Anderson - is he really the guy ?

[Mug Costanza]

Lots of assuming that the core guys other than Julian will be back for next season, and that we'd then only be one or two solid transfers away from having a good team. Would it shock anybody if Posh decided to transfer or if Wheeler decides it to time to make some money overseas? 

It's also possible everybody of significance but Julian comes back and we do have a strong core to build around. Far too early to tell either way what the roster is going to look like next year. So much can happen between now and July/August like we saw last year

 

[ADORAZ]

Monte- those all seem like solid reasons to expect him to stay 5-6+ years. You may be right and he's still here two years from now even if we don't make the Tournament.

My guess is if we don't make the Tournament next year (less than Mullin accomplished), or at a minimum have an NIT year with a strong incoming recruiting class, then he'd be gone. The main reasons would be the lost attendance revenue might start offsetting the buyout number and also pressure from our partners, including the Big East in the midst of our TV negotiations. Pre-season Val spoke some about potential expansion, but that talk has totally vanished (at least in public) after the BE's very successful season started. There was a lot of speculation that the BE's mediocre 2020-21 season was holding up TV negotiations and Fox wanted the league to expand. St. John's, like Georgetown and DePaul, has been a letdown for our partners since realignment. Then of course we have other partners such as MSG (who I'm sure aren't happy with us getting 6-9K fans this year vs 16-19K in 2019). All of those factors combined I think would be far too much for Cragg to keep him here past year 4 or 5 at the latest if we don't make the Tournament.

 

[ManhattAn1]

Or maybe Tulsa opens up and he goes there?

 

[fordham96]

Goodman gives us winners and losers in Portal.  SJU he counts as one of the losers.

https://watchstadium.com/college-basketballs-transfer-portal-winners-and-losers-for-2022-02-15-2022/

 

[SJU Double Alumn]

Monte- those all seem like solid reasons to expect him to stay 5-6+ years. You may be right and he's still here two years from now even if we don't make the Tournament.

My guess is if we don't make the Tournament next year (less than Mullin accomplished), or at a minimum have an NIT year with a strong incoming recruiting class, then he'd be gone. The main reasons would be the lost attendance revenue might start offsetting the buyout number and also pressure from our partners, including the Big East in the midst of our TV negotiations. Pre-season Val spoke some about potential expansion, but that talk has totally vanished (at least in public) after the BE's very successful season started. There was a lot of speculation that the BE's mediocre 2020-21 season was holding up TV negotiations and Fox wanted the league to expand. St. John's, like Georgetown and DePaul, has been a letdown for our partners since realignment. Then of course we have other partners such as MSG (who I'm sure aren't happy with us getting 6-9K fans this year vs 16-19K in 2019). All of those factors combined I think would be far too much for Cragg to keep him here past year 4 or 5 at the latest if we don't make the Tournament.

Going 8-10 and finishing 7th in the Big East was no great Mullin accomplishment. Losing the play-in game is nothing to tout, and we probably only got selected for that because of Mullin's fame. If 8-10 and a 7th place finish is considered an accomplishment then Anderson will likely match or better that this year.

 

[kranmars]

In addition to the Father Shanley, Mike Cragg plan to improve facilities to raise this dormant program I’d like to propose Plan B. SJU aligns itself with one of prestigious AAU programs in the Metro area ,hires an asst coach from the AAU program and tries to build a relationship similar to that of Riverside Church which flourished for many years until it blew up.
If this coach can lead one or two players to SJU , the dying program can change overnight.
There are so many SJU possible fans out there who wouldn’t dream of attending a game but if a stud or two can be brought   in that outlook would change very quickly, long before any facility upgrades are made.
This type of arrangement may not be what the board would like and it may be impossible for SJU to make it but I can dream.

Not a fan of the idea. Aligning recruitment to one AAU program will alienate the others. And then you are in a bind if that program falters for whatever reason (as did Riverside Church).

The other issue are the ties to certain schools. What if you have a good pipeline, but then conflict with the player over their AAU team?

I would rather keep all lines open.

 

[NCJohnnie]

Monte wrote:

I assume he has a longer leash for a number of reasons. Amongst them;
-Our history of hiring bad coaches. No guarantee the next hire will be better 
-He was touted as a "home run hire". No one, least of all Cragg, wants to look bad after making that kind of hire until they really have no choice
-There is no questioning his work ethic and character, and that does count for a lot
-He's an integral part of the trio who is supposed to resurrect our program
-We're already hearing plenty of excuses for why he can't succeed right now. So it seems to me like the administration is already laying the ground work for a very long term rebuild
-The contract extension, whether symbolic or not, says to me "CMA isn't going anywhere for a very long time"

Anyhow these are all my opinions. I may be right or I may be wrong. But I'm usually right way more than I'm wrong lol 

Agree with most of Monte's reasons for CMA having a long leash. I'd add that Cragg was brought in to resurrect the basketball program and part of his mandate was undoubtedly to bring some stability back. Results aside, there are a couple of key differences between CMA & Lav & Mullin in that regard. CMA has a long track record that would give some comfort he is going to keep the team competitive; Mullin had no track record and while Lav had a good one at UCLA he had been out of coaching for a while. But as far as the leash, the key point above is that CMA is and has always been a tireless worker. A large part of the reason the other two were let go imho was the perception that both were not working 100% at all aspects of the job.  That work ethic will get CMA every benefit of the doubt from the administration and I'd be very surprised if he isn't here at least 5 years and hope he succeeds and is here for 10 but the jury is out on that for sure.   

 

[ADORAZ]

Monte- those all seem like solid reasons to expect him to stay 5-6+ years. You may be right and he's still here two years from now even if we don't make the Tournament.

My guess is if we don't make the Tournament next year (less than Mullin accomplished), or at a minimum have an NIT year with a strong incoming recruiting class, then he'd be gone. The main reasons would be the lost attendance revenue might start offsetting the buyout number and also pressure from our partners, including the Big East in the midst of our TV negotiations. Pre-season Val spoke some about potential expansion, but that talk has totally vanished (at least in public) after the BE's very successful season started. There was a lot of speculation that the BE's mediocre 2020-21 season was holding up TV negotiations and Fox wanted the league to expand. St. John's, like Georgetown and DePaul, has been a letdown for our partners since realignment. Then of course we have other partners such as MSG (who I'm sure aren't happy with us getting 6-9K fans this year vs 16-19K in 2019). All of those factors combined I think would be far too much for Cragg to keep him here past year 4 or 5 at the latest if we don't make the Tournament.

Going 8-10 and finishing 7th in the Big East was no great Mullin accomplishment. Losing the play-in game is nothing to tout, and we probably only got selected for that because of Mullin's fame. If 8-10 and a 7th place finish is considered an accomplishment then Anderson will likely match or better that this year.

Nah, we weren't selected because of Mullin's fame. 128/195 bracketologists had us in and the Committee selected us as the final team. Went exactly as expected.

http://bracketmatrix.com/matrix_2019.html

That team I believe went 5-7 in Q1 games and went 12-1 OOC. You keep bringing up our conference record but the OOC games are a huge portion of our schedule.

So... no. If Anderson goes 8-10 this year that absolutely will not be as good as Mullin's final season. Not even close. We need at least 11 BE wins given our awful OOC schedule and Q1 record.

 

[monte]

Lots of assuming that the core guys other than Julian will be back for next season, and that we'd then only be one or two solid transfers away from having a good team. Would it shock anybody if Posh decided to transfer or if Wheeler decides it to time to make some money overseas? 

It's also possible everybody of significance but Julian comes back and we do have a strong core to build around. Far too early to tell either way what the roster is going to look like next year. So much can happen between now and July/August like we saw last year

I should actually be using the word "hypothetically" rather than "assuming". Since you are correct, we all have no clue who's coming back next season and who isn't. 

 

[monte]

Goodman gives us winners and losers in Portal.  SJU he counts as one of the lovers.

https://watchstadium.com/college-basketballs-transfer-portal-winners-and-losers-for-2022-02-15-2022/

Fair assessment, although don't think he gave Wheeler his just dues. You listening Lawmanfan????  

 

[lawmanfan]

Goodman gives us winners and losers in Portal.  SJU he counts as one of the lovers.

https://watchstadium.com/college-basketballs-transfer-portal-winners-and-losers-for-2022-02-15-2022/

Fair assessment, although don't think he gave Wheeler his just dues. You listening Lawmanfan????  
 

I tuned this thread out a long time ago.  The only reason I looked at it now was because you were the latest reply and reading your post was the least I could do considering that I stood you up on Valentine's Day.

I also don't read anything Goodman writes about SJU, he is not exactly a neutral observer of the program. I don't know why he hates us, but he definitely hates us.  So F him.

 

[NCJohnnie]

Monte wrote:

Fair assessment, although don't think he gave Wheeler his just dues. You listening Lawmanfan????  

Especially since he described him as "ex-Purdue guard Aaron Wheeler". 

 

[Section3]

I do think it's worth mentioning that although Posh's injury has hurt this team, and although I do think he was a great addition to our team, his injury may need to be factored into CMA's recruiting. He was injured at the time of his recruitment and concerns over that caused his ranking to tumble. I'm unsure if this current injury is related to his high school injury(ies), so maybe I'm wrong about that, but seemed to be a genuine concern back then and maybe it will end up being one throughout his St. John's career.

Again, not saying he wasn't a great pickup. He was. I'm just saying that this may have been somewhat predictable and we should have a solid backup in place.

Believe he broke his wrist in HS. This is an ankle injury.

 

[GardenCity62]

Hard to dismiss SJU being picked fourth in the pre season and if seven big east teams make the dance and SJU is sitting home.

 

[mjmaherjr]

I wonder why every time I drive home on the expressway or northern state when I see a car accident I always slow down to look then I realize I do the same thing with this thread

 

[beast of the east]

I wonder why every time I drive home on the expressway or northern state when I see a car accident I always slow down to look then I realize I do the same thing with this thread

That's the best effing comment in a long time.

 

[L J S A]

I may have stumbled upon something guys: When he doesn't win, he's not the guy . . . but when he does, he is!

 

[RedStormNC]

I may have stumbled upon something guys: When he doesn't win, he's not the guy . . . but when he does, he is!

I like how they played yesterday as well as vs. X, They deserve credit. I'll be glad to be wrong long term, but I still have same reservations on Anderson as I did when I started this wacky thread out of frustration after one of those brutal early season head scratchers.

If he cannot get us to tourney this year or next, iMO despite his never losing a season talking point, hard defense reputation and being a great guy he falls below Lavin and Mullin who despite all their flaws got there with the same inferior infrastructure. 

 

[SJU Double Alumn]

I may have stumbled upon something guys: When he doesn't win, he's not the guy . . . but when he does, he is!

I like how they played yesterday as well as vs. X, They deserve credit. I'll be glad to be wrong long term, but I still have same reservations on Anderson as I did when I started this wacky thread out of frustration after one of those brutal early season head scratchers.

If he cannot get us to tourney this year or next, iMO despite his never losing a season talking point, hard defense reputation and being a great guy he falls below Lavin and Mullin who despite all their flaws got there with the same inferior infrastructure. 

The prior coaches didn’t have nearly all the challenges the team had this year. Anderson has done a good job coaching these guys this year. At this point, he is the guy. 

 

[NCJohnnie]

This team does a great of sharing the basketball on offense with really nice passing and cutting to the hoop. It has gotten better as the season has gone on.