Mike Anderson - Former Coach

Here's where I am after last night's embarassment. I would rather go winless next year with a new coach (any new coach), provided they have some semblance of a plan moving ahead, than continue this 17-15 every season nonsense that is downright insulting to everybody involved. Even if that means we lose our entire current roster and our committed recruits. Start over and build it better, because if you're not going forward, you're going backwards, and this program as currently constituted is not going forward.

After Year 2 of CMA, I was excited about the potential of this program. Even after the mass exodus that off-season, CMA still had a lot of us convinced there was enough talent on this team to make a realistic NCAA Tournament appearance. His "best team yet" at SJU fell like a house of cards.

Then this year comes around, we lose Champ and Wheeler but add Curbelo and Jones. CMA says surely these guys will put us over the edge, this is now his "best team yet". To date, this season has been a grave disappointment. It's not that we don't have players, there is talent on this team, but the pieces don't fit together and the coach seems unable to make any type of in-game adjustments. It's so incredibly frustrating to watch a team that seems to get so little guidance from the man in charge.

I realize the season is not over yet, but there's no miracles happening here. We're going to miss post-season play again, with what will probably be a (barely) over .500 record.

It's time to move on and find somebody who will get this program moving in the right direction perpetually, even if it takes a couple years to get it going. We've been waiting 20+ years to be relevant again, what's a couple more?

Call Pitino first, make him turn us down and then go from there. I don't care if it's Jones or Grasso or whatever smaller college guy we might want to bring in here. Please, just bring us somebody who knows what they're doing.
 
NCJohnnie said:
I'm not one who thinks Cragg should be sweating about his job. Anderson hire didn't work out but there weren't realistic better options at the time.
Certainly fair to criticize the extension, but none of us know whether the buy out in that contract is enough to tie the administration's hands. In my view both Cragg & Shanley should be judged based on what they do about the coaching situation at the end of this year. It's clear we need a change or team will lose money from the program rather than injecting money through better performance as Shanley referenced in the Torch article.
Click to expand...
I respectfully disagree NCJ that there were not better options. It was a botched coaching search. The fact that they couldn't identify and interview better candidates, does not mean that better candidates did not exist. We'll never know if there were better options, but based on CMA's results, he clearly was not a good option.
 
bucketshardy said:
Gonna be a tough couple years ahead... can't say we aren't used to it after the last 20... I see it playing out two ways:
1. We retain CMA...watch him blunder through another season or two here...He has shown that he cannot compete against formidable competition in the BE, so i doubt the addition of Gardener and improvement of Storr helps any. Eventually get a new coach in two years
2. We let CMA go- pay whatever the buy-out is- with the limited budget- settle on a low-major coach or some high-level assistant. See exodus of players/de-commits and a 1st-year Mullin-esque season.

Hopefully I am surprised, but extremely tough for one's outlook to be optimistic with our Program's precedent.
Click to expand...
College basketball and football (and assuming other sports) is different today than it was several years ago. A team can make great leaps in a season with the right people in place.

I'm not sure we'll have endure a couple of horrible seasons with a new coaching staff in place. It all depends who we hire and who he brings in (his assistants and players) and able to retain.
 
Larry Wright said:
Updated coaches since Louie rankings
1. Jarvis
2. Lavin
3. Fran
4. Mahoney
5. Mullin
6. Norm
7. Anderson
Click to expand...

Nah

This is an "in-the-moment" list.

Anderson has yet to have a truly embarrassing out-of-conference loss like Mahoney losing the Lapchick, Norm losing to St. Francis on Louie night, Lav to Robert Morris, etc.

And he hasn't had the god-awful season like Norm's 9-18, 11-19, or Mullin's 8-24.

He's just been consistently mediocre, terrible in-conference, has not met expectations and really has only one defining win: Nova in 2021.

That puts him at 4 or 5 for me.

Not good. Not good. But not the worst.
 
Last edited:
MainMan said:
Nah

This is an "in-the-moment" list.

Anderson has yet to have a truly embarrassing out-of-conference loss like Mahoney losing the Lapchick, Norm losing to St. Francis on Louie night, Lav to Robert Morris, etc.

And he hasn't had the god-awful season like Norm's 9-18, 11-19, or Mullin's 8-24.

He's just been consistently mediocre, terrible in-conference, has not met expectations and really has really one defining win: Nova in 2021.

That puts him at 4 or 5 for me.

Not good. Not good. But not the worst.
Click to expand...
That's fair.
 
The difficulty with trying to make a list like this is that there are different value criteria that different people have. If it is simply who coached the best team, then it was Jarvis's elite eight team that was clearly our best post Lou product. However if you measured who was the best shepherd of the program then Jarvis would be dead last on my list. He essentially took a wrecking ball to the program by destroying local contacts, program oversite and integrity. If it it was just about recruiting then Fran brought in the great players for Jarvis' elite eight team, Mahoney brought in our two highest rated recruits ever (Felipe #1 and Zendon #3) in the same class. If it was about creating buzz and excitement than Steve Lavin was clearly at the top of that list. He also was a very effective recruiter, mostly with his initial first class. If it was about the legacy to the glory days then Mullin might be your guy. If it was about leaving the program better than you found it then Norm might be higher on the list then many here. If it were about finding underrecruited gems or putting together a good staff then Mike Anderson also might be higher on the list then many.

The problem with this is that all of these coaches, that have succeeded Lou, have not really gotten the job done. I remember that back when Lou was near retirement, the narrative was that the game had passed him by and St. John's would ascend under new leadership. Well that has proven to be totally wrong and the search for the person who will get us to ascend again will likely continue after the end of this season. Do I think Pitino is the answer? Like others on the list, of our last seven hires, he will check some of the boxes but will miss on others. I would agree that he can recruit (ala Fran), create Buzz (ala Lavin), be a really good X's and O's guy (like none of the above) but he will miss checking other boxes (youth, history of integrity, leaving programs better than he found them etc.).

As part of an aging fanbase (for transparency sake I am about to turn 66) I would love to see the team become more relevant sooner than later but would like some youth, passion, basketball acumen and humanity with our next hire. I will certainly not be on any hiring committees here, but am hoping that the school does not go for a quick fix because those things tend to not work out well.
 
Larry Wright said:
Just on results
And again was a kid but saw final 4 team and best and most fun St John’s team in my lifetime was Jarvis Elite 8
Click to expand...
Let me correct that for you. That was the Fran final 8 team coached by jarvii. jarvii was the most arrogant man I ever met, and his results, with his own recruits, prove otherwise. I remember one of his quotes: "We'll recruit players with character, not players who are characters." That worked out real well. :rolleyes:
 
This is correct. In addition, Mike Anderson has done a lot of winning and has a good record overall, including plenty of tourney appearances…just not here at SJU.

That isn’t an endorsement of Mike Anderson, but let’s face it, he is not nearly as bad as most of the coaches we have had. He’s a good man as well. That said, I think the game has passed his style by. Game has changed a bit and we also aren’t landing the types of scorers that are requisite for his style to work. Good man and solid coach. He’s certainly no Norm nor Mahoney, but he has done very mediocre here at sju and once again this season doesn’t look like we are sniffing the tourney.
MainMan said:
Nah

This is an "in-the-moment" list.

Anderson has yet to have a truly embarrassing out-of-conference loss like Mahoney losing the Lapchick, Norm losing to St. Francis on Louie night, Lav to Robert Morris, etc.

And he hasn't had the god-awful season like Norm's 9-18, 11-19, or Mullin's 8-24.

He's just been consistently mediocre, terrible in-conference, has not met expectations and really has only one defining win: Nova in 2021.

That puts him at 4 or 5 for me.

Not good. Not good. But not the worst
Click to expand...
 
My order is:

Lavin
Fran
Anderson
Mahoney
Mullin
Norm
Jarvis

Jarvis deserves to be dead last because he destroyed the program, had the suspension and forfeits and paid a player (and not even a good one), and started this consistent downward spiral. The Elite 8 team was, as noted, not his doing and I recall many of us saying at the time that that team basically coached itself. Anderson, while underperforming and mediocre (and deserving of not being retained) has been middling, which on this list puts him third (which is indeed sad). Looking at the overall list is sad since not one of these guys has been able to reclaim any semblance of the consistent winning ways of Louie. Fran would have probably been great here (if he didn't leave for a bigger job) had he been able to control himself.
 
Last edited:
redmanwest said:
My order is:

Lavin
Fran
Anderson
Mahoney
Mullin
Norm
Jarvis

Jarvis deserves to be dead last because he destroyed the program, had the suspension and forfeits and paid a player (and not even a good one), and started this consistent downward spiral. The Elite 8 team was, as noted, not his doing and I recall many of us saying at the time that that team basically coached itself. Anderson, while underperforming and mediocre (and deserving of not being retained) has been middling, which on this list puts him third (which is indeed sad). Looking at the overall list is sad since not one of these guys has been able to reclaim any semblance of the consistent winning ways of Louie. Fran would have probably been great here (if he didn't leave for a bigger job) had he been able to control himself.
Click to expand...
I applaud anyone who puts Jarvis last on this list, that is where he belongs. I would put Fran as #1 ahead of Lavin, and Mullin ahead of Mahoney. No one had a better starting point than Mahoney and did less with it. Many of these coaches had lousy starting points (Norm. Lavin, Mullin & Anderson) and should be evaluated accordingly.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top