Johnnies & Luring Quality Local Players

paultzman

paultzman

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“The current sophomore class features some highly ranked players, led by Long Island’s Jonathan Kuminga, a five-star wing and top-five recruit in his class, who is close to Tabor.

“They got Nate, so the goal is for them to play together,” the grassroots source said. “He sees them more than any other school. [St. John’s coach] Chris [Mullin] has been active recruiting him.”

https://nypost.com/2019/02/16/what-chris-mullin-and-st-johns-must-do-to-keep-top-nyc-talent/
 
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This reporter does not have St Johns in its best. Interest. His article though correct on some points is demeaning and does not in anyway help with his articles. I wonder where he went to College. Hopefully the post takes him off writing on us
 
Staff has a nice relationship with the NY Rens. It also helps that Andy Borman, head honcho there, is a fellow Dukie & friend of Cragg. Kuminga would be huge, but long way to go.
 
[quote="cbruno" post=322972]This reporter does not have St Johns in its best. Interest. His article though correct on some points is demeaning and does not in anyway help with his articles. I wonder where he went to College. Hopefully the post takes him off writing on us[/quote]

“Luring” was an odd choice for the title. The word is rarely used in a positive context.
 
[quote="cbruno" post=322972]This reporter does not have St Johns in its best. Interest. His article though correct on some points is demeaning and does not in anyway help with his articles. I wonder where he went to College. Hopefully the post takes him off writing on us[/quote]

What in the article was so wrong/bad? It’s a pretty spot on look into the program.

The only issue I have with the article is it really downplays Shamorie Ponds. Even the final line of the article about how it’s been a long time since a kid came along that wanted to stay home and play for SJU in the city.

Maybe he wasn’t the “coveted 5 star” as Braziller puts it, but look at Ponds has been for this school. 5 star or not, one of the best to ever put on the red and white jersey.

I don’t have a problem with the point the article is trying to make but he kind of brushes Ponds off like he’s a city kid averaging 5 points a game off the bench

(“It’s less about St. John’s identity, and I think it’s more about the kid’s identity,” Borman said. “The kid is going to have to have that DNA to say, ‘Man, I want to stay home and do this.’ ”

It has been almost two decades since that kid came along.)

No Zach it’s been 3 years
 
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My take from this article is that most of the best players from the city don't even play here. Also, it does seem that campus atmosphere does make a difference to the kids according to the nameless HS coach. Good to here coaches working had on Kuminga. Botton line keep winning and hopefully the recruiting will take off.
One last thing about the article, anytime Arbitello is mentioned in a story about St. John's I'm not sure how seriously the article can be taken.
 
[quote="RM86" post=322981]My take from this article is that most of the best players from the city don't even play here. Also, it does seem that campus atmosphere does make a difference to the kids according to the nameless HS coach. Good to here coaches working had on Kuminga. Botton line keep winning and hopefully the recruiting will take off.
One last thing about the article, anytime Arbitello is mentioned in a story about St. John's I'm not sure how seriously the article can be taken.[/quote]

Campus environment I don’t believe is a factor at all putting together a 13-man team. We are able to field excellent teams in every other sport with talent from everywhere. It’s a non-factor imho. The coaches, recent success and basketball facilities all play a role. Sju’s Campus life imho is not the issue one iota.
 
[quote="MCNPA" post=322983][quote="RM86" post=322981]My take from this article is that most of the best players from the city don't even play here. Also, it does seem that campus atmosphere does make a difference to the kids according to the nameless HS coach. Good to here coaches working had on Kuminga. Botton line keep winning and hopefully the recruiting will take off.
One last thing about the article, anytime Arbitello is mentioned in a story about St. John's I'm not sure how seriously the article can be taken.[/quote]



Campus environment I don’t believe is a factor at all putting together a 13-man team. We are able to field excellent teams in every other sport with talent from everywhere. It’s a non-factor imho. The coaches, recent success and basketball facilities all play a role. Sju’s Campus life imho is not the issue one iota.[/quote]

You could be right but thats not what I hear at all.
 
The one point the article misses I think is that a much smaller percentage of the elite prospects come from the NYC area than they did in the 60s, 70s & 80s so there is a smaller pool of local "superstars" for schools like St. John's & Seton Hall to draw from. I also think we may suffer with certain kids who are interested in the more classic college experience and want to experience a beautiful campus at a prestigious college, be it Duke, Villanova, UNC or wherever. This may not be important to all top recruits but it is definitely important to some and with those kids, we can't compete.
Agree that article could have given more props to Shamorie and a little more emphasis that we are in the hunt for stars Precious and Kuminga.
 
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[quote="Jack Williams" post=322979][quote="cbruno" post=322972]This reporter does not have St Johns in its best. Interest. His article though correct on some points is demeaning and does not in anyway help with his articles. I wonder where he went to College. Hopefully the post takes him off writing on us[/quote]

What in the article was so wrong/bad? It’s a pretty spot on look into the program.

The only issue I have with the article is it really downplays Shamorie Ponds. Even the final line of the article about how it’s been a long time since a kid came along that wanted to stay home and play for SJU in the city.

Maybe he wasn’t the “coveted 5 star” as Braziller puts it, but look at Ponds has been for this school. 5 star or not, one of the best to ever put on the red and white jersey.

I don’t have a problem with the point the article is trying to make but he kind of brushes Ponds off like he’s a city kid averaging 5 points a game off the bench

(“It’s less about St. John’s identity, and I think it’s more about the kid’s identity,” Borman said. “The kid is going to have to have that DNA to say, ‘Man, I want to stay home and do this.’ ”

It has been almost two decades since that kid came along.)

No Zach it’s been 3 years[/quote]
Very fair Jack
 
[quote="MCNPA" post=322983][quote="RM86" post=322981]My take from this article is that most of the best players from the city don't even play here. Also, it does seem that campus atmosphere does make a difference to the kids according to the nameless HS coach. Good to here coaches working had on Kuminga. Botton line keep winning and hopefully the recruiting will take off.
One last thing about the article, anytime Arbitello is mentioned in a story about St. John's I'm not sure how seriously the article can be taken.[/quote]

Campus environment I don’t believe is a factor at all putting together a 13-man team. We are able to field excellent teams in every other sport with talent from everywhere. It’s a non-factor imho. The coaches, recent success and basketball facilities all play a role. Sju’s Campus life imho is not the issue one iota.[/quote]

I wouldn't dismiss it as a factor. Anybody who visits the Duke, UNC, Kentucky, or UCLA campuses can see the allure of going there. It's like a whole different world than the corner of Utopia and Union. That being said, I've always said it's about kids getting to the NBA. If Mullin can say to potential recruits "Hey, look at Ponds and Heron. They played under me and are now in the NBA", then that changes things. Also, the other big thing that St. John's really needs to start doing is getting their ex players more involved. Let's say a guy like Harrison wants to get involved down the road, he should be given that opportunity.
 
I'll take a 5-star kid from anywhere. I don't think the local kid angle is sufficient to build an ongoing competitive program any longer. Maybe the idea is to get a kid from the Midwest and selling him on the city and all it's treasures. Local kids will be interested if we have a good program with kids advancing to the next level.
 
Thought the article was fair and somewhat timely as it relates to Precious Achiuwa decision and staff's ability to sign him.
 
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Certainly the article was fair in its assessment that not having a recruiter familiar with the local high schools and AAU programs hurts recruiting. It would have been informative if it mentioned Mullin's reasons for not having that person.
If Cragg is looking to elevate the program this would be a good place for him to show his authority.
 
This was an unbiased article but so incomplete as to be useless. How can he write an article about five star recruiting and not even mention under the table cash payments? The recent trials ands settlements that have been in the news are facts that were ignored. A good amount of these five star kids don't even stay at school through their entire freshman year and I'm supposed to believe "campus life" is a factor?

For me, you write about five stars and leave out the money angle, you wrote a worthless article. Par for the Braziller course.
 
Understood but that leads to other things....

If $ are a factor....either we have no shot because we don't play dirty, so why bother going after them, or we try to play the game too and are not successful for multiple reasons.
 
Also, the idea that quotes are included from "a grassroots source" is another journalistic joke. The quotes were not controversial at all, why wouldn't an actual person put their name to them? Perhaps because they are made up? The state of sports journalism is so sad in 2019.
 
When I hear “5-star premier” player, I think “one and done.” And the question becomes, do we really want one and dones? I’ll take a Ponds who hangs around for 3 years every day of the week over that.
 
One of the problems involved in luring quality local players is that very few of them stay local for their 4 years of high school anymore.
 
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