Anderson - is he really the guy ?

[mjmaherjr]

Sorry but every time I see the topic caption, I think I am going to see Adrian Monk solve a crime.

I have not noticed any discussion of Covid affecting CMA's coaching/recruiting.  College basketball in these past 2 years has been more challenging then any we have experienced.  Any thoughts as how this could impact the evaluation 

IMO covid affects every coach so for me I dont see that as an excuse for any coach but that's just my opinion

 

[nycfan]

Mullin experiment was a disaster.  Hind sight is 20-20 but would have been better off with Lavin staying.  

 

Any assessment of Mullin's tenure needs to understand what he started with when he arrived here. He had a grand total of 3 scholarship players (Amar Alibegovic, Christian Jones and Felix Balamou). That's it. Not even enough players to field a team. Returning points per game : Amar 1.5, Jones 1.2 and Balamou 1.3. Makes for 4 points per game. Name a coach in America winning with that and mind you we are in the Big East.

Starting with absolutely nothing we ended up in the tournament in 4 years.

As Beast noted (and I agree with) there were enough issues with Mullin's regime to drive a truck through.

The real disaster was what Lavin left him with.

 

[beast of the east]

Mullin experiment was a disaster.  Hind sight is 20-20 but would have been better off with Lavin staying.  


 

Any assessment of Mullin's tenure needs to understand what he started with when he arrived here. He had a grand total of 3 scholarship players (Amar Alibegovic, Christian Jones and Felix Balamou). That's it. Not even enough players to field a team. Returning points per game : Amar 1.5, Jones 1.2 and Balamou 1.3. Makes for 4 points per game. Name a coach in America winning with that and mind you we are in the Big East.

Starting with absolutely nothing we ended up in the tournament in 4 years.

As Beast noted (and I agree with) there were enough issues with Mullin's regime to drive a truck through.

The real disaster was what Lavin left him with.

 

Mullin's first team went 1-17 in the Big East.   I guarantee you that John Wooden would have won at least twice that many.   

 

[room112]

As to Chris Mullin, I enjoyed him as a player and I admired him as a person when he got his life straightened out.  When he came in I was glad to welcome him home.  When his wife acquiesced to their daughter's wishes to go back to California, I felt that took a lot out of Chris and then his brother's cancer and death seasled the deal as Chris was always about family.  To the nay sayers, I have one word--JARVIS.

Does anyone know if Mullin actually had any interest in remaining as coach after his 4th year? If his heart wasn't here and was unhappy, it would seem he would have made the decision to resign.

 

[fordham96]

I don't want to re-litigate the Mullin year's but it is a complete straw man to say Mullin's problem was that he was left with a thin roster his first year and that excuses all his failings for numerous reasons:

1)Nobody holds him to that season. In other words nobody said Mullin was unfit because he went 1-17.  
2)The idea that the previous coach is to blame is nonsense, part of roster issue is because kids de-committed because of the coaching change.  Why is that Lavin's fault?  It is not Mullin's fault either but you are acting like Lavin intentionally got fired.  That was a price you paid for that move.  Whoever was the coach would've probably been on a 2 yr rebuild of the roster.  Even if Lavin was retained.  So what.
3)Mullin's problems ran much deeper, he simply did not want to put in the work to be a HC.  Period.  That became painfully obvious when all they wanted to do was play the transfer market.  That had nothing to do with a thin roster his first year.
4)In retrospect the move to make in 2015 was to hire Danny Hurley.  

 

[beast of the east]

I don't want to re-litigate the Mullin year's but it is a complete straw man to say Mullin's problem was that he was left with a thin roster his first year and that excuses all his failings for numerous reasons:

1)Nobody holds him to that season. In other words nobody said Mullin was unfit because he went 1-17.  
2)The idea that the previous coach is to blame is nonsense, part of roster issue is because kids de-committed because of the coaching change.  Why is that Lavin's fault?  It is not Mullin's fault either but you are acting like Lavin intentionally got fired.  That was a price you paid for that move.  Whoever was the coach would've probably been on a 2 yr rebuild of the roster.  Even if Lavin was retained.  So what.
3)Mullin's problems ran much deeper, he simply did not want to put in the work to be a HC.  Period.  That became painfully obvious when all they wanted to do was play the transfer market.  That had nothing to do with a thin roster his first year.
4)In retrospect the move to make in 2015 was to hire Danny Hurley.  

1)Nobody holds him to that season. In other words nobody said Mullin was unfit because he went 1-17.   That's total crap.  Nearly every Mullin detractor has pointed to his conference record over time.
2)The idea that the previous coach is to blame is nonsense, part of roster issue is because kids de-committed because of the coaching change.  Why is that Lavin's fault?  It is not Mullin's fault either but you are acting like Lavin intentionally got fired.  That was a price you paid for that move.  Whoever was the coach would've probably been on a 2 yr rebuild of the roster.  Even if Lavin was retained.  So what.   The point is correctly stated that Mullin was left with 3 guys who were not even close to being Big East players, and that's as bad as it could possibly had gotten.
3)Mullin's problems ran much deeper, he simply did not want to put in the work to be a HC.  Period.  That became painfully obvious when all they wanted to do was play the transfer market.  That had nothing to do with a thin roster his first year.  Sorry, no period here. I hope the next time you have a very close relative suffering from a terminal illness that your boss doesn't expect you to put in the enormous effort it takes to coach a college basketball team.   Admittedly, Mullin did not understand when he took the job that running a college program is a 12 month job.   He didn't expect that he'd have a problem requiring him to split his family and in hindsight should have flown them here for the summer, but given the nature of the problem, that likely was not a suitable answer.   Ironically, by the time he left here, those problems had all recently been resolved permanently.
4)In retrospect the move to make in 2015 was to hire Danny Hurley.   Hurley got $4 million from UCONN.   Even if we paid him $2 million, he'd have been gone by now and still at UCONN.   PERIOD.   For the record half of UCONN's fans on their board are calling for him to be fired.    

All of that is not to say that changing coaches was a bad idea.  Mullin's tenure was not successful enough to be retained, but I do feel that with a few changes, he could have been very successful and a real AD could have helped. 
 

 

[fordham96]

1) His conference record his last 2 years was 12-24.  That is why he was pushed out. That is not bad that is GOD AWFUL.  And that does NOT include 1-17 Skippy.  That is a .333 winning percentage WITHOUT his worst year.  But keep telling yourself he was fired because he inherited a thin roster.  Go back and read the posts and tell me where anyone thought he should be fired or was a mistake for being hired after year 1.  Almost everybody gave him the benefit of the doubt.

2)Danny Hurley would have been paid more than $2 million a year after he got an inevitable extension.  Your argument is completely hollow.  You are essentially conceding SJU could've done better but you somehow know for a fact he would have taken another job so SJU should not hire a clear upgrade...right?

 

 

[fordham96]

I think this is fair.  I admit I supported the Mullin hire like most but in retrospect it is a big mistake.

If I had the choice over again of Firing Lavin and hiring Mullin or Hurley the answer is obvious you hire Hurley.  If the question is Firing Lavin and hiring Mullin that is a closer call but I would have retained Lavin.  Give him a 3 year extension and basically said he had 2 years to get his staff reorganized and roster replenished to an NCAA team.  And see if he could re-dedicate himself to that.

But all of this does not matter.  Mike is the coach he is going to be here for awhile.  Hopefully we can get this season going again and win some games.  

Roamer post=448481
Mullin experiment was a disaster.  Hind sight is 20-20 but would have been better off with Lavin staying.  

 

 

[Eric]

I actually think he can be the guy.  Problem is we do not have the patience as a group to wait it out.  We play poorly and we jump on him as a whole.  I can understand it as its been a long time for us to have something good with SJU sustainable.  I sure have not been thrilled up to date this year but I also have no problem waiting to see how we do in big east play before I proclaim how the season will go.  I don't see the productive point in complaining he must go and he's not the guy just yet.  We may lose more than we win in the big east.  But I honestly think with posh and champaigne having 2 of the better players in the conference on the same team we will win in this conference this year.  If we don't then I will be on board with you guys.  But I am going to wait and see how this plays out first.  

 

[SLYFOXX1968]

Mullin ‘s team beating Number 1 Duke and Number 4 Villanova in the same week and actually playing in the NCA A , even in a play in game gets him some credit , more than what is shown on this site .  Ok , maybe it was Number 4 Duke and Number 1 Nova .  Regardless , we haven’t had Victories like that since the Dwight Hardy game against Pitt in the Lavin era .   By the way , the Pitt loss is a bad , bad one that can’t be brushed away . Even without Champ.  The 2 glaring losses to Indiana and Kansas , with Champ were blown opportunities .  

 

[otis]

Yeah the experiment of hiring Mr. Mullin, a west coaster with absolutely no previous coaching experience proved to be a failure.

More importantly the St. John's experiment in hiring Mullin caused it to not pursue other quality candidates, including the Hurley brothers.  Bobby Hurley coming off of a 42 and 20 record at UBuffalo was hired by Arizona 10 days after Mullin was hired by St. John's.  Danny Hurley was continuing his successful career at URI before being hired 3 years later at Yukon.

Other successful coaches hired during the 2015 offseason when Mr. Mullin was hired include Ben Howland  at Mississippi State (3 consecutive 20+ games seasons in the SEC), Michael White at UFlorida, Rick Barnes at UTennessee, Greg Gard at Wisco, Eric Konkol at Louisianna Tech (129- 65 record) etc. 

Other 2015 hires, currently not at their school include Shaka Smart at Texas where he went 109- 86, and Avery Johnson at Alabama where he went 75 - 62.

.

 

[panther2]

I don't want to re-litigate the Mullin year's but it is a complete straw man to say Mullin's problem was that he was left with a thin roster his first year and that excuses all his failings for numerous reasons:

1)Nobody holds him to that season. In other words nobody said Mullin was unfit because he went 1-17.  
2)The idea that the previous coach is to blame is nonsense, part of roster issue is because kids de-committed because of the coaching change.  Why is that Lavin's fault?  It is not Mullin's fault either but you are acting like Lavin intentionally got fired.  That was a price you paid for that move.  Whoever was the coach would've probably been on a 2 yr rebuild of the roster.  Even if Lavin was retained.  So what.
3)Mullin's problems ran much deeper, he simply did not want to put in the work to be a HC.  Period.  That became painfully obvious when all they wanted to do was play the transfer market.  That had nothing to do with a thin roster his first year.
4)In retrospect the move to make in 2015 was to hire Danny Hurley.  

1)Nobody holds him to that season. In other words nobody said Mullin was unfit because he went 1-17.   That's total crap.  Nearly every Mullin detractor has pointed to his conference record over time.
2)The idea that the previous coach is to blame is nonsense, part of roster issue is because kids de-committed because of the coaching change.  Why is that Lavin's fault?  It is not Mullin's fault either but you are acting like Lavin intentionally got fired.  That was a price you paid for that move.  Whoever was the coach would've probably been on a 2 yr rebuild of the roster.  Even if Lavin was retained.  So what.   The point is correctly stated that Mullin was left with 3 guys who were not even close to being Big East players, and that's as bad as it could possibly had gotten.
3)Mullin's problems ran much deeper, he simply did not want to put in the work to be a HC.  Period.  That became painfully obvious when all they wanted to do was play the transfer market.  That had nothing to do with a thin roster his first year.  Sorry, no period here. I hope the next time you have a very close relative suffering from a terminal illness that your boss doesn't expect you to put in the enormous effort it takes to coach a college basketball team.   Admittedly, Mullin did not understand when he took the job that running a college program is a 12 month job.   He didn't expect that he'd have a problem requiring him to split his family and in hindsight should have flown them here for the summer, but given the nature of the problem, that likely was not a suitable answer.   Ironically, by the time he left here, those problems had all recently been resolved permanently.
4)In retrospect the move to make in 2015 was to hire Danny Hurley.   Hurley got $4 million from UCONN.   Even if we paid him $2 million, he'd have been gone by now and still at UCONN.   PERIOD.   For the record half of UCONN's fans on their board are calling for him to be fired.    

All of that is not to say that changing coaches was a bad idea.  Mullin's tenure was not successful enough to be retained, but I do feel that with a few changes, he could have been very successful and a real AD could have helped. 

 

Beast, I respect Mullin as a player, but as a Coach he was a failure. You keep pointing to family problems to attempt to justify hie ineptitude. All of us have family problems and loved ones dying.

Between June, 2001 and September, 2004. I lost my mother, my aunt who was like a second mother to me, and my father. I received 5 bereavement days for each of my parents deaths. For my Aunt, I had to use vacation. Once the funerals were over, I had to go back to work. In life, shit happens, and we are all expected to deal with it.

I am not being callous by any means, just stating reality. If you can't perform your job for whatever reason, you need to resign. I had a responsibility to be there at my best for the clients that I serviced in the hospital. We all have to learn how to compartmentalize our lives if we are to succeed. This is called living life on life's terms.

 

[beast of the east]

1) His conference record his last 2 years was 12-24.  That is why he was pushed out. That is not bad that is GOD AWFUL.  And that does NOT include 1-17 Skippy.  That is a .333 winning percentage WITHOUT his worst year.  But keep telling yourself he was fired because he inherited a thin roster.  Go back and read the posts and tell me where anyone thought he should be fired or was a mistake for being hired after year 1.  Almost everybody gave him the benefit of the doubt.

2)Danny Hurley would have been paid more than $2 million a year after he got an inevitable extension.  Your argument is completely hollow.  You are essentially conceding SJU could've done better but you somehow know for a fact he would have taken another job so SJU should not hire a clear upgrade...right?



 

I don't know if you know less about basketball, Chris Mullin, or human decency.   

You tell Mullin to compartmentalize?   You mean showing up at every practice, every game, then running to a hospital to be with a dying brother?   Or would you let your mother or wife or kid alone so oyu could do your job? 

I can guarantee you one thing.   You do not support SJU basketball.   

By Mullin's third year, with a roster that was not deep, a problem which plagued Lavin throughout his tenure at SJU, as soon as Lovett went down very early, the season was dead in the water, a season that began with NCAA hopes, and a season in which most fans believed we had a realistic chance of attaining. 

Danny Hurley was making $597,000 as URI Coach.    A normal bump for him would have been $1.25 - $1.5 million.   Actually in that range, SJU would have been much better off to hire Tim Cluess.   But I digress.   UCONN with much deeper pockets than SJU because fans like you actually donate to the school, blew out all the competition by offering Hurley 6 years at $3 million per.   Had SJU raised Hurley, UCONN wanted their man and he would have gone to a national championship program and left one here where fans don't support the program enarly as well as UCONN fans support theirs.   

By the way, that idiot Ron, is a guy who called Mullin a POS for not showing up at the Carnesecca statue unveiling.  As if he, or you, know a damned thing. 

 

[redmannorth]

I don't want to re-litigate the Mullin year's but it is a complete straw man to say Mullin's problem was that he was left with a thin roster his first year and that excuses all his failings for numerous reasons:

1)Nobody holds him to that season. In other words nobody said Mullin was unfit because he went 1-17.  
2)The idea that the previous coach is to blame is nonsense, part of roster issue is because kids de-committed because of the coaching change.  Why is that Lavin's fault?  It is not Mullin's fault either but you are acting like Lavin intentionally got fired.  That was a price you paid for that move.  Whoever was the coach would've probably been on a 2 yr rebuild of the roster.  Even if Lavin was retained.  So what.
3)Mullin's problems ran much deeper, he simply did not want to put in the work to be a HC.  Period.  That became painfully obvious when all they wanted to do was play the transfer market.  That had nothing to do with a thin roster his first year.
4)In retrospect the move to make in 2015 was to hire Danny Hurley.  

1)Nobody holds him to that season. In other words nobody said Mullin was unfit because he went 1-17.   That's total crap.  Nearly every Mullin detractor has pointed to his conference record over time.
2)The idea that the previous coach is to blame is nonsense, part of roster issue is because kids de-committed because of the coaching change.  Why is that Lavin's fault?  It is not Mullin's fault either but you are acting like Lavin intentionally got fired.  That was a price you paid for that move.  Whoever was the coach would've probably been on a 2 yr rebuild of the roster.  Even if Lavin was retained.  So what.   The point is correctly stated that Mullin was left with 3 guys who were not even close to being Big East players, and that's as bad as it could possibly had gotten.
3)Mullin's problems ran much deeper, he simply did not want to put in the work to be a HC.  Period.  That became painfully obvious when all they wanted to do was play the transfer market.  That had nothing to do with a thin roster his first year.  Sorry, no period here. I hope the next time you have a very close relative suffering from a terminal illness that your boss doesn't expect you to put in the enormous effort it takes to coach a college basketball team.   Admittedly, Mullin did not understand when he took the job that running a college program is a 12 month job.   He didn't expect that he'd have a problem requiring him to split his family and in hindsight should have flown them here for the summer, but given the nature of the problem, that likely was not a suitable answer.   Ironically, by the time he left here, those problems had all recently been resolved permanently.
4)In retrospect the move to make in 2015 was to hire Danny Hurley.   Hurley got $4 million from UCONN.   Even if we paid him $2 million, he'd have been gone by now and still at UCONN.   PERIOD.   For the record half of UCONN's fans on their board are calling for him to be fired.    

All of that is not to say that changing coaches was a bad idea.  Mullin's tenure was not successful enough to be retained, but I do feel that with a few changes, he could have been very successful and a real AD could have helped. 


 

Beast, I respect Mullin as a player, but as a Coach he was a failure. You keep pointing to family problems to attempt to justify hie ineptitude. All of us have family problems and loved ones dying.

Between June, 2001 and September, 2004. I lost my mother, my aunt who was like a second mother to me, and my father. I received 5 bereavement days for each of my parents deaths. For my Aunt, I had to use vacation. Once the funerals were over, I had to go back to work. In life, shit happens, and we are all expected to deal with it.

I am not being callous by any means, just stating reality. If you can't perform your job for whatever reason, you need to resign. I had a responsibility to be there at my best for the clients that I serviced in the hospital. We all have to learn how to compartmentalize our lives if we are to succeed. This is called living life on life's terms.

Panther you are not callous by any means but rather stating the obvious for what transpires for 9999 out of 10,000 people. Shit  happens of all types and shape in life but you still have to go back to work and perform. However your point ties in so correctly with Beast’s position that if Mullin had a proper AD , Slice contract never would have occurred, Slice would not be replaced by Mitch, Mullin would have been held accountable and would have been on campus irrespective of his wife being in California and his brother’s terminal illness. 

 

[fuchsia]

All of the personal issues that impacted Coach Mullin during his tenure at STJ have been known to us for a long time.  Many of us have chosen to not discuss them because they are personal issues, separate from his basketball work.  The comments about lack of leadership and limit-setting from a competent AD I find interesting.  Hope Cragg is the real deal.

 

[ras]

Another problem is that Mitch also had no coaching experience, What kind of administration puts together a staff like that. We were probably the only Div 1 program w a head coach and an associate head coach w no previous bb coaching exp.

 

[otis]

Hurley got $4 million from UCONN. ......   For the record half of UCONN's fans on their board are calling for him to be fired.   

Beast .... not sure where you got your salary information from but the below links indicates that Mr. Danny Hurley received $2.75M in the first year at UConn which was 2018 and was to increase thereafter to roughly $3 million per year during the remainding term of his 6 year contract. [URL]https://www.courant.com/sports/uconn-mens-basketball/hc-sp-uconn-men-dan-hurley-20180322-story.html[/URL]]Dan Hurley Signs Six-Year Deal With UConn To Be Next Men's Basketball Coach - Hartford Courant[/url]

Brother Bobby Hurley was received $2.4M in 2019 from Arizona.  [URL]https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamzagoria/2019/04/09/chris-mullin-stepping-down-at-st-johns-as-search-for-successor-begins/?sh[/URL]=2842aae92577]Chris Mullin 'Stepping Down' At St. John's As Search For Successor Begins (forbes.com)[/url]

Danny Hurley's $2.75 contract in 2018, and Bobby Hurley's 2.4M contract in 2019 do not seem outrageous compared to the 2015 contact St. John's agreed to with Mr. Mullin.

 

 

[beast of the east]

I don't want to re-litigate the Mullin year's but it is a complete straw man to say Mullin's problem was that he was left with a thin roster his first year and that excuses all his failings for numerous reasons:

1)Nobody holds him to that season. In other words nobody said Mullin was unfit because he went 1-17.  
2)The idea that the previous coach is to blame is nonsense, part of roster issue is because kids de-committed because of the coaching change.  Why is that Lavin's fault?  It is not Mullin's fault either but you are acting like Lavin intentionally got fired.  That was a price you paid for that move.  Whoever was the coach would've probably been on a 2 yr rebuild of the roster.  Even if Lavin was retained.  So what.
3)Mullin's problems ran much deeper, he simply did not want to put in the work to be a HC.  Period.  That became painfully obvious when all they wanted to do was play the transfer market.  That had nothing to do with a thin roster his first year.
4)In retrospect the move to make in 2015 was to hire Danny Hurley.  

1)Nobody holds him to that season. In other words nobody said Mullin was unfit because he went 1-17.   That's total crap.  Nearly every Mullin detractor has pointed to his conference record over time.
2)The idea that the previous coach is to blame is nonsense, part of roster issue is because kids de-committed because of the coaching change.  Why is that Lavin's fault?  It is not Mullin's fault either but you are acting like Lavin intentionally got fired.  That was a price you paid for that move.  Whoever was the coach would've probably been on a 2 yr rebuild of the roster.  Even if Lavin was retained.  So what.   The point is correctly stated that Mullin was left with 3 guys who were not even close to being Big East players, and that's as bad as it could possibly had gotten.
3)Mullin's problems ran much deeper, he simply did not want to put in the work to be a HC.  Period.  That became painfully obvious when all they wanted to do was play the transfer market.  That had nothing to do with a thin roster his first year.  Sorry, no period here. I hope the next time you have a very close relative suffering from a terminal illness that your boss doesn't expect you to put in the enormous effort it takes to coach a college basketball team.   Admittedly, Mullin did not understand when he took the job that running a college program is a 12 month job.   He didn't expect that he'd have a problem requiring him to split his family and in hindsight should have flown them here for the summer, but given the nature of the problem, that likely was not a suitable answer.   Ironically, by the time he left here, those problems had all recently been resolved permanently.
4)In retrospect the move to make in 2015 was to hire Danny Hurley.   Hurley got $4 million from UCONN.   Even if we paid him $2 million, he'd have been gone by now and still at UCONN.   PERIOD.   For the record half of UCONN's fans on their board are calling for him to be fired.    

All of that is not to say that changing coaches was a bad idea.  Mullin's tenure was not successful enough to be retained, but I do feel that with a few changes, he could have been very successful and a real AD could have helped. 


 

Beast, I respect Mullin as a player, but as a Coach he was a failure. You keep pointing to family problems to attempt to justify hie ineptitude. All of us have family problems and loved ones dying.

Between June, 2001 and September, 2004. I lost my mother, my aunt who was like a second mother to me, and my father. I received 5 bereavement days for each of my parents deaths. For my Aunt, I had to use vacation. Once the funerals were over, I had to go back to work. In life, shit happens, and we are all expected to deal with it.

I am not being callous by any means, just stating reality. If you can't perform your job for whatever reason, you need to resign. I had a responsibility to be there at my best for the clients that I serviced in the hospital. We all have to learn how to compartmentalize our lives if we are to succeed. This is called living life on life's terms.

Panther, to my knowledge, and you may know different, Mullin didn't duck out on games or practices to visit his brother.   I think he may not as been present on recruiting trips as he would have been had he not had illness in his family.  On the other hand, having had catastrophic illness in my family (as most of us have experienced) I did still go to work nearly every day except the worst ones, but I would restrict travel to that absoutely necessary, and not be as available evenings as I would have been.   The life of a college coach can be non-stop work when you are trying to build something, but life sometimes gets in the way.   

Your point is well taken, but my original point was about bad decisions in structuring a staff that an experienced AD would have nixed.    Let's keep in mind that Mullin went minus 1 coach after the school fired Slice but still had to pay him.   Gempeshaw basically handicapped Mullin by not letting him hire another assistant, and neither Oliva or an AD pushed hard to replace Slice as necessary.   This was just a dozen years or so since the Pittsburgh prostitute debacle happened in part because the coaching staff was so thin.   

But in summary, had Mullin had a clean slate in terms of full bore effort, if he had a staff of experienced assistants, and if he had a competent leader as AD,  his potential for success would have increased considerably in my opinion.

 

[room112]

All of the personal issues that impacted Coach Mullin during his tenure at STJ have been known to us for a long time.  Many of us have chosen to not discuss them because they are personal issues, separate from his basketball work.  The comments about lack of leadership and limit-setting from a competent AD I find interesting.  Hope Cragg is the real deal.

I will always give credit to Cragg. If I remember correctly he was only about 6 months into the job when he was asked (decided?) to fire Mullin, who was the greatest basketball player in the history of the school. Could not have been an easy task.

 

[SJU Double Alumn]

Mullin ‘s team beating Number 1 Duke and Number 4 Villanova in the same week and actually playing in the NCA A , even in a play in game gets him some credit , more than what is shown on this site .  Ok , maybe it was Number 4 Duke and Number 1 Nova .  Regardless , we haven’t had Victories like that since the Dwight Hardy game against Pitt in the Lavin era .   By the way , the Pitt loss is a bad , bad one that can’t be brushed away . Even without Champ.  The 2 glaring losses to Indiana and Kansas , with Champ were blown opportunities .  

Everyone needs to stop with considering this play-in game as some kind of achievement. It is a PLAY IN game- you play to get in the tournament. It means mostly nothing if you don't actually get in to the tournament.