Lavin failed to blend talent to create team

[redfazed]

Listening to Lavin, you would think our group of young people has endured personal struggles that are second to none.

From today’s NY Times---this is who we lost to last night:

“The senior Karvel Anderson, the Northeast Conference player of the year, led Robert Morris with a game-high 38 points.

Before Anderson enrolled at Robert Morris, he was briefly homeless and living in a park in his hometown, Elkhart, Ind.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/19/s...ntment-carries-over-to-the-very-end.html?_r=0

Look, let's be fair about this. Just about every inner city kid has experienced violent deaths of friends and family, gang violence, drugs, poverty, and street crime. To my knowledge nor anyone's knowledge once you get past the Brigham Young's of the world, all programs have their share of that. But to diminish the problems our guys have had because they are well known entities for many college athletes, is insensitive and boarish.

I am NOT diminishing the problems of our team. That is not the point!

My point is that every team's roster has untold problems. And when it comes to St John's, I AM diminishing Lavin's repeated use of said problems over and over again in pre-game and post-game press conferences.

 

[monte]

Listening to Lavin, you would think our group of young people has endured personal struggles that are second to none.

From today’s NY Times---this is who we lost to last night:

“The senior Karvel Anderson, the Northeast Conference player of the year, led Robert Morris with a game-high 38 points.

Before Anderson enrolled at Robert Morris, he was briefly homeless and living in a park in his hometown, Elkhart, Ind.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/19/s...ntment-carries-over-to-the-very-end.html?_r=0

Look, let's be fair about this. Just about every inner city kid has experienced violent deaths of friends and family, gang violence, drugs, poverty, and street crime. To my knowledge nor anyone's knowledge once you get past the Brigham Young's of the world, all programs have their share of that. But to diminish the problems our guys have had because they are well known entities for many college athletes, is insensitive and boarish.

I don't read every single thread, but I didn't see anyone diminish these kids' personal problem. Lord knows I continue to be amazed at what some of the kids have to overcome, and do. But to publicize them continuously, especially as justification for poor play, is equally inappropriate. To the best of my knowledge, no one on the team had to endure more serious personal problems than Jordan this year. Yet he quickly became one of our best players improving as the season went on. So there is not always a correlation, as much as Lavin would like us to believe there is.

 

[TonyinFairfield]

Otis, you too with the use of "apologist." I guess you missed my rant on another thread on how I loathe that word because it is so overused here.

"Sheep" is gaining momentum and may over take "apologist" among the more hysterical members. Alas, my personal preference "sheeple" is still lagging behind.

In the long run however, sheeple has the best opportunity to supplant apologist. Once it starts, it will spread like wildfire.

My other favorite is prefacing any outpouring of Lavin hatred with the phrase "if you know anything about basketball....."

 

[beast of the east]

Listening to Lavin, you would think our group of young people has endured personal struggles that are second to none.

From today’s NY Times---this is who we lost to last night:

“The senior Karvel Anderson, the Northeast Conference player of the year, led Robert Morris with a game-high 38 points.

Before Anderson enrolled at Robert Morris, he was briefly homeless and living in a park in his hometown, Elkhart, Ind.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/19/s...ntment-carries-over-to-the-very-end.html?_r=0

Look, let's be fair about this. Just about every inner city kid has experienced violent deaths of friends and family, gang violence, drugs, poverty, and street crime. To my knowledge nor anyone's knowledge once you get past the Brigham Young's of the world, all programs have their share of that. But to diminish the problems our guys have had because they are well known entities for many college athletes, is insensitive and boarish.

I don't read every single thread, but I didn't see anyone diminish these kids' personal problem. Lord knows I continue to be amazed at what some of the kids have to overcome, and do. But to publicize them continuously, especially as justification for poor play, is equally inappropriate. To the best of my knowledge, no one on the team had to endure more serious personal problems than Jordan this year. Yet he quickly became one of our best players improving as the season went on. So there is not always a correlation, as much as Lavin would like us to believe there is.

Sometimes the best medicine to take you away from life's difficulties is when you suit up and get to play ball for a couple of hours. But that doesn't mean they go away, that they don't affect classroom performance, make kids homesick or want to be with family members during these times. Just because a kid scores 20 points in a game doesn't mean he has tremendous stuff going on that everyone associated with the program isn't aware of or dealing with.

I never felt that Lavin was justifying losing because of what the kids were going through.

 

[monte]

Listening to Lavin, you would think our group of young people has endured personal struggles that are second to none.

From today’s NY Times---this is who we lost to last night:

“The senior Karvel Anderson, the Northeast Conference player of the year, led Robert Morris with a game-high 38 points.

Before Anderson enrolled at Robert Morris, he was briefly homeless and living in a park in his hometown, Elkhart, Ind.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/19/s...ntment-carries-over-to-the-very-end.html?_r=0

Look, let's be fair about this. Just about every inner city kid has experienced violent deaths of friends and family, gang violence, drugs, poverty, and street crime. To my knowledge nor anyone's knowledge once you get past the Brigham Young's of the world, all programs have their share of that. But to diminish the problems our guys have had because they are well known entities for many college athletes, is insensitive and boarish.

I don't read every single thread, but I didn't see anyone diminish these kids' personal problem. Lord knows I continue to be amazed at what some of the kids have to overcome, and do. But to publicize them continuously, especially as justification for poor play, is equally inappropriate. To the best of my knowledge, no one on the team had to endure more serious personal problems than Jordan this year. Yet he quickly became one of our best players improving as the season went on. So there is not always a correlation, as much as Lavin would like us to believe there is.

Sometimes the best medicine to take you away from life's difficulties is when you suit up and get to play ball for a couple of hours. But that doesn't mean they go away, that they don't affect classroom performance, make kids homesick or want to be with family members during these times. Just because a kid scores 20 points in a game doesn't mean he has tremendous stuff going on that everyone associated with the program isn't aware of or dealing with.

I never felt that Lavin was justifying losing because of what the kids were going through.

Agree wholeheartedly with what you're saying about the kids. For many of these kids the gym/court is their escape, both mental and physical. For a few hours a day they can block out their lives' difficulties. Or at least put them aside while they focus one something they love doing. Which is even more of a reason why it's not necessary to bring up during a press conference or interview. I know he was probably just trying to protect the kids, and I can understand if it came out inadvertently once, but something just doesn't ring sincere when he started mentioning it over and over. .

 

[monte]

..... he had Ron Roberts (and let him go!) who would have been the kind of solid 4 year guy who we could have used.

Ron Roberts had a solid career at StJosephs and will be playing in the NCAAs this week. In hindsight Roberts is probably glad that he ended up at StJoe's rather than StJohns.

Especially since today happens to be St. Joseph's day!

 

[beast of the east]

Quite by accident, as I was leaving Spokane yesterday, I ran into very chatty older woman, Mary Spink, at the airport. She explained that her sons had played for Gonzaga during the formative ascent years. Returning home, I googled their last name, and found an interview one of the sons did about 10 years ago. His mom had told me that in four years he went to the NCAA's three times and NIT once. One of his comments struck me about Gonzaga's success:

Scott Spink: This is what makes GU special today. The coaching staff is able to convince the individual players to subjugate themselves for the good of the team. I believe this is one main reason GU has been so successful in recent times

I'm not sure this is one of the keys to our failures, but as a talented group, our guys have not been able to turn the corner and become consistent winners. Sometimes it's simply that a team isn't good enough, sometimes its more. But giving it all, and becoming a team instead of a group of individuals is something SJU players failed to achieve this year.

 

[tom in salem]

Possibly the first coach to have 2 players declare for the the draft without ever playing a tournament game?