Mike Anderson - Former Coach

The only way we get an elite coach right now is because they need to rehab their image or it’s an older coach kind of on the way out. So that’s where Pitino comes in. I would also strongly consider Beard. He can come in and admit his mistake and you can definitely sell it as a 2nd chance rehab. He would win and after a year nobody would care about his past mistakes.

If those don’t happen you have to get a good mid major coach who has been successful. The last time we went that route was Fran and it was working. Is that a lock? No but it has worked for Rutgers. They grabbed Pikiell, they gave him time and now they are seeing success. Let’s be reasonable. If you want more than that then you are still living in 1985.
 
NYC was such a fertile base of high school recruits , many who wanted to play at SJU ,that prior to hiring Lavin SJU promoted assistants or local mid major coaches. For many years that strategy worked out. The feeling was anyone could win at SJU and the job was a jewel that many coaches wanted.
Frank McGuire and Looie are two good examples. There was no need to open the pocketbook. Lavin changed that after about a dozen bad years and brought SJU into the modern era of college basketball which was so different then what Looie faced. Getting the top recruits was much harder.

Now after getting away with under paying Lapchick, McGuire and Looie things have changed to they will be paying an unsuccessful coach a buyout to leave.
 
Amaseinyourface said:
Assistants are only as good as the coach they are working for. Not the other way around. The connections help, the foot in the door helps, but it all comes down to the head coach. Take the blue blood out of it, Slice with Cal closing is going to be a lot more successful than Slice with Mullin closing, no matter the school.

Same goes for the coaching aspect. AC could have all the right suggestions, ideas, and drills. If the HC doesn’t use those and implement them as their own, the message will get lost to the kids. I don’t look at our failures this year and assume our AC’s are clueless. And im not surprised by Paultz mention that their suggestions are getting shut out.

Good assistant coaches are very important, but no where near as important as a good head coach. A good coach can win with bad assistants. Great assistant with a bad coach, still gonna be a bad team.
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Taking the blue blood out of it is like taking the pisco out of a pisco sour. There were between 110 and 120 ESPN 5 star recruits from 2019 to 2023. Four signed with the Big East, with 3 of those going to Nova and 1 to U Conn for the 23-24 season. Some of course went pro. The 5 stars just aren't in play for most Big East schools. There are plenty of high level and successful coaches in the Big East, past or present, that never signed a 5 star. I understand and accept that. IDK what kind of a closer Mullin was. But I doubt it mattered much regarding the 5 stars.

For those with long memories, go back to the 70s. How many high school players did St. John's sign that were top 25 in their class, the general cut off point needed to receive a 5 star rating? Or those that played in what was once called the Dapper Dan Classic., which has been re-named. Mel Davis perhaps. Artest and Mullin? Felipe Lopez for sure. Maybe Omar Cook. Maybe I missed a few. Thar's over 50 years, many under a basketball hall of famer as head coach.
 
Ray Morgan said:
Taking the blue blood out of it is like taking the pisco out of a pisco sour. There were between 110 and 120 ESPN 5 star recruits from 2019 to 2023. Four signed with the Big East, with 3 of those going to Nova and 1 to U Conn for the 23-24 season. Some of course went pro. The 5 stars just aren't in play for most Big East schools. There are plenty of high level and successful coaches in the Big East, past or present, that never signed a 5 star. I understand and accept that. IDK what kind of a closer Mullin was. But I doubt it mattered much regarding the 5 stars.

For those with long memories, go back to the 70s. How many high school players did St. John's sign that were top 25 in their class, the general cut off point needed to receive a 5 star rating? Or those that played in what was once called the Dapper Dan Classic., which has been re-named. Mel Davis perhaps. Artest and Mullin? Felipe Lopez for sure. Maybe Omar Cook. Maybe I missed a few. Thar's over 50 years, many under a basketball hall of famer as head coach.
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I agree with everything you said. Was responding more about the slice comparison. Think he could have had plenty of success as a recruiter as sju with right coach. Not UK level but winning level.
 
Ray Morgan said:
Taking the blue blood out of it is like taking the pisco out of a pisco sour. There were between 110 and 120 ESPN 5 star recruits from 2019 to 2023. Four signed with the Big East, with 3 of those going to Nova and 1 to U Conn for the 23-24 season. Some of course went pro. The 5 stars just aren't in play for most Big East schools. There are plenty of high level and successful coaches in the Big East, past or present, that never signed a 5 star. I understand and accept that. IDK what kind of a closer Mullin was. But I doubt it mattered much regarding the 5 stars.

For those with long memories, go back to the 70s. How many high school players did St. John's sign that were top 25 in their class, the general cut off point needed to receive a 5 star rating? Or those that played in what was once called the Dapper Dan Classic., which has been re-named. Mel Davis perhaps. Artest and Mullin? Felipe Lopez for sure. Maybe Omar Cook. Maybe I missed a few. Thar's over 50 years, many under a basketball hall of famer as head coach.
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Zendon Hamilton, Malik Sealy and there were others
 
ghostzapper said:
Look at our previous hiring methodology:
1) Hot Assistant: Mahoney (SJU connections) and Norm (from Queens)
2) Up and coming mid major: Fran
3) Available major coach with some past success: CMA, Lavin
4) No Previous coaching experience but a high profile NBA pedigree and local hero: Mullin
5) Lower level power conference coach with a good track record: Jarvis

Also we could follow other methods:
NBA coaches: Former Head coaches: Like Mark Jackson type or high level assistants, like Patrick Ewing.
You could hire an X's and O's guru like a Mike Dunlap

None of these approaches are guaranteed to work but finding someone on the way up makes more sense to me than getting someone on the way down. I said in another thread that finding a solid mid-major Coach on the way up like Providence did when they hired Cooley from Fairfield in 2011 or Rutgers did with Pikiell from Stonybrook in 2016 would be a good model to follow.
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You also won't likely have to break the bank to get someone like that. Now, just need to identify the right candidates, and hire the best out of that group. Easier said then done.
 
monte said:
You also won't likely have to break the bank to get someone like that. Now, just need to identify the right candidates, and hire the best out of that group. Easier said then done.
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You are right it is way easier said than done. It is definitely a hit and miss process. For example Villanova has gone the upcoming mid major route for their last three hires. Steve Lappas (Manhattan) was a mixed bag, Jay Wright (Hofstra) was a huge home run and Kyle Neptune (Fordham) is too early in his tenure to judge fully. At Providence, Cooley (Fairfield) has been very successful, but Tim Welsh (Iona) did not work out nearly as well. Seton Hall has gone the mid major route three times in a row. Shaheen Holloway (St. Peter's) is doing well in his first season, Kevin Willard (Iona) did quite well and Bobby Gonzalez (Manhattan) turned out to be a bad hire because of his volatile persona. Rutgers seems to have made a great hire with Pikiell, but had been struggling for thirty years with seven largely ineffective coaches prior to hiring him.

To make the right choice you have to be a good judge of character and talent, have a good idea of what you actually need in a hire to succeed and then give that hire the tools to be successful. I am not sure that the powers that be at Villanova imagined that Jay Wright would turn out to be the Home Run that he was. Some of the luck factor has to do as much with timing as anything else. The right person, for the right job at the right time. The stars must align for this to happen. Like Rutgers, it has been a long time between successful hires for us. Hopefully the stars will align for us. If they do it will be about time.
 
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Ray Morgan said:
For those with long memories, go back to the 70s. How many high school players did St. John's sign that were top 25 in their class, the general cut off point needed to receive a 5 star rating? Or those that played in what was once called the Dapper Dan Classic., which has been re-named. Mel Davis perhaps. Artest and Mullin? Felipe Lopez for sure. Maybe Omar Cook. Maybe I missed a few. Thar's over 50 years, many under a basketball hall of famer as head coach.
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Zendon was a top 10 recruit too. But St Johns, and most non blue bloods, sweet spot/benchmark has usually been 25-75. Exceptions obviously for schoolls getting local kids to stay home or playing the game better with graft pre NLI and now playing NLI.
 
otis said:
My understanding is that is the approximate sum our beloved St. John’s is looking at as a buyout.

When I mentioned the “buy out” issue 3 weeks ago posters on this site doubted its importance, but a buyout provision is customary in the contracts of D1 head coaches. Many posters trivialized the $7.5M amount St. John’s may have to pay. $7.5M or $8M is a very- very heavy life for St. John’s.

News reports indicated that Pittsburgh’s Jeff Capel would have been terminated after last season but for the $11M buyout on his contract. The good news for Pittsburgh is that Capel, for the first time in 5 seasons, has a nice 17-7/ 9-3 record this season.

if CMA returns next season you should expect a shake up in his staff.
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Shake up in is staff is not going to help if he does not listen to them! Macon and Shoes have been successful in the past. Tend to believe they are not the problem.
 
jackfro said:
Shake up in is staff is not going to help if he does not listen to them! Macon and Shoes have been successful in the past. Tend to believe they are not the problem.
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Van and Shoes do not make up the entire staff.
 
NCJohnnie said:
Monte there are a couple of other possible options although I suspect you wouldn't like them:
D) hire a former coach from a Power 5 conference assuming they'd be interested which is a big assumption (both Mark Turgeon and Chris Mack have been mentioned in that regard);
E) hire a very well regarded assistant from a Power 5 conference (Kansas State hit paydirt with its hire of Jerome Tang a longtime member of the Baylor staff).
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I don't personally want a retread that has been fired from his last job, or anyone with no coaching experience. IMO anyone with no coaching experience is the riskiest of all hires. But that's just me.
 
austour said:
Zendon was a top 10 recruit too. But St Johns, and most non blue bloods, sweet spot/benchmark has usually been 25-75. Exceptions obviously for schoolls getting local kids to stay home or playing the game better with graft pre NLI and now playing NLI.
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The problem St. John's has is that competition for top recruits is way hotter than it was many years ago. In the tri state area there was Syracuse, but U. Conn wasn't a problem until Calhoun elevated the program, and Seton Hall was not at our level. Except for the Sellers years, Rutgers wasn't a concern either. Now, there is so much money to make for colleges with successful programs. Not that St. John's fans know what's that like to experience.
 
Ray Morgan said:
The problem St. John's has is that competition for top recruits is way hotter than it was many years ago. In the tri state area there was Syracuse, but U. Conn wasn't a problem until Calhoun elevated the program, and Seton Hall was not at our level. Except for the Sellers years, Rutgers wasn't a concern either. Now, there is so much money to make for colleges with successful programs. Not that St. John's fans know what's that like to experience.
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No doubt about that. Kids were not as likely to go to prep, be amenable to moving far away from home, plus there was a higher concentration of top talent in the tri-state area back in the day. Basketball was a national game but there were clearly markets with high concentrations of talent moreso back in the day.
 
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