Is Obekpa Next? No! He's staying!

[redfazed]

There goal this year should be to win the League. And I have no doubt Lavin has the same goal.

Remember when they lost that game in Philly to Nova Coach said that he told the team he expected to meet them again in NY and beat them in the BE Championship.

Villanova deserves to be the pre-season no.1 but after Nova I can't see why anyone doesn't think SJU is right there with a Georgetown or maybe an Xavier and quite frankly better.

Now again Lavin has to coach them up (no doubt) but again let's not act like SJU was 5-13 last year either. They are returning most of their rotation players including potentially the best backcourt in the League from a team that went 10-8 and tied for 3rd and went 10-3 over their least 13 league games that included two losses on the road to Creighton on a last second 3 and Nova on a banked 3 Hail Mary by Ryan A.

Agree on many points. The problem is that we have the worst basketball coach in the Big East. There is absolutely no reason to believe that he has learned anything. He didn't learn after UCLA and he never showed any signs of "getting it" during last season. Get ready to scratch your head again (line-ups, time-outs, no offensive strategy, no inbound plays, etc, etc, etc.) .

Unless you have reason to believe that he has seen the light and, after all these years, he will begin doing these things better........???

Bottom line is if most of you were honest you would have wanted Jay out at Villanova after 3 years and then most certainly would have been name calling him after the 5-13 season in 2011-12. But most of you are not honest. You simply see something go wrong and use terms like "worst" and "the worst" in a completely DISHONEST fashion. It is old.

I haven't been calling for Lavin to get fired on the site but the Jay Wright Analogy is a little off because after Jay's 3rd year his big recruiting class were only soph's. Jay broke thru his 4th year and 3rd with those kids which was the Lavin equivalent of this year

Noone was really calling for Lavin to get fired after last season to the best of my knowledge and if they were it was only 1 or 2 people

True, but let's say Randy Foye went pro after year one and his top assistant left and he was forced to change schemes. That would have set them back a year.
Personally I see Lavin a lot like the old Ga Tech coach, Hewitt. Great recruiter, below average coach. Hewitt made the national championship game and then had some awful years. He didn't become a worse coach overnight. I think Lavin could put together a few deep runs here every so often and that is good enough for me. This is St. John's...not UK.

Lavin can get top talent, there is no question. When he's winning, he has a swagger on the recruiting trail that brings his game up a lot and he lands better players.

I believe:
the children are the future, treat them well and let them lead the way
Lavin will deliver a very good but less heralded recruiting class
Otis and the others who scream every time we play a team with a good under-recruited player will ironically not be happy with adding these non-top100 recruits
Lavin will deliver his best recruiting class next season

I agree with a lot of what you just said. Dunlap leaving though is no excuse for Lavin because he left 2 years ago. It's not like he left before last season and Coach had to scramble to figure out a game plan and he has Gene Freaking Keady sitting next to him

Coach recruited ALOT of talent after Harkless. Yeah how good would we have been with Harlkless but every coach has kids leave early. Without Harkless with all the talent we had there isn't an excuse in the world I want to hear ( not saying from you ) for us not making the NCAA's last year.

I'd love for Coach to win big here and be here another 30 years. But we need to make NCAA's next year because a 4 year cycle of his own players and no ncaa's is unacceptable for any coach in my opinion and after next year due to how our schollies line up we start an entire new cycle the following year from scratch almost

Agree 100% with this. If Lavin gets us to the NCAA tourney next year and delivers a really solid recruiting class for 2015, then he will have succeeded in my book and deserves to stick around for a few more years. But no NCAA tourney = no dice.

 

[JohnnyFan]

There goal this year should be to win the League. And I have no doubt Lavin has the same goal.

Remember when they lost that game in Philly to Nova Coach said that he told the team he expected to meet them again in NY and beat them in the BE Championship.

Villanova deserves to be the pre-season no.1 but after Nova I can't see why anyone doesn't think SJU is right there with a Georgetown or maybe an Xavier and quite frankly better.

Now again Lavin has to coach them up (no doubt) but again let's not act like SJU was 5-13 last year either. They are returning most of their rotation players including potentially the best backcourt in the League from a team that went 10-8 and tied for 3rd and went 10-3 over their least 13 league games that included two losses on the road to Creighton on a last second 3 and Nova on a banked 3 Hail Mary by Ryan A.

Agree on many points. The problem is that we have the worst basketball coach in the Big East. There is absolutely no reason to believe that he has learned anything. He didn't learn after UCLA and he never showed any signs of "getting it" during last season. Get ready to scratch your head again (line-ups, time-outs, no offensive strategy, no inbound plays, etc, etc, etc.) .

Unless you have reason to believe that he has seen the light and, after all these years, he will begin doing these things better........???

Bottom line is if most of you were honest you would have wanted Jay out at Villanova after 3 years and then most certainly would have been name calling him after the 5-13 season in 2011-12. But most of you are not honest. You simply see something go wrong and use terms like "worst" and "the worst" in a completely DISHONEST fashion. It is old.

I haven't been calling for Lavin to get fired on the site but the Jay Wright Analogy is a little off because after Jay's 3rd year his big recruiting class were only soph's. Jay broke thru his 4th year and 3rd with those kids which was the Lavin equivalent of this year

Noone was really calling for Lavin to get fired after last season to the best of my knowledge and if they were it was only 1 or 2 people

You don't understand though Lappas was not Norm Roberts. Lappas had a lot of success at Nova. Norm Roberts had NO success at SJU. Under Lappas it had gone down a bit his last few years. Plus Jay did not have to overhaul the entire roster after year 1.

Lastly that middle 3 years stretch especially after the 2011-12 season was not good with big talent anyway you slice it.

And I think SJU should have made the NCAA's this past year but going 20-11 and 10-8 is not a disaster. My point overall was Jay Wirght was never in danger of being fired and neither is Lavin and neither guys is close to being the worst coach in the league. Period. I understand not everything is perfectly analogous but the whiners cannot be honest and say, "Oh I knew all along after that 24-30 stretch and 5-13 season that Jay would bounce back with a 16-2 season that is why I would never complain if I were a Nova fan."

I do agree that 20-11 (10-8 ) is not a disaster. The problem is that I watched the season unfolded.

 

[JohnnyFan]

And again this is not to excuse Lavin or say he is beyond criticism. Not at all.

But come on with this nonsense. Worst coach? Really? So you would trade him for ANY coach in the BE, really? OK. Because that is what that means.

if you don't believe that then don't say it to begin with.

Oh, I meant it. And, again, this is only my opinion (what the board is for). I would rank Oliver Purnell (who beat us with much less talent) and Brandon Miller as even with Lavin for the bottom three in the BE.

 

[fordham96]

There goal this year should be to win the League. And I have no doubt Lavin has the same goal.

Remember when they lost that game in Philly to Nova Coach said that he told the team he expected to meet them again in NY and beat them in the BE Championship.

Villanova deserves to be the pre-season no.1 but after Nova I can't see why anyone doesn't think SJU is right there with a Georgetown or maybe an Xavier and quite frankly better.

Now again Lavin has to coach them up (no doubt) but again let's not act like SJU was 5-13 last year either. They are returning most of their rotation players including potentially the best backcourt in the League from a team that went 10-8 and tied for 3rd and went 10-3 over their least 13 league games that included two losses on the road to Creighton on a last second 3 and Nova on a banked 3 Hail Mary by Ryan A.

Agree on many points. The problem is that we have the worst basketball coach in the Big East. There is absolutely no reason to believe that he has learned anything. He didn't learn after UCLA and he never showed any signs of "getting it" during last season. Get ready to scratch your head again (line-ups, time-outs, no offensive strategy, no inbound plays, etc, etc, etc.) .

Unless you have reason to believe that he has seen the light and, after all these years, he will begin doing these things better........???

Bottom line is if most of you were honest you would have wanted Jay out at Villanova after 3 years and then most certainly would have been name calling him after the 5-13 season in 2011-12. But most of you are not honest. You simply see something go wrong and use terms like "worst" and "the worst" in a completely DISHONEST fashion. It is old.

I haven't been calling for Lavin to get fired on the site but the Jay Wright Analogy is a little off because after Jay's 3rd year his big recruiting class were only soph's. Jay broke thru his 4th year and 3rd with those kids which was the Lavin equivalent of this year

Noone was really calling for Lavin to get fired after last season to the best of my knowledge and if they were it was only 1 or 2 people

True, but let's say Randy Foye went pro after year one and his top assistant left and he was forced to change schemes. That would have set them back a year.
Personally I see Lavin a lot like the old Ga Tech coach, Hewitt. Great recruiter, below average coach. Hewitt made the national championship game and then had some awful years. He didn't become a worse coach overnight. I think Lavin could put together a few deep runs here every so often and that is good enough for me. This is St. John's...not UK.

Lavin can get top talent, there is no question. When he's winning, he has a swagger on the recruiting trail that brings his game up a lot and he lands better players.

I believe:
the children are the future, treat them well and let them lead the way
Lavin will deliver a very good but less heralded recruiting class
Otis and the others who scream every time we play a team with a good under-recruited player will ironically not be happy with adding these non-top100 recruits
Lavin will deliver his best recruiting class next season

I agree with a lot of what you just said. Dunlap leaving though is no excuse for Lavin because he left 2 years ago. It's not like he left before last season and Coach had to scramble to figure out a game plan and he has Gene Freaking Keady sitting next to him

Coach recruited ALOT of talent after Harkless. Yeah how good would we have been with Harlkless but every coach has kids leave early. Without Harkless with all the talent we had there isn't an excuse in the world I want to hear ( not saying from you ) for us not making the NCAA's last year.

I'd love for Coach to win big here and be here another 30 years. But we need to make NCAA's next year because a 4 year cycle of his own players and no ncaa's is unacceptable for any coach in my opinion and after next year due to how our schollies line up we start an entire new cycle the following year from scratch almost

You are changing the subject. The point about Harkless was to draw a comparison with Wright. First off Lavin got Norm's players to the NCAA and Wright did not with Lappas'.

More importantly take Sumpter off of that Villanova squad after just 1 year and maybe Villanova does not make the NCAA's after year 4. Then what do you think of Jay Wright?

BTW-They also had a telephone card scandal in year 3, pretty damaging and much worse then a couple of players transferring.

 

[fordham96]

Here is my overall point. IF Wright were here and after 3 years of failing to make the NCAA's including a year 3 of 15-16 and then say watched Curtis Sumpter declare early for the NCAA many of you would not be patient AT ALL.

Then throw in the middle of his run when coming off of a 5-13 year and then watching Malik Waayans declare for the NBA and then lose at HOME to Columbia, you would NOT be saying, "Hey let's be patient, Jay did not forget how to coach or recruit overnight."

"And relax, the Nova administration is patient and they know how good he is let's all relax he is not going anywhere."

People would be saying many of the same things they are saying about Coach Lavin and they would be equally WRONG.

And Jay is probably the best coach in the Big East right now (probably along with JTIII).

 

[fordham96]

Just one last point carried forward from above:

Do you think after year 3 there were not VU fans saying this:

"We pushed Lappas out the door for this?" "Why did we listen to Rollie on this hire?" "This is what happens when you hire a low mid-major coach." "Jay Wright-great recruiter, looks great in a suit but has not proven squat as a coach."

Take it to the bank they were saying that, and they were WRONG then and they are certainly wrong NOW.

 

[monte]

And again this is not to excuse Lavin or say he is beyond criticism. Not at all.

But come on with this nonsense. Worst coach? Really? So you would trade him for ANY coach in the BE, really? OK. Because that is what that means.

if you don't believe that then don't say it to begin with.

Lavin was terminated from his last job for many of the same issues that we've seen here. He came here with a highly questionable reputation as a game coach. Jay Wright went to Villanova with a sterling reputation. While I am not one of those calling for Lavin's ouster, mostly because I don't trust that the administration can make a better hire, Lavin has not earned the same benefit of the doubt that Wright did.

 

[mjmaherjr]

There goal this year should be to win the League. And I have no doubt Lavin has the same goal.

Remember when they lost that game in Philly to Nova Coach said that he told the team he expected to meet them again in NY and beat them in the BE Championship.

Villanova deserves to be the pre-season no.1 but after Nova I can't see why anyone doesn't think SJU is right there with a Georgetown or maybe an Xavier and quite frankly better.

Now again Lavin has to coach them up (no doubt) but again let's not act like SJU was 5-13 last year either. They are returning most of their rotation players including potentially the best backcourt in the League from a team that went 10-8 and tied for 3rd and went 10-3 over their least 13 league games that included two losses on the road to Creighton on a last second 3 and Nova on a banked 3 Hail Mary by Ryan A.

Agree on many points. The problem is that we have the worst basketball coach in the Big East. There is absolutely no reason to believe that he has learned anything. He didn't learn after UCLA and he never showed any signs of "getting it" during last season. Get ready to scratch your head again (line-ups, time-outs, no offensive strategy, no inbound plays, etc, etc, etc.) .

Unless you have reason to believe that he has seen the light and, after all these years, he will begin doing these things better........???

Bottom line is if most of you were honest you would have wanted Jay out at Villanova after 3 years and then most certainly would have been name calling him after the 5-13 season in 2011-12. But most of you are not honest. You simply see something go wrong and use terms like "worst" and "the worst" in a completely DISHONEST fashion. It is old.

I haven't been calling for Lavin to get fired on the site but the Jay Wright Analogy is a little off because after Jay's 3rd year his big recruiting class were only soph's. Jay broke thru his 4th year and 3rd with those kids which was the Lavin equivalent of this year

Noone was really calling for Lavin to get fired after last season to the best of my knowledge and if they were it was only 1 or 2 people

True, but let's say Randy Foye went pro after year one and his top assistant left and he was forced to change schemes. That would have set them back a year.
Personally I see Lavin a lot like the old Ga Tech coach, Hewitt. Great recruiter, below average coach. Hewitt made the national championship game and then had some awful years. He didn't become a worse coach overnight. I think Lavin could put together a few deep runs here every so often and that is good enough for me. This is St. John's...not UK.

Lavin can get top talent, there is no question. When he's winning, he has a swagger on the recruiting trail that brings his game up a lot and he lands better players.

I believe:
the children are the future, treat them well and let them lead the way
Lavin will deliver a very good but less heralded recruiting class
Otis and the others who scream every time we play a team with a good under-recruited player will ironically not be happy with adding these non-top100 recruits
Lavin will deliver his best recruiting class next season

I agree with a lot of what you just said. Dunlap leaving though is no excuse for Lavin because he left 2 years ago. It's not like he left before last season and Coach had to scramble to figure out a game plan and he has Gene Freaking Keady sitting next to him

Coach recruited ALOT of talent after Harkless. Yeah how good would we have been with Harlkless but every coach has kids leave early. Without Harkless with all the talent we had there isn't an excuse in the world I want to hear ( not saying from you ) for us not making the NCAA's last year.

I'd love for Coach to win big here and be here another 30 years. But we need to make NCAA's next year because a 4 year cycle of his own players and no ncaa's is unacceptable for any coach in my opinion and after next year due to how our schollies line up we start an entire new cycle the following year from scratch almost

You are changing the subject. The point about Harkless was to draw a comparison with Wright. First off Lavin got Norm's players to the NCAA and Wright did not with Lappas'.

More importantly take Sumpter off of that Villanova squad after just 1 year and maybe Villanova does not make the NCAA's after year 4. Then what do you think of Jay Wright?

BTW-They also had a telephone card scandal in year 3, pretty damaging and much worse then a couple of players transferring.

I didn't change any subject. The point about Harkless wasn't to draw a comparison to Wright it was to compare to if Foye left after a year like Harkless did. If Foye left after a year I'd still expect as a fan of Nova to expect their team to make the ncaa's Wrights 3rd year unless they had other injuries or something.

And I never brought up Lavin's 1st year vs Wrights 1st year. That is changing the subject because I've been on record numerous times here saying Lavin's 1st year here was one of my favorite ever and the garden games were my favorite as a season ticket holder. Wright inherited a team that went to the NIT 2 years in a row so not sure how much better the talent was that Norm left. Either way I thought what Lavin did the 1st year here was a miracle

All that doesn't excuse or give a pass to Lavin for last year. That's my only point and I feel Lavin's 3rd year with his kids is very similar to Wrights 3rd year with his own kids that he recruited.

I'm not so sure Wright had more overall talent his 3rd year than Lavin did with their own recruits and the conference was easier this year than what Wright dealt with.

That's my point. The point is moot though because I haven't called once on this site for Lavin to get fired. But fair is fair.

Lavin needs to bring us to the NCAA's next year because it's quite possible that even with a top recruiting class for 2015 you have to give those kids time to gel and then you could be waiting 2 more years minimum to make the ncaa's and quite possibly 3 years and then you could be looking at 6 to 7 years of your own recruits of not making the ncaa's.

Hopefully this all becomes irrelevant and we make the ncaa's next year ( which we should ) and Lavin lands a big class for 2015 and gets the ball rolling permanently for us

 

[mjmaherjr]

And further here is our I would rank our coaches assuming Buzz was still here

1. Wright
2.Mack
3.Buzz
4.Thompson
5.Lavin
6.McDermott
7.Cooley
8.WIllard
9.The Butler guy
10.Purnell

 

[JohnnyFan]

There goal this year should be to win the League. And I have no doubt Lavin has the same goal.

Remember when they lost that game in Philly to Nova Coach said that he told the team he expected to meet them again in NY and beat them in the BE Championship.

Villanova deserves to be the pre-season no.1 but after Nova I can't see why anyone doesn't think SJU is right there with a Georgetown or maybe an Xavier and quite frankly better.

Now again Lavin has to coach them up (no doubt) but again let's not act like SJU was 5-13 last year either. They are returning most of their rotation players including potentially the best backcourt in the League from a team that went 10-8 and tied for 3rd and went 10-3 over their least 13 league games that included two losses on the road to Creighton on a last second 3 and Nova on a banked 3 Hail Mary by Ryan A.

Agree on many points. The problem is that we have the worst basketball coach in the Big East. There is absolutely no reason to believe that he has learned anything. He didn't learn after UCLA and he never showed any signs of "getting it" during last season. Get ready to scratch your head again (line-ups, time-outs, no offensive strategy, no inbound plays, etc, etc, etc.) .

Unless you have reason to believe that he has seen the light and, after all these years, he will begin doing these things better........???

Bottom line is if most of you were honest you would have wanted Jay out at Villanova after 3 years and then most certainly would have been name calling him after the 5-13 season in 2011-12. But most of you are not honest. You simply see something go wrong and use terms like "worst" and "the worst" in a completely DISHONEST fashion. It is old.

I haven't been calling for Lavin to get fired on the site but the Jay Wright Analogy is a little off because after Jay's 3rd year his big recruiting class were only soph's. Jay broke thru his 4th year and 3rd with those kids which was the Lavin equivalent of this year

Noone was really calling for Lavin to get fired after last season to the best of my knowledge and if they were it was only 1 or 2 people

True, but let's say Randy Foye went pro after year one and his top assistant left and he was forced to change schemes. That would have set them back a year.
Personally I see Lavin a lot like the old Ga Tech coach, Hewitt. Great recruiter, below average coach. Hewitt made the national championship game and then had some awful years. He didn't become a worse coach overnight. I think Lavin could put together a few deep runs here every so often and that is good enough for me. This is St. John's...not UK.

Lavin can get top talent, there is no question. When he's winning, he has a swagger on the recruiting trail that brings his game up a lot and he lands better players.

I believe:
the children are the future, treat them well and let them lead the way
Lavin will deliver a very good but less heralded recruiting class
Otis and the others who scream every time we play a team with a good under-recruited player will ironically not be happy with adding these non-top100 recruits
Lavin will deliver his best recruiting class next season

I agree with a lot of what you just said. Dunlap leaving though is no excuse for Lavin because he left 2 years ago. It's not like he left before last season and Coach had to scramble to figure out a game plan and he has Gene Freaking Keady sitting next to him

Coach recruited ALOT of talent after Harkless. Yeah how good would we have been with Harlkless but every coach has kids leave early. Without Harkless with all the talent we had there isn't an excuse in the world I want to hear ( not saying from you ) for us not making the NCAA's last year.

I'd love for Coach to win big here and be here another 30 years. But we need to make NCAA's next year because a 4 year cycle of his own players and no ncaa's is unacceptable for any coach in my opinion and after next year due to how our schollies line up we start an entire new cycle the following year from scratch almost

You are changing the subject. The point about Harkless was to draw a comparison with Wright. First off Lavin got Norm's players to the NCAA and Wright did not with Lappas'.

More importantly take Sumpter off of that Villanova squad after just 1 year and maybe Villanova does not make the NCAA's after year 4. Then what do you think of Jay Wright?

BTW-They also had a telephone card scandal in year 3, pretty damaging and much worse then a couple of players transferring.

I didn't change any subject. The point about Harkless wasn't to draw a comparison to Wright it was to compare to if Foye left after a year like Harkless did. If Foye left after a year I'd still expect as a fan of Nova to expect their team to make the ncaa's Wrights 3rd year unless they had other injuries or something.

And I never brought up Lavin's 1st year vs Wrights 1st year. That is changing the subject because I've been on record numerous times here saying Lavin's 1st year here was one of my favorite ever and the garden games were my favorite as a season ticket holder. Wright inherited a team that went to the NIT 2 years in a row so not sure how much better the talent was that Norm left. Either way I thought what Lavin did the 1st year here was a miracle

All that doesn't excuse or give a pass to Lavin for last year. That's my only point and I feel Lavin's 3rd year with his kids is very similar to Wrights 3rd year with his own kids that he recruited.

I'm not so sure Wright had more overall talent his 3rd year than Lavin did with their own recruits and the conference was easier this year than what Wright dealt with.

That's my point. The point is moot though because I haven't called once on this site for Lavin to get fired. But fair is fair.

Lavin needs to bring us to the NCAA's next year because it's quite possible that even with a top recruiting class for 2015 you have to give those kids time to gel and then you could be waiting 2 more years minimum to make the ncaa's and quite possibly 3 years and then you could be looking at 6 to 7 years of your own recruits of not making the ncaa's.

Hopefully this all becomes irrelevant and we make the ncaa's next year ( which we should ) and Lavin lands a big class for 2015 and gets the ball rolling permanently for us

This is exactly the reason I feel we are making a huge mistake by not parting ways with Lavin this year. Think about it, if we have another disappointing season and miss the NCAAs, are we really going to walk away from the inroads he will have made with 2015 recruits? Nope, we will wind up giving him that extension despite five years of nothing.

 

[1and1sju]

1. Wright
2.Mack
3.Buzz
4.Thompson
5.McDermott
6.Cooley
7.Willard
8.Lavin
9.The Butler guy
10.Purnell

 

[1and1sju]

There goal this year should be to win the League. And I have no doubt Lavin has the same goal.

Remember when they lost that game in Philly to Nova Coach said that he told the team he expected to meet them again in NY and beat them in the BE Championship.

Villanova deserves to be the pre-season no.1 but after Nova I can't see why anyone doesn't think SJU is right there with a Georgetown or maybe an Xavier and quite frankly better.

Now again Lavin has to coach them up (no doubt) but again let's not act like SJU was 5-13 last year either. They are returning most of their rotation players including potentially the best backcourt in the League from a team that went 10-8 and tied for 3rd and went 10-3 over their least 13 league games that included two losses on the road to Creighton on a last second 3 and Nova on a banked 3 Hail Mary by Ryan A.

Agree on many points. The problem is that we have the worst basketball coach in the Big East. There is absolutely no reason to believe that he has learned anything. He didn't learn after UCLA and he never showed any signs of "getting it" during last season. Get ready to scratch your head again (line-ups, time-outs, no offensive strategy, no inbound plays, etc, etc, etc.) .

Unless you have reason to believe that he has seen the light and, after all these years, he will begin doing these things better........???

Bottom line is if most of you were honest you would have wanted Jay out at Villanova after 3 years and then most certainly would have been name calling him after the 5-13 season in 2011-12. But most of you are not honest. You simply see something go wrong and use terms like "worst" and "the worst" in a completely DISHONEST fashion. It is old.

I haven't been calling for Lavin to get fired on the site but the Jay Wright Analogy is a little off because after Jay's 3rd year his big recruiting class were only soph's. Jay broke thru his 4th year and 3rd with those kids which was the Lavin equivalent of this year

Noone was really calling for Lavin to get fired after last season to the best of my knowledge and if they were it was only 1 or 2 people

True, but let's say Randy Foye went pro after year one and his top assistant left and he was forced to change schemes. That would have set them back a year.
Personally I see Lavin a lot like the old Ga Tech coach, Hewitt. Great recruiter, below average coach. Hewitt made the national championship game and then had some awful years. He didn't become a worse coach overnight. I think Lavin could put together a few deep runs here every so often and that is good enough for me. This is St. John's...not UK.

Lavin can get top talent, there is no question. When he's winning, he has a swagger on the recruiting trail that brings his game up a lot and he lands better players.

I believe:
the children are the future, treat them well and let them lead the way
Lavin will deliver a very good but less heralded recruiting class
Otis and the others who scream every time we play a team with a good under-recruited player will ironically not be happy with adding these non-top100 recruits
Lavin will deliver his best recruiting class next season

I agree with a lot of what you just said. Dunlap leaving though is no excuse for Lavin because he left 2 years ago. It's not like he left before last season and Coach had to scramble to figure out a game plan and he has Gene Freaking Keady sitting next to him

Coach recruited ALOT of talent after Harkless. Yeah how good would we have been with Harlkless but every coach has kids leave early. Without Harkless with all the talent we had there isn't an excuse in the world I want to hear ( not saying from you ) for us not making the NCAA's last year.

I'd love for Coach to win big here and be here another 30 years. But we need to make NCAA's next year because a 4 year cycle of his own players and no ncaa's is unacceptable for any coach in my opinion and after next year due to how our schollies line up we start an entire new cycle the following year from scratch almost

You are changing the subject. The point about Harkless was to draw a comparison with Wright. First off Lavin got Norm's players to the NCAA and Wright did not with Lappas'.

More importantly take Sumpter off of that Villanova squad after just 1 year and maybe Villanova does not make the NCAA's after year 4. Then what do you think of Jay Wright?

BTW-They also had a telephone card scandal in year 3, pretty damaging and much worse then a couple of players transferring.

I didn't change any subject. The point about Harkless wasn't to draw a comparison to Wright it was to compare to if Foye left after a year like Harkless did. If Foye left after a year I'd still expect as a fan of Nova to expect their team to make the ncaa's Wrights 3rd year unless they had other injuries or something.

And I never brought up Lavin's 1st year vs Wrights 1st year. That is changing the subject because I've been on record numerous times here saying Lavin's 1st year here was one of my favorite ever and the garden games were my favorite as a season ticket holder. Wright inherited a team that went to the NIT 2 years in a row so not sure how much better the talent was that Norm left. Either way I thought what Lavin did the 1st year here was a miracle

All that doesn't excuse or give a pass to Lavin for last year. That's my only point and I feel Lavin's 3rd year with his kids is very similar to Wrights 3rd year with his own kids that he recruited.

I'm not so sure Wright had more overall talent his 3rd year than Lavin did with their own recruits and the conference was easier this year than what Wright dealt with.

That's my point. The point is moot though because I haven't called once on this site for Lavin to get fired. But fair is fair.

Lavin needs to bring us to the NCAA's next year because it's quite possible that even with a top recruiting class for 2015 you have to give those kids time to gel and then you could be waiting 2 more years minimum to make the ncaa's and quite possibly 3 years and then you could be looking at 6 to 7 years of your own recruits of not making the ncaa's.

Hopefully this all becomes irrelevant and we make the ncaa's next year ( which we should ) and Lavin lands a big class for 2015 and gets the ball rolling permanently for us

This is exactly the reason I feel we are making a huge mistake by not parting ways with Lavin this year. Think about it, if we have another disappointing season and miss the NCAAs, are we really going to walk away from the inroads he will have made with 2015 recruits? Nope, we will wind up giving him that extension despite five years of nothing.

I agree, and for the same reasons. But there was never any chance of him leaving this year. There was no president in place, and the school owes him too much money.
Unless he chose to resign - and who would walk away from $1.5m, he wasn't going anywhere this season. Despite the fact that in terms of building the program, now was the time to make a decision. Extend or fire.

 

[mjmaherjr]

There goal this year should be to win the League. And I have no doubt Lavin has the same goal.

Remember when they lost that game in Philly to Nova Coach said that he told the team he expected to meet them again in NY and beat them in the BE Championship.

Villanova deserves to be the pre-season no.1 but after Nova I can't see why anyone doesn't think SJU is right there with a Georgetown or maybe an Xavier and quite frankly better.

Now again Lavin has to coach them up (no doubt) but again let's not act like SJU was 5-13 last year either. They are returning most of their rotation players including potentially the best backcourt in the League from a team that went 10-8 and tied for 3rd and went 10-3 over their least 13 league games that included two losses on the road to Creighton on a last second 3 and Nova on a banked 3 Hail Mary by Ryan A.

Agree on many points. The problem is that we have the worst basketball coach in the Big East. There is absolutely no reason to believe that he has learned anything. He didn't learn after UCLA and he never showed any signs of "getting it" during last season. Get ready to scratch your head again (line-ups, time-outs, no offensive strategy, no inbound plays, etc, etc, etc.) .

Unless you have reason to believe that he has seen the light and, after all these years, he will begin doing these things better........???

Bottom line is if most of you were honest you would have wanted Jay out at Villanova after 3 years and then most certainly would have been name calling him after the 5-13 season in 2011-12. But most of you are not honest. You simply see something go wrong and use terms like "worst" and "the worst" in a completely DISHONEST fashion. It is old.

I haven't been calling for Lavin to get fired on the site but the Jay Wright Analogy is a little off because after Jay's 3rd year his big recruiting class were only soph's. Jay broke thru his 4th year and 3rd with those kids which was the Lavin equivalent of this year

Noone was really calling for Lavin to get fired after last season to the best of my knowledge and if they were it was only 1 or 2 people

True, but let's say Randy Foye went pro after year one and his top assistant left and he was forced to change schemes. That would have set them back a year.
Personally I see Lavin a lot like the old Ga Tech coach, Hewitt. Great recruiter, below average coach. Hewitt made the national championship game and then had some awful years. He didn't become a worse coach overnight. I think Lavin could put together a few deep runs here every so often and that is good enough for me. This is St. John's...not UK.

Lavin can get top talent, there is no question. When he's winning, he has a swagger on the recruiting trail that brings his game up a lot and he lands better players.

I believe:
the children are the future, treat them well and let them lead the way
Lavin will deliver a very good but less heralded recruiting class
Otis and the others who scream every time we play a team with a good under-recruited player will ironically not be happy with adding these non-top100 recruits
Lavin will deliver his best recruiting class next season

I agree with a lot of what you just said. Dunlap leaving though is no excuse for Lavin because he left 2 years ago. It's not like he left before last season and Coach had to scramble to figure out a game plan and he has Gene Freaking Keady sitting next to him

Coach recruited ALOT of talent after Harkless. Yeah how good would we have been with Harlkless but every coach has kids leave early. Without Harkless with all the talent we had there isn't an excuse in the world I want to hear ( not saying from you ) for us not making the NCAA's last year.

I'd love for Coach to win big here and be here another 30 years. But we need to make NCAA's next year because a 4 year cycle of his own players and no ncaa's is unacceptable for any coach in my opinion and after next year due to how our schollies line up we start an entire new cycle the following year from scratch almost

You are changing the subject. The point about Harkless was to draw a comparison with Wright. First off Lavin got Norm's players to the NCAA and Wright did not with Lappas'.

More importantly take Sumpter off of that Villanova squad after just 1 year and maybe Villanova does not make the NCAA's after year 4. Then what do you think of Jay Wright?

BTW-They also had a telephone card scandal in year 3, pretty damaging and much worse then a couple of players transferring.

I didn't change any subject. The point about Harkless wasn't to draw a comparison to Wright it was to compare to if Foye left after a year like Harkless did. If Foye left after a year I'd still expect as a fan of Nova to expect their team to make the ncaa's Wrights 3rd year unless they had other injuries or something.

And I never brought up Lavin's 1st year vs Wrights 1st year. That is changing the subject because I've been on record numerous times here saying Lavin's 1st year here was one of my favorite ever and the garden games were my favorite as a season ticket holder. Wright inherited a team that went to the NIT 2 years in a row so not sure how much better the talent was that Norm left. Either way I thought what Lavin did the 1st year here was a miracle

All that doesn't excuse or give a pass to Lavin for last year. That's my only point and I feel Lavin's 3rd year with his kids is very similar to Wrights 3rd year with his own kids that he recruited.

I'm not so sure Wright had more overall talent his 3rd year than Lavin did with their own recruits and the conference was easier this year than what Wright dealt with.

That's my point. The point is moot though because I haven't called once on this site for Lavin to get fired. But fair is fair.

Lavin needs to bring us to the NCAA's next year because it's quite possible that even with a top recruiting class for 2015 you have to give those kids time to gel and then you could be waiting 2 more years minimum to make the ncaa's and quite possibly 3 years and then you could be looking at 6 to 7 years of your own recruits of not making the ncaa's.

Hopefully this all becomes irrelevant and we make the ncaa's next year ( which we should ) and Lavin lands a big class for 2015 and gets the ball rolling permanently for us

This is exactly the reason I feel we are making a huge mistake by not parting ways with Lavin this year. Think about it, if we have another disappointing season and miss the NCAAs, are we really going to walk away from the inroads he will have made with 2015 recruits? Nope, we will wind up giving him that extension despite five years of nothing.

I hear you and understand what you're saying. If we get the Juco kid though and if we are really in tight with the 2 top 50 kids and knowing that Lavin can recruit than I think you need to roll the dice and let Lavin coach these kids this year and we should make the ncaa's and if he locks up a top 10 2015 class that could really put us on our way.

I don't see any better alternatives unless you are going to tell me Howland comes. So if I'm the AD I keep Lavin give him an incentive based extension and hope for the best next year

I'd be vey comfortable with Lavin as the face of our program going forward if we have a very good year next year and he lands a great 2015 class.

 

[ras]

What I don't understand is what caused CO and Greene to want to transfer and what changed their minds?

 

[simplyred]

What I don't understand is what caused CO and Greene to want to transfer and what changed their minds?

Don't try to understand. None of it makes sense. Unless, of course, Baldi tells us what went on in the locker room.

 

[Jack Williams]

Why are y'all saying Cooley isn't as good as lavin??? If lav had that prov team this year they win ten games. Cooley takes that team and wins a big east championship. Cooley is so much better

 

[SJUalum98]

And further here is our I would rank our coaches assuming Buzz was still here

1. Wright
2.Mack
3.Buzz
4.Thompson
5.Lavin
6.McDermott
7.Cooley
8.WIllard
9.The Butler guy
10.Purnell

We differ significantly. I'm not taking recruiting into account.

1. Wright
2. Cooley
3. Mack
4. McDermott
5. Thompson
6. Buzz
7. Willard
8. Lavin
9. Butler
10. Purnell

 

[Mike]

And further here is our I would rank our coaches assuming Buzz was still here

1. Wright
2.Mack
3.Buzz
4.Thompson
5.Lavin
6.McDermott
7.Cooley
8.WIllard
9.The Butler guy
10.Purnell

We differ significantly. I'm not taking recruiting into account.

1. Wright
2. Cooley
3. Mack
4. McDermott
5. Thompson
6. Buzz
7. Willard
8. Lavin
9. Butler
10. Purnell

This actually deserves it's own thread, but based on this past year Cooley would have to be higher than Lavin and how is Willard ahead of Lavin? Now next year let's see how McDermott does without the top college player. I think next year Lavin could be anywhere from 3 to 5.

 

[bamafan]

Fordham, wish we were 20-11 last year as you say in your posts because that would have meant we were 20-10 after BE T taking away 2 losses-and who knows we may have made the big dance. Unfortunately we finished 20-13 and with our 20-12 record after the BE T were relegated to the NIT.

 

[mjmaherjr]

Why are y'all saying Cooley isn't as good as lavin??? If lav had that prov team this year they win ten games. Cooley takes that team and wins a big east championship. Cooley is so much better

Cooley showed me something this year but seeing them play towards the end I'm not sure how much was Cooley or how much was Cotton

I hope Cooley becomes very successful at Providence because it will be good for the conference

Next year will be interesting in how Cooley does but right now I'd still take Lavin over him