leads a pre-game prayer that always mentions the homeless and always ends the same way: with four “Amens.”<\/p>\n
Then, it\u2019s game time, and he takes his seat on the Johnnie’s bench, where from tipoff on he\u2019s locked in, keeping spirits high no matter the score.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSome people get upset and angry at different things,\u201d Father Rock said. “Well, how do you bring them back to life? There’s a good cop and a bad cop \u2014 I\u2019m the good cop. And when they’re down, it’s just saying, ‘Things are gonna work out.’ Somehow, there is a connection between life, spirituality and sports.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his 13 years with St. John\u2019s, nothing can top celebrating last year\u2019s Big East championship, when the team picked him to cut down the net at MSG.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI was totally shocked when that happened,\u201d Father Rock said. \u201cAll of a sudden I heard my name over the loudspeaker, and somebody said, ‘They want you to cut down the net!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe took my turn because I’m afraid of heights,\u201d joked St. John\u2019s men\u2019s basketball head coach Rick Pitino. “No, I wanted him to have that moment, because he deserves it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI still have it in my room. I\u2019ll never let go of it,\u201d Father Rock said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nor will he forget it. But as the team looks to defend its title, he\u2019s sure hoping \u2014 praying \u2014 to repeat it.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thursday is day two of the Big East men’s basketball tournament, and there’s a full slate of games…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161436,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[11101,25,9,24,12,63,122,124,123,319,11102,27,200],"class_list":["post-161435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-app-sports","tag-app-top-stories","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-sports","tag-stef-manisero","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}