I really hope Matt connects with Mitch Richmond. They could be a solid duo.
Andrew our recruiting has never been better.
What we now need is player development and improved coaching.
I too hope Mitch can recruit and I have no doubt he can and will relate well to the players but we have other glaring weaknesses or unknowns that must be addressed and improved. If Mitch can help in those 2 areas he will be a big asset to the program. If he can't we have to hope the staff can recruit well enough to overcome their deficiencies.
I have no doubt player development will be the best we have had at St. John's in years. The M&M recruiting duo should put us on the list of major recruits and, I, for one, think getting the right players is 80 percent of a coach's job success. Actual in game coaching is the other 20 percent. Top programs get top players every single year like Kansas, Duke, UNC and Kentucky. Over the past 35 years we have had only two periods where we recruited at that level for more than two consecutive years. The Mullin/Berry era and the Artest/Barkley era. Mullin knows he can't win without top talent and that is priority 1, 2 and 3 for him to thrive.
72 I agree with everything except where you say we have recruited at that level for more than two consecutive years. To my knowledge , and I only go back to 1981, we have never had 3 good recruiting classes in a row. 82 was terrible, 83 very good , 84 great, 85 mediocre at best , Marco Baldi. Fran had 2 very good classes then Jarvis. If I am wrong please correct me.
I am not comparing St. John's to a Kentucky or UNC where they sign 3 or 4 Top 50 players every single year. A good year is when you sign a top player and key recruit to go with existing talent. Sometimes that means one outstanding program changer. In the Mullin era, Chris Jackson and Berry were from three different years and they started their careers in separate years but they played together at some point with Wennington and other very good players which produced a final 4 level team. That is what Kansas does every single year.
The Fraschilla/Jarvis years also produced that same final 4 level of talent with Artest, Barkley, Cook, Thornton, Postell, etc.who did not arrive in one class en mass which is Kentucky and Duke type recruiting.
I see the same type of recruiting now with key pieces added every year which should translate into being contenders for the Big East title every year starting next season and hopefully beyond.
Point well taken, but for the record, Postell was a Mahoney recruit.
....and thankfully he didn't play under the underachieving Mahoney.
He flourished under Fran and Jarhead.
Don't know if he was an underachiever -- the guy did try -- as much as just a poor head coach.
His Manhattan record was quite a clue.
Hey, 16-62 is nothing to sneeze at!
Norm's 24-84 at Queens college is pretty impressive as well.
Norm, Brian, and now Mullin. Our history of hiring home run coaches with dubious experience has been the like a baseball team inserting the pitcher who hits .025 at the bottom of the 9th with bases loaded and the game tied.
Mullin???? I will say this, 3 of our last 5 prior coaches were fired from thier previous head coaching jobs. You would think that would have sent up red flags to the administration.
Yes, Mullin. I am referring to coaching experience. Those that actually coached, from high school through college had mediocre records yet we hired them anyway. Mullin topped them all. He had Zero, silcth, nada, experience coaching No high school, no junior college, no NAIA, nuttin honey! WE ARE SJU!
If it's broke, you try to fix it. "It's" been broke for a long long time. The head coaches out there that there was mutual interest, were not on the A list, and this has been for well over a decade. Hitching the wagon to Mullin is unorthodox, a risk, a potential big time backfire, and I love the move just as much today as I did the day it was announced.
As you said it's been broke for a long time. So what could be the potential big time backfire. Mullin inherited three returning players that averaged a total of 4 points. What could be worse , how could it backfire ?
By "backfire", I think he means we still do not know if Mully can coach the team to wins and, WINNING is the bottom line. Last year was a wash, a chance for the new staff to settle into the college game. This year, with very good talent, albeit young, Chris needs to show he can run the show and be in control, which is something he did not exhibit last season. If the feud with Slice is any indication, he has a long way to go to be in control without alienating key stakeholders, both within the St. John's administration and with the scrupulous fans who will dissect his every move once the season starts. If, God forbid, he manages only 10 or 12 wins then the home town all American glitter will fade in a New York minute. If, by year three, we are not dancing then it would be safe to say the bus has backfired and we will have to back up the bus all over again. Should that happen, I think the program will be doomed to be a cellar dweller. Of course that is the worst case scenario and highly unlikely. I HOPE.
How about "if" Matt decides to take a job elsewhere, or "if" Lovett decides to transfer after a few games........ The 'ifs" are endless. Not to worried about the "ifs" at this point. None of us know the particulars of what happened with Slice. Maybe he got to big for his britches, maybe he pushed the envelope with certain things, who knows? Honestly, with Matt here I'm not to worried about the loss of Slice. Clearly Chris thinks the same way or maybe Slice would still be here. In hindsight Slice is be a bad hire, but none of us, including Chris, thought that at the time. The single most important component to having a winning program is getting the kids. So far all indicators are that we will get the kids. Yes it remains to be seen if Chris can be a successful coach, but the same was said about our last 2 coaches. I chose to give both of them the benefit of the doubt until they proved otherwise. Norm got passes early on, as did Lavin after his first year. Most certainly Chris deserves the benefit of the doubt for at least as long as those 2 because A) he is Chris; B ) he is learning on the job; C) he took over a program left in shambles by the bozo before him.
Let's not make too much of coaching fact is a player like chris with his basketball exp and learning from great collage and pro coaches knows the game! True, great coaches can pull out games with certain moves but it
all comes down to talented players thay make and average coach look great[/quote]
There are very few great coaches today. John Wooden, Jerry Tarkanian, Bobby Knight and Dean Smith were great coaches. Coach K, Bill Self, Rick Pitino and maybe Jim Boeheim fall into that category but they get top 50 or higher players every single year. Brad Stevens was on track to become a great college coach who was a top tactician at Butler and Jim Larranaga, Mark Few, Tony Bennett and Bob McKillop come close to very top in their field. Most of the top 50 coaches are all good with winning records. Hopefully Matt and Mitch can recruit AND close on some top 50 talent in the next few years so Mullin can get established in the college coaching ranks.
Regardless of NBA Hall of Fame pedigree, I am left skeptical of West Coast Transplants like Richmond and Mullin after the Steve Lavinwood experience. Leaving mega California mansions with Hollywood lifestyle wives doesn't spell "longterm" to me. Maybe it's the New York skeptic in me but we may have missed the boat a long time ago when we did not pursue Bob McKillop or even Jay Wright when he was down the road at Hofstra. Time will tell.
