Jeff Borzello
ESPN Staff Writer
Under Chris Mullin, St. John's is 3-21 in the month of January.
There is a very strong possibility of a winless February to go along with a winless January. I don't recall a time in modern St. John's basketball history where that has ever occurred. IMO, the fans have basically given up on this team and season. I count myself as one of those fans that are now ambivalent to whatever happens the rest of the season. To think it is still January.
Last night for the first time I stopped witnessing the unfolding disaster after the first half. To me, the outcome became obvious after the first 8 minutes of garbage offensive sets where players appeared to be improvising against a well prepared defense. The empty pockets of seats all over the gymnasium, especially the upper sections, against the third rated team in the Big East was an embarrassment. The consensus in the conversations was that they had witnessed enough and one has to wonder if the private conversations may involve an amicable separation of some, if not, the entire staff. In any other program and in any other conference, a winless season after the debacle of year one, regardless of the extenuating circumstances which left any success or failure to LUCK, would be considered gross mismanagement. I don't think St. John's has neither the leadership or will to start over. My humble opinion is that schools like DePaul and St. John's will be perennial bottom dwellers and sacrificial lambs so that the committed programs make it to the tournament every year. While some are pinning their hopes to next year's deeper bench it may too little too late. Expecting an unsigned 4 star player to turn around a program is a mid major mindset at best. Expecting a 6'9 transfer who floundered at USC to be a factor is wishful thinking. A 6-8 raw talent that should have been released from his scholarship will only take up a bench spot. Two 3 star players may or may not be ration worthy. That everyone returns again is questionable given the departures of 7 Mullin/Matt recruits in year two. The negative recruiting and unforgiving press in New York City may be hard to overcome. Every single domino would have to fall in the right place for an NCAA bid to be a possibility. Few programs can recover from 3 straight years of failure even if that failure was just bad luck.
The thing that kills me is when people bitch that others bitch about how bad we are. Saying oh no depth, it's only Mullins 3rd year etc!!!
Well, I say if people want to bitch then let them, I think with this program, they have that right, beginning with the Pitt scandal. Since that moment: We suffered through the Norm years, under Lavin we had 2 good NCAA years (but he was lazy and stopped recruiting), now Mullin. His first year was expected, last year was improvement and we were feeling good about this year saying atleast the NIT, but now we're back to year one? Nobody seen this coming at all, no one.
Maybe people bitch because they give a shit, maybe people are hungry for a good coach to finally lead SJU in the right direction so we can feel good about being a sju fan, and not an 0-9 last place team. Last time we won a ncaa game? 2001, 17 years ago??????? People would laugh at you if back in the 80s you told people that sju would go on a 17 year ncaa win drought.
So yeah, people have every freaking right to bitch if they so damn please.
