Article: St. John's - Sweet 16 or Bust

Well articles titled "Sweet Sixteen or Bust" really seem unrealistic and outdated at this point.

It is still hard for me to believe on January 16th that we are 0-5 in the Big East and just one game over five Hundred for the season. While the possibility that we were not going to have a great season existed at the start of the season, I think everyone is very disappointed with the results so far. That being said despite under performing players and coaching that has not been effective I don't think it is warranted to trash the whole program. When you are playing badly everything seems worse than it is.

Do we miss Mike Dunlap's X's and O's ability, is it a chemistry thing, are we playing the wrong style of game for the talent we have, have players regressed or are we just snake bit and going through a horrific slump? Maybe a little bit of all of this. That being said, I like most of the players effort (I don't think anyone has thrown in the towel) and in many ways the environment around the program is better than it has been in ten years (no real scandals and recruits with good talent level still looking at our program). For me I think we should remain calm and stay the course. I think that adjustments need to be made but I don't think it is time to trash what Lavin has built during his time here.
 
Well articles titled "Sweet Sixteen or Bust" really seem unrealistic and outdated at this point.

It is still hard for me to believe on January 16th that we are 0-5 in the Big East and just one game over five Hundred for the season. While the possibility that we were not going to have a great season existed at the start of the season, I think everyone is very disappointed with the results so far. That being said despite under performing players and coaching that has not been effective I don't think it is warranted to trash the whole program. When you are playing badly everything seems worse than it is.

Do we miss Mike Dunlap's X's and O's ability, is it a chemistry thing, are we playing the wrong style of game for the talent we have, have players regressed or are we just snake bit and going through a horrific slump? Maybe a little bit of all of this. That being said, I like most of the players effort (I don't think anyone has thrown in the towel) and in many ways the environment around the program is better than it has been in ten years (no real scandals and recruits with good talent level still looking at our program). For me I think we should remain calm and stay the course. I think that adjustments need to be made but I don't think it is time to trash what Lavin has built during his time here.
You're right it's not time to trash the program, and in some ways things are much better.

But how can you stay the course with a guy who is not a basketball coach?
Really. We have a car salesman, not a coach. It honestly looks like he has no idea what he's doing.
 
Do you believe it was Dunlap's coaching that was the difference in 2010 or was it something else? We certainly looked to me like we were well coached then.
 
Do you believe it was Dunlap's coaching that was the difference in 2010 or was it something else? We certainly looked to me like we were well coached then.

I think Dunlap helped, he knew what he wanted to do and provided some order to things. I don't think he was the end-all-be-all, he was a good coach but nothing ridiculously special.

But I think there's a level of disorganization under Lavin that is permeating the whole program. I used to think fans were Monday morning quarterbacking when they would question the timing of his timeouts or a particular substitution...but in hindsight, it wasn't cherry picking..he really is erratic in his decision making.
How many times this season has he called a timeout right before a tv-timeout?
How many times have we scored on an inbounds play? The most scripted part of a basketball game.
And his crazy starting lineups can't be just a motivational tool, because it happens all the time!

The defensive substitution with hooper today sealed the deal for me. It was inexcusable. We were up 4 but they were obviously not ready to start fouling! It was way too early.
Leave extra ball handlers and defenders in the game. That's 101
 
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