Ricky Smith
Member
Playing Marist and FDU has juice?
Francesa
- Thread starter qcredman
- Start date
Playing Marist and FDU has juice?
we are sju
Active member
BYU reminded me of the old UNLV teams. Not the Larry Johnson stacked squads but a little before that. Really fun game, would love to run like that.
beast of the east
Active member
This is the typical Francesa since Mad Dog left. His ego wouldn't allow him to be a know nothing with Russo around. For those who attend the President's dinner at SJU, Francesa's performances were similar. He didn't know squat about the then current Robert's team, or much about what SJU had accomplished since 1985. Instead of preparing, and delivering some poignant, inspirational anecdotes about SJU (Bruce Beck does to to perfection), he instead tossed flat one liners around the room, calling out to "Looie" and name dropping Mullin and Berry type references. On that particular evening, the emcee should be aware that there are often 10 or so former players in the audience, and attendees would have loved to hear a heartfelt tribute to SJU - instead, like a fat kid trying out for fullback, he fumbled the ball continually and was an embarrassment.
You would have liked to say that Francesa was THAT BAD because he wasn't getting paid, but the truth is that's how he rolls nowadays, even on air.
Mike Francesa with Steve Lavin (19 minutes)
Didn't hear Mike, but on this, I agree with him.
jerseyshorejohnny
Well-known member
Just said: No reason why St. John's can't be as good a program as Villanova.
Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
beast of the east
Active member
Actually, I do think we can be a great organization again. We should always look at what other schools are doing right and try to emulate that. Villanova happened to hit a home run with Wright, and it wasn't exactly an accident. His wife was a Nova cheerleader, he's a PA guy, and he was an assistant there with Rollie for I think 7 years before following him to UNLV. My point was that they have a much bigger budget for this sort of thing. Their administration jumped Wright's salary before he went out and tested the waters, before someone blew him away with an offer too good to refuse.
Imagine had SJU done the same with Fraschilla, instead of trying to hold his feet to the fire on his original contract and be insulted by his attempt to raise the ante by inquiring about other jobs. There's a good chance the Jarvis and Roberts eras would never have occurred.
To be big you have to think big, plan big, and unfortunately, spend big. Everyone else can have little riffs of success. But in general, college basketball is dominated by programs that can and do spend a lot of money - and that just isn't the SJU way.
jerseyshorejohnny
Well-known member
Dennis from Garden City lobbying for Bobby with Francesa.
Francesa: Lou knew how to build a program. Lou knew how to win.
Always laugh when Mike says He Has No Relation With The School and then conveniently leaves out the reason why.
Francesa: Lou knew how to build a program. Lou knew how to win.
Always laugh when Mike says He Has No Relation With The School and then conveniently leaves out the reason why.
Correct on the surface, however if you look deeply you will see that Fr. Harrington did not like Fran and Looie did not like SJU being used as a stepping stone buy a hot (at the time) young coach. Perfect storm for his dismissal which no one still knows the facts about. Great recruiter that had the vision and stated that he was here to win a championship with St. John's. Loved his passion and fire but that was frowned upon by the old guard here.
His behavior and the fact he openly lobbied for the Texas job that went to Barnes (he was linked to the ASU job but really wanted the Horn) is what got him canned. As you put it, the Perfect Storm.
His fire and passion was misguided and got him into trouble unfortunately. He had worn out his welcome at Manhattan where they tired of his act despite his success there and it didn't last long out New Mexico either.