Mid Season Report Card

[beast of the east]

Lavin F-

Honest two part question for you and anyone else who might consider Lavin a failure at this point

Did SJU make the right hire 4 years ago

And if not realistically who would you have rather seen as coach.

He was the best hire at the time. He gave us the instant shot in the arm that we needed. We all hoped that he had grown as a game coach(except for those who refused to acknowledge that he was a poor game coach) since his days at UCLA. Based on most of our observations, he has not. I am not optimistic that he ever will. While we are lights years ahead of where we were under Norm, but I just don't feel that Lavin will ever bring us back to being a consistent top 25/tourny team as we were under Louie and through most of the 90's.

That's fair. And I might actually agree with your prediction.

If more people say that its fine. But for people to pull out random names is where I call BS. We shot for Billy D and were rebuffed. We thought we had Hewitt until his wife got cold feet. Lavin saw how much we were willing to pay Billy D and Hewitt and interest was peaked. Otherwise we were looking at someone like Al Skinner.

Billy D's salary has been $3 million plus for some time, and Florida has no state income tax, while NYS is 10% with a much higher cost of living. Did SJU offer him in that range to entice him? If we had $3 million plus to spend, then you are in elite category, plus, there are only a handful of coaches earning that much. Lavin went for less than $1.5.

We offered his FLA salary. But like you pointed out tax and cost of living. Lavin is in the 1.5-1.7 range. But remember our assistants are highest in the Big East supposedly. I mean they were when Dunlap was here

I'm pretty sure he never got over Looie telling him he wasn't good enough to play here. Even though Looie personally made the call to Providence on his behalf, Donovan bad mouthed Looie for years afterward.

 

[westchesterjoe]

Lavin [..]has failed to sign anyone even remotely equal to Burrell and Evans to shore up the middle.

Really? That's your point of comparison?
I would love a 7footer with skill, as well, but they don't grow on trees. We rarely ever signed 6'8 athletic guys with skill before, we left that up to Cuse, UCONN, and Nova. Give me Harkless or Sampson every day over JB. And I liked Burrell.

Evans was no better than Gift. Get over it. The roster may be flawed, but not in the way you are suggesting.

Evans averaged 10 ppg and 7 boards as a soph. After the Duke game do you really think Lavin thought Gift was better than Evans? If so you're nuts.

Amazing how you cannot remember that Evans didn't box out once in his entire times here, that he couldn't shoot worth a lick, was not a good man on man defender and roamed out of position in the zone, and that there has never been a more out of control Johnny tearing off on the break dribbling upcourt with his head down like a madman. Of course, Norm ignored these little deficiencies too. HE probably missed all these assignment sin football as well, and if he were that undisciplined on the gridiron is a good explanation as to why he played basketball.

Yeah, but he looked good in the Warmups.. Beastie, you forgot Sean's foul shooting..

Actually I didn't. I was waiting for a retort that Sean shot 50% from the field, therefore is a good shooter. I was then going to point out that he shot 50% from the FT line also. Thanks for pointing this out here. I just didn't want to fire all my bullets at once.

On the plus side, Sean seemed like a really great kid, a team oriented guy, and there wasn't a guy on that squad I would want protecting me more on the subway at 2 AM.

Please up my kharma. It's shameless I know, but I deserve better

I CLICKED YOU 22 TIMES WITH A + but, received a warning from the administrators that it could put your overall karma at risk..

 

[mjmaherjr]

Lavin [..]has failed to sign anyone even remotely equal to Burrell and Evans to shore up the middle.

Really? That's your point of comparison?
I would love a 7footer with skill, as well, but they don't grow on trees. We rarely ever signed 6'8 athletic guys with skill before, we left that up to Cuse, UCONN, and Nova. Give me Harkless or Sampson every day over JB. And I liked Burrell.

Evans was no better than Gift. Get over it. The roster may be flawed, but not in the way you are suggesting.

Evans averaged 10 ppg and 7 boards as a soph. After the Duke game do you really think Lavin thought Gift was better than Evans? If so you're nuts.

Amazing how you cannot remember that Evans didn't box out once in his entire times here, that he couldn't shoot worth a lick, was not a good man on man defender and roamed out of position in the zone, and that there has never been a more out of control Johnny tearing off on the break dribbling upcourt with his head down like a madman. Of course, Norm ignored these little deficiencies too. HE probably missed all these assignment sin football as well, and if he were that undisciplined on the gridiron is a good explanation as to why he played basketball.

Yeah, but he looked good in the Warmups.. Beastie, you forgot Sean's foul shooting..

Actually I didn't. I was waiting for a retort that Sean shot 50% from the field, therefore is a good shooter. I was then going to point out that he shot 50% from the FT line also. Thanks for pointing this out here. I just didn't want to fire all my bullets at once.

On the plus side, Sean seemed like a really great kid, a team oriented guy, and there wasn't a guy on that squad I would want protecting me more on the subway at 2 AM.

Please up my kharma. It's shameless I know, but I deserve better

I CLICKED YOU 22 TIMES WITH A + but, received a warning from the administrators that it could put your overall karma at risk..

I think that 22 worked in reverse because your karma went to -22

 

[westchesterjoe]

Lavin [..]has failed to sign anyone even remotely equal to Burrell and Evans to shore up the middle.

Really? That's your point of comparison?
I would love a 7footer with skill, as well, but they don't grow on trees. We rarely ever signed 6'8 athletic guys with skill before, we left that up to Cuse, UCONN, and Nova. Give me Harkless or Sampson every day over JB. And I liked Burrell.

Evans was no better than Gift. Get over it. The roster may be flawed, but not in the way you are suggesting.

Evans averaged 10 ppg and 7 boards as a soph. After the Duke game do you really think Lavin thought Gift was better than Evans? If so you're nuts.

Amazing how you cannot remember that Evans didn't box out once in his entire times here, that he couldn't shoot worth a lick, was not a good man on man defender and roamed out of position in the zone, and that there has never been a more out of control Johnny tearing off on the break dribbling upcourt with his head down like a madman. Of course, Norm ignored these little deficiencies too. HE probably missed all these assignment sin football as well, and if he were that undisciplined on the gridiron is a good explanation as to why he played basketball.

Yeah, but he looked good in the Warmups.. Beastie, you forgot Sean's foul shooting..

Actually I didn't. I was waiting for a retort that Sean shot 50% from the field, therefore is a good shooter. I was then going to point out that he shot 50% from the FT line also. Thanks for pointing this out here. I just didn't want to fire all my bullets at once.

On the plus side, Sean seemed like a really great kid, a team oriented guy, and there wasn't a guy on that squad I would want protecting me more on the subway at 2 AM.

Please up my kharma. It's shameless I know, but I deserve better

I CLICKED YOU 22 TIMES WITH A + but, received a warning from the administrators that it could put your overall karma at risk..

I think that 22 worked in reverse because your karma went to -22

Thanks, mjmaher.. I'm not concerned about my karma currently. It will be good by February.. It's BEASTIE who is worried. Maybe his spelling, KHARMA, HAS CAUSED HIS RANKINGS TO SLIP BELOW HIS NORM.. er, STANDARD..

 

[Moose]

Lavin F-

Honest two part question for you and anyone else who might consider Lavin a failure at this point

Did SJU make the right hire 4 years ago

And if not realistically who would you have rather seen as coach.

He was the best hire at the time. He gave us the instant shot in the arm that we needed. We all hoped that he had grown as a game coach(except for those who refused to acknowledge that he was a poor game coach) since his days at UCLA. Based on most of our observations, he has not. I am not optimistic that he ever will. While we are lights years ahead of where we were under Norm, but I just don't feel that Lavin will ever bring us back to being a consistent top 25/tourny team as we were under Louie and through most of the 90's.

That's fair. And I might actually agree with your prediction.

If more people say that its fine. But for people to pull out random names is where I call BS. We shot for Billy D and were rebuffed. We thought we had Hewitt until his wife got cold feet. Lavin saw how much we were willing to pay Billy D and Hewitt and interest was peaked. Otherwise we were looking at someone like Al Skinner.

Billy D's salary has been $3 million plus for some time, and Florida has no state income tax, while NYS is 10% with a much higher cost of living. Did SJU offer him in that range to entice him? If we had $3 million plus to spend, then you are in elite category, plus, there are only a handful of coaches earning that much. Lavin went for less than $1.5.

We offered his FLA salary. But like you pointed out tax and cost of living. Lavin is in the 1.5-1.7 range. But remember our assistants are highest in the Big East supposedly. I mean they were when Dunlap was here

I'm pretty sure he never got over Looie telling him he wasn't good enough to play here. Even though Looie personally made the call to Providence on his behalf, Donovan bad mouthed Looie for years afterward.

Never heard that before. Obviously it was before my time. I thought Billy had some family ties or something to the SJU Board or something.

 

[mjmaherjr]

Lavin [..]has failed to sign anyone even remotely equal to Burrell and Evans to shore up the middle.

Really? That's your point of comparison?
I would love a 7footer with skill, as well, but they don't grow on trees. We rarely ever signed 6'8 athletic guys with skill before, we left that up to Cuse, UCONN, and Nova. Give me Harkless or Sampson every day over JB. And I liked Burrell.

Evans was no better than Gift. Get over it. The roster may be flawed, but not in the way you are suggesting.

Evans averaged 10 ppg and 7 boards as a soph. After the Duke game do you really think Lavin thought Gift was better than Evans? If so you're nuts.

Amazing how you cannot remember that Evans didn't box out once in his entire times here, that he couldn't shoot worth a lick, was not a good man on man defender and roamed out of position in the zone, and that there has never been a more out of control Johnny tearing off on the break dribbling upcourt with his head down like a madman. Of course, Norm ignored these little deficiencies too. HE probably missed all these assignment sin football as well, and if he were that undisciplined on the gridiron is a good explanation as to why he played basketball.

Yeah, but he looked good in the Warmups.. Beastie, you forgot Sean's foul shooting..

Actually I didn't. I was waiting for a retort that Sean shot 50% from the field, therefore is a good shooter. I was then going to point out that he shot 50% from the FT line also. Thanks for pointing this out here. I just didn't want to fire all my bullets at once.

On the plus side, Sean seemed like a really great kid, a team oriented guy, and there wasn't a guy on that squad I would want protecting me more on the subway at 2 AM.

Please up my kharma. It's shameless I know, but I deserve better

I CLICKED YOU 22 TIMES WITH A + but, received a warning from the administrators that it could put your overall karma at risk..

I think that 22 worked in reverse because your karma went to -22

Thanks, mjmaher.. I'm not concerned about my karma currently. It will be good by February.. It's BEASTIE who is worried. Maybe his spelling, KHARMA, HAS CAUSED HIS RANKINGS TO SLIP BELOW HIS NORM.. er, STANDARD..

I gave you a +1 anyway