Coach Anderson

My observation of Coach Anderson this season is the fact that our players feel prepared. Our players know what is expected of them when they enter the game. Because they have been coached in practice they can focus on their role to make a solid contribution. In prior years bench players came in the game and felt that their role was to stay out of the way..

During the game when CMA looks at a player for making an error they know what the error was and understand what they should have done. There is not that Deer in headlights look.

Anyone who has played sports knows when you play with confidence you play better.

When you play scared and unsure you look like an ass.

CMA is the best thing to happen to St. John’s in a long long time. Let’s just hope he likes living in NYC
 
Mike Anderason (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Plenty of teams had a good case to the win the team of the weekend award but I'm going with Mike Anderson and St. John's after their win over Arizona.

I've written before that I felt Arkansas pulled the plug on Anderson's tenure too quickly and that I thought St. John's was making a good hire by bringing him in. It wasn't the most popular opinion.

Well, beating Arizona to move to 11-2 is good of a start as anybody could have asked for. It's also impressive that the Red Storm won without Mustapha Heron. They look like a legitimate NCAA Tournament team.

Up next is Butler on New Year's Eve. St. John's wins that one, Anderson will have even more believers

https://basketballrecruiting.rivals...josh-christopher-gonzaga-jalen-terry-and-more
 
Don’t exaggerate: It’s about 33 minutes of hell and perhaps 7 minutes of cough up the lead! But we’re winning!!!
 
Notable to me that 13 games in we do not have a technical foul called against anyone on the staff or the team.

Another indication of the culture change others have posted about.
 
It's still extremely early in Anderson's honeymoon period at St. John's, and not only this season but his tenure can still go one way or the other.

I'll say it again.... What gives me confidence in him is his nearly two decades without ever enduring a losing season, and what I believe is someone who has a chip on his shoulder after being fired at Arkansas. He may not admit it, and his smooth personality doesn't display it, but I bet he wants nothing better than to prove the naysayers in Fayetteville, Arkansas wrong.

I sense he's reinvented himself by bringing in Van Macon and Steve DeMeo. Valuable coaches who are known to be quality tacticians and teachers AND solid recruiters. Then you add a special assistant in Paul Pressey, who brings many years as an NBA assistant coach, to the fray and you have yourself a solid cast of coaches (I didn't mention TJ Cleveland on purpose as he came with Anderson from Arkansas). Pressey's presence may be invaluable.

Looking forward to what the rest of this season has in store. Enjoying the ride in the early going.
 
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Mike does have a better group of assistant coaches at St John's. The recruiting has been impressive.

The current players are coached up and exceeding expectations. So far, the turnaround is going well.
 
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[quote="MJDinkins" post=369286]It's still extremely early in Anderson's honeymoon period at St. John's, and not only this season but his tenure can still go one way or the other.

I'll say it again.... What gives me confidence in him is his nearly two decades without ever enduring a losing season, and what I believe is someone who has a chip on his shoulder after being fired at Arkansas. He may not admit it, and his smooth personality doesn't display it, but I bet he wants nothing better than to prove the naysayers in Fayetteville, Arkansas wrong.

I sense he's reinvented himself by bringing in Van Macon and Steve DeMeo. Valuable coaches who are known to be quality tacticians and teachers AND solid recruiters. Then you add a special assistant in Paul Pressey, who brings many years as an NBA assistant coach, to the fray and you have yourself a solid cast of coaches (I didn't mention TJ Cleveland on purpose as he came with Anderson from Arkansas). Pressey's presence may be invaluable.

Looking forward to what the rest of this season has in store. Enjoying the ride in the early going.[/quote

That, and the other two that gives me confidence is his and his staffs recruitment (no being lazy then waiting till April to fill out the roster), and the player developement.

CMA is the real deal.
 
Thrilled with the results so far. Tenacious defense and hustle, hustle, hustle.
Not satisfied with the half court offense. The three man weave does not work well.
He has two new coaches, Macon and DeMeo. How about tapping them for new ideas.
 
[quote="MJDinkins" post=369286]It's still extremely early in Anderson's honeymoon period at St. John's, and not only this season but his tenure can still go one way or the other.

I'll say it again.... What gives me confidence in him is his nearly two decades without ever enduring a losing season, and what I believe is someone who has a chip on his shoulder after being fired at Arkansas. He may not admit it, and his smooth personality doesn't display it, but I bet he wants nothing better than to prove the naysayers in Fayetteville, Arkansas wrong.

I sense he's reinvented himself by bringing in Van Macon and Steve DeMeo. Valuable coaches who are known to be quality tacticians and teachers AND solid recruiters. Then you add a special assistant in Paul Pressey, who brings many years as an NBA assistant coach, to the fray and you have yourself a solid cast of coaches (I didn't mention TJ Cleveland on purpose as he came with Anderson from Arkansas). Pressey's presence may be invaluable.

Looking forward to what the rest of this season has in store. Enjoying the ride in the early going.[/quote] I agree. CMA is proud and wants to prove his firing was a mistake....As opposed to last year, it’s nice to have a complete, well balanced, competent, experienced staff.
 
[quote="MJDinkins" post=369286]It's still extremely early in Anderson's honeymoon period at St. John's, and not only this season but his tenure can still go one way or the other.

I'll say it again.... What gives me confidence in him is his nearly two decades without ever enduring a losing season, and what I believe is someone who has a chip on his shoulder after being fired at Arkansas. He may not admit it, and his smooth personality doesn't display it, but I bet he wants nothing better than to prove the naysayers in Fayetteville, Arkansas wrong.

I sense he's reinvented himself by bringing in Van Macon and Steve DeMeo. Valuable coaches who are known to be quality tacticians and teachers AND solid recruiters. Then you add a special assistant in Paul Pressey, who brings many years as an NBA assistant coach, to the fray and you have yourself a solid cast of coaches (I didn't mention TJ Cleveland on purpose as he came with Anderson from Arkansas). Pressey's presence may be invaluable.

Looking forward to what the rest of this season has in store. Enjoying the ride in the early going.[/quote]
Couldn’t agree more Dink. So far I love what I see, and not just because we’re winning. I’m trying not to look ahead or get overly excited about the future, but I can’t help myself sometimes. Thanks for keeping things real. Another poster/ friend did the same thing yesterday when I started referencing the NCAA tournament. I’m paraphrasing but it was along the lines of “slow down there Monte...” lol
 
[quote="CMA TIME" post=369293]That, and the other two that gives me confidence is his and his staffs recruitment (no being lazy then waiting till April to fill out the roster), and the player developement.

CMA is the real deal.[/quote]

Agree re: player development. So far, so good, particularly when you're getting contributions from Roberts, Earlington, and Champagnie.
 
[quote="MJDinkins" post=369286]It's still extremely early in Anderson's honeymoon period at St. John's, and not only this season but his tenure can still go one way or the other.

I'll say it again.... What gives me confidence in him is his nearly two decades without ever enduring a losing season, and what I believe is someone who has a chip on his shoulder after being fired at Arkansas. He may not admit it, and his smooth personality doesn't display it, but I bet he wants nothing better than to prove the naysayers in Fayetteville, Arkansas wrong.

I sense he's reinvented himself by bringing in Van Macon and Steve DeMeo. Valuable coaches who are known to be quality tacticians and teachers AND solid recruiters. Then you add a special assistant in Paul Pressey, who brings many years as an NBA assistant coach, to the fray and you have yourself a solid cast of coaches (I didn't mention TJ Cleveland on purpose as he came with Anderson from Arkansas). Pressey's presence may be invaluable.

Looking forward to what the rest of this season has in store. Enjoying the ride in the early going.[/quote]

"He may not admit it, and his smooth personality doesn't display it"

This is cma:

 
First lap, but the man comes with experience, a track record well above the norm, a tough love approach, solid work ethic, a good analytical eye for gauging players’ ability & roles, keen interest in academic performance, staff leadership skills and an appreciation for the opportunity SJU has given him. It appears that both the players and staff enthusiastically respond to his direction.

All in all, in the next few years if he can recruit well, I see nothing but success in the cards. In my opinion, parents of recruits will feel comfortable trusting him to develop their kids on many levels.

Lastly, I think he could help the University’s fund raising with his positive attitude, media relations savvy and communication skills.

Thank you Mike Cragg & Jeff Capel
 
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[quote="MJDinkins" post=369320][quote="CMA TIME" post=369293]That, and the other two that gives me confidence is his and his staffs recruitment (no being lazy then waiting till April to fill out the roster), and the player developement.

CMA is the real deal.[/quote]

Agree re: player development. So far, so good, particularly when you're getting contributions from Roberts, Earlington, and Champagnie.[/quote]

During a conversation yesterday with a highly respected poster, he said to me “if Iron Mike can do this with these kids, imagine what he’ll do when he starts getting the higher ranked kids here”. My reply “sometimes it’s a lot harder with the higher ranked kids(bigger egos, etc)”. There were no expectations this year. There will be moving forward, especially since CMA set the bar so high right out of the gate. To your OP, so far so good but still very early.
 
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[quote="Paultzman" post=369325]First lap, but the man comes with experience, a track record well above the norm, a tough love approach, solid work ethic, a good analytical eye for gauging players’ ability & roles, keen interest in academic performance, staff leadership skills and an appreciation for the opportunity SJU has given him. It appears that both the players and staff enthusiastically respond to his direction.

All in all, in the next few years if he can recruit well, I see nothing but success in the cards. In my opinion, parents of recruits will feel comfortable trusting him to develop their kids on many levels.

Lastly, I think he could help the University’s fund raising with his positive attitude, media relations savvy and communication skills.

Thank you Mike Cragg[/quote]

"All in all, in the next few years if he can recruit well, I see nothing but success in the cards. In my opinion, parents of recruits will feel comfortable trusting him to develop their kids on many levels."

Just win. The local H.S and AAU coaches see what he's with 2 returnees, bench players from last year who never played, and newbies. They saw them go 11-2, 2 top 25 wins, and they were picked to finish last in the b.e. They are like wtf is this guy, then they look him up and see his whole resume and it's opening everyones eyes. Bet they're like this guys a freaking genius, to do it with 2 and nobody's.
well these nobody's will be players that everyone will know about very shortly.
Choahes, families, friends, and handlers will know all about the Anderson version very shortly.

Some local top ny recruits will want to be apart of sju bright future, they want to rock msg, want to rock the city that they grew up in. I gua-ran-damn-tee it's going to happen.

The future is bright.
 
I was ecstatic when we hired Anderson and nothing he has done has changed that opinion. However, through all the coaching changes for what seems like forever, I have preached judging a coach after 3-4 years. Still believe that. And one word of caution about “higher ranked” recruits. Not all the time, but frequently that type player does not necessarily want to come to a situation where the most minutes are a wee bit more than half the game, it’s hard nosed defense or the bench, and the ball is shared by design; just saying.
 
[quote="Rehobie" post=369295]Thrilled with the results so far. Tenacious defense and hustle, hustle, hustle.
Not satisfied with the half court offense. The three man weave does not work well.
He has two new coaches, Macon and DeMeo. How about tapping them for new ideas.[/quote]

I don't think there's much you can do with the halfcourt offense, with this group. It's why I totally advocate playing the style that Anderson prefers to play.

Dunn is more of a scoring point guard, then a true point. If he were playing for Larry Brown, he'd be buried on the bench (IMO, that's a point in Dunn's favor). Rutherford has had his moments, but is limited. His real strength is defense. If the loss of McGriff hurt in any one area, the halfcourt offense may be it.
 
[quote="Logen" post=369340]I was ecstatic when we hired Anderson and nothing he has done has changed that opinion. However, through all the coaching changes for what seems like forever, I have preached judging a coach after 3-4 years. Still believe that. And one word of caution about “higher ranked” recruits. Not all the time, but frequently that type player does not necessarily want to come to a situation where the most minutes are a wee bit more than half the game, it’s hard nosed defense or the bench, and the ball is shared by design; just saying.[/quote]

This is a great point about recruiting. I think many probably overlook this
 
[quote="Logen" post=369340]I was ecstatic when we hired Anderson and nothing he has done has changed that opinion. However, through all the coaching changes for what seems like forever, I have preached judging a coach after 3-4 years. Still believe that. And one word of caution about “higher ranked” recruits. Not all the time, but frequently that type player does not necessarily want to come to a situation where the most minutes are a wee bit more than half the game, it’s hard nosed defense or the bench, and the ball is shared by design; just saying.[/quote]

Oh you know that cma will be straight up with the higher recruit and tell him how it has to be if you come here. If the kid refuses that, i could picture cma going to the door of his office, giving him a hand shake, and telling him gl to wherever you go but it won't be here. Cma won't be playing that BS.
 
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