Mike Cragg Message

Beasts of the East said:
Trust me, Cragg is at least as pissed as all of us, and probably a lot more. Outraged is more like it.

The base is very disappointed, yes. Crushing? I'd leave that for the players. The rest of us got up the next morning and life goes on.

What you are probably unaware of is that you are the reason (folks who react like you) why Rick said that coaching at St John's is much more difficult than he thought it would been.

Athletic fund raising has been flat compared to Pre-Rick and he is by far the highest paid coach we've hired. The school just announced plans for a brand new basketball practice facility and renovation of Taffner as a student health center which in total will approach $100 million. The NIL raise next season will be in the $3 million dollar range.

If fans and alumni don't support this none of it happens, and Rick goes back to playing golf in his backyard.

What Rick was doing in part was calling out people who react like you because he had tremendous $$ support from fans and alums at Louisville and UK.

Be careful who you call an idiot, because it's a bad look for you. Cragg is doing a very good job, managing nearly 20 d1 sports, and is often physically present to watch all our teams play. The new facility plan began with Cragg. Fixing the CA problem is on his plate.

Did you expect a scorched earth tirade that would accomish nothing and be beneath his position? There are things going on in the background involving.ALL Big East schools to insure this doesn’t happen again and joint meetings began within 12 hours of not getting the bid.

Of course you didn't stop to consider all this and are ignorant of some of these facts or your post is just idiotic. If i were you I'd just plead ignorant.
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Been reading these posts for what seems like forever and they all circle back to the same thing, send money. Kind of like my kids correspondences from college. People are allowed other viewpoints without you calling their views idiotic because if Cragg is “at least as pissed as all of us” and “outraged”, he should man up and say it because he should be, and not hide behind “beneath his position”. His position is to stand up and be counted, and there are ways to do it very professionally but also very clearly and forcefully.
 
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Redenbacher said:
Says the guy who thinks it costs $25,000 per year to run this website.

I'm so tired of your preaching.
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I mist have missed your support icon. You're here enough to know how sick the owner is. How many hours do you think Paul put in over the years and at what hourly rate would you put his time at? Plus hardware, software, hosting costs.

Please take a hike
 
beast/reden go to your respective corners.

Be civil.

We are all Johnnies fans and want to win.

Cragg's message was not as weak as the soft press release from the offices of the BE. But he could have worded it better than he did.
 
Please keep the discussion civil. If you don’t agree, and can’t agree, please move on.
 
Redenbacher said:
(Cragg) He’s an idiot.
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Wrong.

Cragg has played the losing hand dealt as well as anyone could.

Cragg knows what to do but has lacked funding to accomplish his goals. Understand that within a year of his arrival he presented a plan to upgrade StJ’s facilities and the entire athletic department only to be told by the Board that there was no money and the athletic department must self fund the majority of the costs. Unfortunately StJ’s alums are not known for their generosity towards their school (see USN statistics) so what Cragg hoped to do has yet to be done.
 
otis said:
Wrong.

Cragg has played the losing hand dealt as well as anyone could.

Cragg knows what to do but has lacked funding to accomplish his goals. Understand that within a year of his arrival he presented a plan to upgrade StJ’s facilities and the entire athletic department only to be told by the Board that there was no money and the athletic department must self fund the majority of the costs. Unfortunately StJ’s alums are not known for their generosity towards their school (see USN statistics) so what Cragg hoped to do has yet to be done.
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And as I’ve outlined previously, that plan was outstanding with renovations and first class facilities for every sport at SJU.
 
otis said:
Wrong.

Cragg has played the losing hand dealt as well as anyone could.

Cragg knows what to do but has lacked funding to accomplish his goals. Understand that within a year of his arrival he presented a plan to upgrade StJ’s facilities and the entire athletic department only to be told by the Board that there was no money and the athletic department must self fund the majority of the costs. Unfortunately StJ’s alums are not known for their generosity towards their school (see USN statistics) so what Cragg hoped to do has yet to be done.
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Otis, Cragg made arguably the worst financial hire in the history of St. John's University, and called it "a home run hire" on top of it. Before the "home run hire" even coached a game, Cragg decided that it would be a good idea to hike season ticket prices by 30%, resulting in a reduction in season ticket renewals Then,
to top it all off, he compounded those 2 blunders by adding a multi-million dollar extension to the "home run hire's" contract before the "home run hire" accomplished anything of consequence. None of those things had anything to do with a lack of funding, and everything to do with a lack of acumen.

If not for the hiring of Fr. Shanley, which resulted in the hiring of Rick Pitino, which resulted in bringing Mike Repole back in to the fold(something Cragg could have never done on his own), I'm not so sure that Cragg would still be our AD today.

I met the man, he's a very nice guy, but let's not confuse him with Red Auerbach.
 
monte said:
Otis, Cragg made arguably the worst financial hire in the history of St. John's University, and called it "a home run hire" on top of it. Before the "home run hire" even coached a game, Cragg decided that it would be a good idea to hike season ticket prices by 30%, resulting in a reduction in season ticket renewals Then,
to top it all off, he compounded those 2 blunders by adding a multi-million dollar extension to the "home run hire's" contract before the "home run hire" accomplished anything of consequence. None of those things had anything to do with a lack of funding, and everything to do with a lack of acumen.

If not for the hiring of Fr. Shanley, which resulted in the hiring of Rick Pitino, which resulted in bringing Mike Repole back in to the fold(something Cragg could have never done on his own), I'm not so sure that Cragg would still be our AD today.

I met the man, he's a very nice guy, but let's not confuse him with Red Auerbach.
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Could you be a bit clearer Monte? 😇
 
otis said:
Wrong.

Cragg has played the losing hand dealt as well as anyone could.

Cragg knows what to do but has lacked funding to accomplish his goals. Understand that within a year of his arrival he presented a plan to upgrade StJ’s facilities and the entire athletic department only to be told by the Board that there was no money and the athletic department must self fund the majority of the costs.hire Unfortunately StJ’s alums are not known for their generosity towards their school (see USN statistics) so what Cragg hoped to do has yet to be done.
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My use of the word idiot was admittedly too strong.

But I absolutely stand by my comment that the day Pitino arrived at SJU was the luckiest day of Cragg’s life. Up to that point, the men’s basketball program, which is the linchpin of the entire athletic department, was going nowhere fast. Cragg was at the helm during the search to replace Mullin, he approved Anderson’s insanely weak OOC schedule, he extended Anderson’s contract prematurely and then fired him --for cause—just two years later. All of which resulted in a multi-million-dollar lawsuit from Anderson, which the school has an excellent chance of losing. Meanwhile, ticket sales were stagnant and the fan base remained depressed.

Pitino has breathed life into the program (thanks to Shanley bringing him here) and Cragg is along for the ride. Good for him, but a "great leader" he is not.
 
monte said:
Otis, Cragg made arguably the worst financial hire in the history of St. John's University, and called it "a home run hire" on top of it. Before the "home run hire" even coached a game, Cragg decided that it would be a good idea to hike season ticket prices by 30%, resulting in a reduction in season ticket renewals Then,
to top it all off, he compounded those 2 blunders by adding a multi-million dollar extension to the "home run hire's" contract before the "home run hire" accomplished anything of consequence. None of those things had anything to do with a lack of funding, and everything to do with a lack of acumen.

If not for the hiring of Fr. Shanley, which resulted in the hiring of Rick Pitino, which resulted in bringing Mike Repole back in to the fold(something Cragg could have never done on his own), I'm not so sure that Cragg would still be our AD today.

I met the man, he's a very nice guy, but let's not confuse him with Red Auerbach.
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So what you're saying is the U lacked adequate leadership prior to Shanley. Based on the posts I've seen over the years that seems like a solid foundation. Gets credit for improving the Repole situation as well.

But believing that Pitino is here purely because of Shanley is kind of silly. Yes, Shanley did great and agreed to reach out and write the check but a coach with the bona fides of Pitino is here out of pure luck. Let's assume that his transgressions of the past took him out of the equation, who do you think would have been the hire last year? It would have been more of the same like the program has experienced ever since Louie retired. Probably a slight upgrade. No coach anywhere near Pitino's status would have considered the job without the extenuating circumstances that were present.

I do trust Shanley alongside Cragg to find a better diamond in the rough once RP retires than he program has seen in the past 7 hires but this Pitonosance is not going to be the norm when he's gone. The school will be back to being a job attractive to rising coaches at best, back to a stepping stone. Red Auerbach is not walking through door once Pitino is gone.
 
austour said:
So what you're saying is the U lacked adequate leadership prior to Shanley. Based on the posts I've seen over the years that seems like a solid foundation. Gets credit for improving the Repole situation as well.

But believing that Pitino is here purely because of Shanley is kind of silly. Yes, Shanley did great and agreed to reach out and write the check but a coach with the bona fides of Pitino is here out of pure luck. Let's assume that his transgressions of the past took him out of the equation, who do you think would have been the hire last year? It would have been more of the same like the program has experienced ever since Louie retired. Probably a slight upgrade. No coach anywhere near Pitino's status would have considered the job without the extenuating circumstances that were present.

I do trust Shanley alongside Cragg to find a better diamond in the rough once RP retires than he program has seen in the past 7 hires but this Pitonosance is not going to be the norm when he's gone. The school will be back to being a job attractive to rising coaches at best, back to a stepping stone. Red Auerbach is not walking through door once Pitino is gone.
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Spin it anyway you want, Pitino and Repole are not here if the school doesn't make possibly the smartest hire ever in Fr. Shanley. Does that mean that the BOT didn't have to sign off on the hire? I'm sure that they did, but Shanley got it started and got it done.
 
And one more thing while I'm on a role, higher education is a business, a huge business. High level college sports(and even some high school sports) is a multi-billion dollar business . The fact that some of you guys want to view this as a charity for your own needs, doesn't change the fact that it ain't.

So please stop calling people out who are not interested in "donating(I use that word very loosely)" to a multi-billion dollar business. There are far far more needy real charities in this country and in this world.
 
otis said:
Wrong.

Cragg has played the losing hand dealt as well as anyone could.

Cragg knows what to do but has lacked funding to accomplish his goals. Understand that within a year of his arrival he presented a plan to upgrade StJ’s facilities and the entire athletic department only to be told by the Board that there was no money and the athletic department must self fund the majority of the costs. Unfortunately StJ’s alums are not known for their generosity towards their school (see USN statistics) so what Cragg hoped to do has yet to be done.
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Wrong. Cragg’s ceiling was Duke errand boy.
 
monte said:
And one more thing while I'm on a role, higher education is a business, a huge business. High level college sports(and even some high school sports) is a multi-billion dollar business . The fact that some of you guys want to view this as a charity for your own needs, doesn't change the fact that it ain't.

So please stop calling people out who are not interested in "donating(I use that word very loosely)" to a multi-billion dollar business. There are far far more needy real charities in this country and in this world.
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Well said….,
 
Redenbacher said:
My use of the word idiot was admittedly too strong.

But I absolutely stand by my comment that the day Pitino arrived at SJU was the luckiest day of Cragg’s life. Up to that point, the men’s basketball program, which is the linchpin of the entire athletic department, was going nowhere fast. Cragg was at the helm during the search to replace Mullin, he approved Anderson’s insanely weak OOC schedule, he extended Anderson’s contract prematurely and then fired him --for cause—just two years later. All of which resulted in a multi-million-dollar lawsuit from Anderson, which the school has an excellent chance of losing. Meanwhile, ticket sales were stagnant and the fan base remained depressed.

Pitino has breathed life into the program (thanks to Shanley bringing him here) and Cragg is along for the ride. Good for him, but a "great leader" he is not.
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Dunce would have been a much better word 😂😂 Ok don't go get your panties in a bunch you guys(not you R). I'm just kidding. Mike Cragg is obviously a very smart man.

However, there is a difference between being a smart man and being the right person for the job. The idea that his years at Duke prepared him for the AD job here is pure and utter folly. Or, as Austour likes to say when he doesn't have anything to back up a weak argument, it's " silly". His main job at Duke was to stay out of the way of the AD and K.

Ironically, it would seem to me that now his main job seems to be to stay out of the way of Shanley, Pitino and Repole. Well, maybe his years at Duke did prepare him for the SJU AD job after all.
 
monte said:
Dunce would have been a much better word 😂😂 Ok don't go get your panties in a bunch you guys(not you R). I'm just kidding. Mike Cragg is obviously a very smart man.

However, there is a difference between being a smart man and being the right person for the job. The idea that his years at Duke prepared him for the AD job here is pure and utter folly. Or, as Austour likes to say when he doesn't have anything to back up a weak argument, it's " silly". His main job at Duke was to stay out of the way of the AD and K.

Ironically, it would seem to me that now his main job seems to be to stay out of the way of Shanley, Pitino and Repole. Well, maybe his years at Duke did prepare him for the SJU AD job after all.
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Hey, at least he publicly expressed his outrage at the BE selection snubs…oh wait, that was Danny Hurley, my bad……
 
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