Fire Lavin!
- Thread starter Ilzion
- Start date
Class of 72
Active member
Just barely since they beat us in overtime and lost to us in Providence (when WE were the better team) and through hard work, beat us in the tourney. However, the Friars also had an incredible player in Bryce Cotton, a senior and a talented big in Batts, also a senior. Those two seniors made a big difference this season. They will be missed next year while I think we will get much better.
westchesterjoe
Active member
We better be improved next year. It's the finale for Lavin's 1st elite recruits. However, Nova, Marquette, Xavier , G;town will all get better too. Will we beat Seton Hall twice? Providence? A legit question to ask is Lavin a skilled enough Coach to compete with already winning Coaches like Wright, Cooley, Williams, Thompson 3? Or, do we put together another 5th place team? Outside the dance again?
The jury is still out on STEVE and its a legitimate question. 5TH place to me is not a qualification for a contract extension right now.
Hey 72,
Providence winning the Big East Conference Championship and participating in the NCAA is not a fluke.
It is hard for me to understand how you can say that StJohns has a better team than Providence when (x) Providence is the Big East Champion, and that
Providence will play in this years NCAA tournament and StJohns will not.
I am sincere when I say that I appreciate your locality to StJohns and desire to spin in its favor.
Providence winning the Big East Conference Championship and participating in the NCAA is not a fluke.
It is hard for me to understand how you can say that StJohns has a better team than Providence when (x) Providence is the Big East Champion, and that
Providence will play in this years NCAA tournament and StJohns will not.I am sincere when I say that I appreciate your locality to StJohns and desire to spin in its favor.
All those coaches he's beaten multiple times with the exception of Wright. I hope you know Marquette and G'town had veteran-laden squads, as well. They were also both picked to finish 1 and 2 in the Big East, respectively. Both finished below us and are headed to the NIT.
jerseyshorejohnny
Well-known member
FWIW....DePaul's new arena
http://www.bigeastcoastbias.com/2014/1/31/5359002/can-a-new-arena-save-depaul
http://www.bigeastcoastbias.com/2014/1/31/5359002/can-a-new-arena-save-depaul
I have always been of the opinion that players win and lose games and John Wooden is considered the best coach of all time because he was able to write Alcindor and Walton on his lineup cards. However it appears to be common knowledge that neither Lavin or his staff can compete with any other staff.
His confidence in putting Hooper in the first Pro game with 25 secs to go thinking he would get to the foul line certainly backfired and cost the game but there must be countless others that I don't see when I watch the games. Can other posters give concrete examples.
I just watched the last Prov game after seeing it in person and I still can't see what coaches decisions cost the game . What decisions with the benefit of hindsight were wrong in this game or any other?
His confidence in putting Hooper in the first Pro game with 25 secs to go thinking he would get to the foul line certainly backfired and cost the game but there must be countless others that I don't see when I watch the games. Can other posters give concrete examples.
I just watched the last Prov game after seeing it in person and I still can't see what coaches decisions cost the game . What decisions with the benefit of hindsight were wrong in this game or any other?
tom in salem
Well-known member
Pointer played.
.... because we are fans of StJohns basketball. The beauty of college sports is that hope springs eternal and yes; there will be next year.
The reality is that no regular on this board does not love StJohns basketball in their own way.
Lets hope for improvement next season and thank Paul for providing this community forum.
Oh yeah, well the coaches or soothsayers all had SJU as a fifth place team this year. They actually tied for third in a very strong balanced league.
These are guys who live basketball night and day, certainly more accomplished than any poster on this board to make an assesment.
Bottom line SJU finished where they said which is right on the cusp on an NCAA bid.
jerseyshorejohnny
Well-known member
From Mike Vaccaro's N.Y. Post column today:
@vpb17: As a St. John's fan, I still say we are better off with Steve Lavin, but I hope like Tom Coughlin he can adapt.
@MikeVacc: Lavin is a lot more likeable than Couglin was in his first few years but the comp. is apt: He has to do things a little different starting now.
@vpb17: As a St. John's fan, I still say we are better off with Steve Lavin, but I hope like Tom Coughlin he can adapt.
@MikeVacc: Lavin is a lot more likeable than Couglin was in his first few years but the comp. is apt: He has to do things a little different starting now.
Class of 72
Active member
As I said in an earlier post I was rooting for Providence to win it all because they are a team most similar to ours in so many ways. I hope they meet and beat an ACC team in the dance!
However, except for the ten minutes of the second half in the tourney, we were the better team in all the games we played the Friars. They needed 2 overtimes to beat us in the first game and most fans here at the time thought it was a bad loss. We beat them by 10 in Providence and they barely withstood our comeback at MSG thanks to one horrific call when D'Lo was fouled with less than a minute to play. Yes, they played harder and deserved the win but we shot bricks at the line and Obekpa and Pointer were no shows. Everyone here, and I am sure Paultzman and Otis, thought we were the better team before the game.
I was the biggest Lavin critic during much of the season and it was justified but I gives grades at the end of the season and 20 wins for a poor shooting team that shoots bricks at the line does not fall on Lavin. Those are areas that can be easily improved upon. We lost at least 6 very close games and that includes Syracuse. I am sure that had we won those games, especially the DePaul fiasco, we could have been a 24-25 win team and possibly ranked. The dance would have been a formality. It only took 3 bad losses early to doom our chances. Three losses!
None of us can accurately predict what our team will do next season but with the players coming back and a couple of surprises, we can be the best of the East!
BTW, Providence loses Cotton without whom this season could have been a disaster, and Batts. Both senior starters. We return our core group. I think we could be on the top 3 of the Big East and no one can convince me otherwise.