Bill,Beasts of East:
Still carrying that St. John’s can’t get good players without facility upgrades flag?
Rick Pitino, without the dings to his reputation, is a top 10 college coach of all time, easily. He checks every important box - in game coach, player development, game preparedness, recruiter. Still, even with all that, there were things done at a school that had all the resources available, to build a championship caliber roster.
What I've said is that without facilities, without NIL(which has supplanted facilities as #1 importance ) sustained success will not occur for this program.
Anecdotal success can occur. The roster overhaul has been, on paper at least, impressive. Sorry to say, as impressive as it is, we will see just how good this team will be once we get through Charleston and the first 6 conference games. At this juncture last season, after adding Jones and Curbelo and Storr, we were anticipating selection Sunday because we thought this was CMA's best team. We all know how that worked out, another crash and burn of a coaching regime.
Pitino, no question, is an all-time great coach. If you think, though, that we will puncture the highest echelons of top 20 recruits consistently without #1 NIL, and without #2 facilities you are mistaken. The big Shanley gamble isn't whether Pitino can win enough here to get us to dance in March (we almost certainly will sooner than anyone else could for us) but whether philanthropy follows that initial success that will repay the investment and then some.
Reality being harsher than giddy hope, we move forward with a likely $11 million debt to a former coach, facilities that are worst in the big east in dire need of upgrade, NIL that must be raised to compete with the well armed programs.
Already much is being planned to actively and directly raise funds from our base of alums and fans - not just hit up the usual suspects who have already contributed mightily to our school, but to expand that base.
I am thrilled with what RP has done in such a short time, but who on our roster is sure fire to hear his name called in the first round of the nba draft in 13 months?
Even the great Rick Pitino knows what we need to build a sustainable program. The next 12 months will be interesting to see if we will 1) dance next season 2) have a top 10 recruiting class 3) dramatically increase NIL fund raising and 4) get the facilities fund raising campaign underway. It's a heavy lift.
Like everyone, I am very happy. Giddy? Not yet. There's too much to do.