Boom goes the dynamite.
Mike Anderson
- Thread starter paultzman
- Start date
He doesn't have misspellings and syntax errors.
I'll slightly piggy back your post, Panther.... For the posters who claim others are "making excuses" for the staff; who are the posters making excuses? Honestly, if there are any posters, then there's an extremely minute group.
I think y'all (the posters who think others are making excuses) are seeing ghosts and boxing shadows on this one.
I'll guess Panther is talking about me Dink, since I keep saying "no more excuses for a slow start next season", and I've been pretty vocal about members of our fan base who I've perceived as having made excuses for our lack of success on the recruiting trail over the first 3 seasons of CMA' tenure. Now, whether our uptick in recruiting is a result of hiring Shoes, the NIL, other factors or a combination of factors(most likely), the one thing I do know is that it's not a result of us having new facilities, NYC talent improving, kids all of a sudden finding NYC as the place to be, MSG suddenly regaining its allure of bygone years and/or any of the other "excuses" some of our fans made for why CMA and the staff was not recruiting at nearly as high a level as any of our prior coaches except maybe Norm. Yeah, I find all those reasons as lame "excuses", espcially now that it's obvious they weren't a significant factor.
As far as recruiting goes , CMA came from Arkansas and Missouri , 2 large State Schools where getting top recruits might have been much easier . Coming to St John’s with a 20 plus years of doldrums has to be a Awakening for Mike . Nevertheless , the success of St Peter’s last year in the NCAA with 3 Wins as a Cinderella sets a bar that we have to attain . Holloway did it with kids that top 50 programs weren’t interested in . With this upcoming season , getting a NCAA bid should be the minimum standard and a first round Win would be icing on the cake . The roster has been improved with Curbelo, Jones , Storr plus the returning players . The time has come to achieve the Goals . The BE will be tough as always but., the time is here . No more explanations .
Johnny Rapper
Well-known member
OR EXCUSES
Monte my friend, some on here have clearly stated that I have made "excuses" for our staff. You were not one of them. If you go through my posts, I have never mentioned any of the "excuses" that you list. As I told a couple of people at Novita's the other night, it is unrealistic to think that St Johns has the money to do a full scale upgrade of Carnesecca Arena at this time. However, if we start winning, the narrative around our program will change and we should be able to play all of our Conference games at Madison Square Garden and draw well.
As far as recruiting is concerned, it takes time to establish relationships and trust. Lavin and Mullin were aberrations. Lavin had that UCLA background and name recognition because of television. Mullin was the returning hero.
After three years, Coach Anderson and staff have established that they are good at player development, Julian, Posh, Williams, Earlington, and Roberts all got better under their tutelage. Let's not forget Aaron Wheeler who made tremendous strides under this staff. They have gained the respect of AAU and high school coaches.
While it is not often mentioned, one of the most important components of recruiting are the current players. Soriano and Pinzon were instrumental in recruiting Jones and Curebelo. Guess those posters stating that Coach had lost control of the team and all the players were transferring were just a little mistaken. To understand recruiting, you have to actually be involved in the process. There are no absolutes in recruiting.
Wishing everyone a nice summer. ';
I get what you're saying, but what is your perspective on what happened last off season with the mass exodus? Along with being unable to compete in the NIT tournament because the team bailed on coach? I gave the coach a pass because the majority were not kids he recruited, but curious how you would classify all of that.
First of all, Caraher left because he was not playing. Williams, who I really liked, left because he wanted a featured role, and it was not happening at St Johns. Earlington also left because he wanted a more prominent role. Roberts was a little above his level and Manhattan is a good fit for him. Moore was talented, but a head case. Cole did not adapt to Big East level play. Sometimes when you are trying hard to put the pieces of a team together, they don't always fit.
Johnny Rapper
Well-known member
In terms of the slow start excuse, which was certainly an excuse as Anderson said so in so many words, citing that the team would be clicking at some point later in the season. Now that the majority of the team is in place that should no longer be the case.
The funny thing about excuses is they all start out as reasons until they are used to excuse failure. St Johns was not the only team to suffer losses during this season or any other season. Several teams lost key players to illness or injury and they were not as highly rated as St Johns nor were they said to have the depth of St. John’s. Seton Hall, Nova, and others lost key players but carried on.
If one were to look at the season objectively, it was not the loss of players they caused a less then successful season, there were other issues like poor outside shooting, poor defense against the three and poor half court defense in general. And let’s not forget the many Helter skelter full court presses that led to easy baskets or open threes down the other end of the court. If you want to blame the lack of talented offensive players for poor shooting that’s one thing but for the past two seasons, statistically the defense has been suspect at best. Hopefully that will be corrected as well but there is certainly work to be done on the part of the players and coaches in that regard.
As other posters have pointed out, the league is recruiting strongly so not only is a good recruited class (which seems to be materializing) imperative but putting a strong defensive unit on the court as well.
But as Panther has said, it’s time to look ahead, not behind as the staff has certainly put a humongous effort into their off season recruiting, player conditioning, and player development that as we all hope may yield some positive results in seasons to come.
SJUDave
Well-known member
Great response, and can very well be said similarly about last year's roster
Agreed Panther, I did mean to also mention that players who are happy are the best recruiting tool we could have. Many on last year's team had one foot out the door before the season ended. So, of course, they were not looking to recruit other players. Conversely, with most of this past year's team returning, and with those who left either graduating or moving on to pro careers, there was undoubtedly much more recruiting of new players by the kids on this past season's team.
Looking where we stand now Panther I gotta say everything you have said all along is correct and count me in as one of the impatient ones but you have always kept me grounded
Moore was the biggest loss, but if he was as difficult as everyone has said or speculated (and as his track record indicates), nothing you can do there. Good riddance.
Of the rest, and no knocking any of those kids, the only ones that even arguably or potentially hurt the roster were Williams and Earlington. Williams went to a lower conference, seemed to stay healthier, and yet had a worse season. I recall conference tourney championship season watching his team play in one of those mid-major matchups and the announcers quoting his coach as saying that Greg's season was an enigma. Personally I think he was well-suited for Anderson's system and would have done well playing lesser minutes in the two-guard role because of his shooting ability and defensive ability. But he wanted to go home for a potentially more prominent role -- nothing you can do about that. And Earlington wasn't going to play here like he did last season. He was valuable for us off the bench as a small ball big that could stretch the floor with his shooting but battle well enough against bigs in the interior.
All those kids essentially transferred down a level, which should tell you something.
very fair but in my opinion had they all come back the sum of the parts was way better than the parts and was better than last years team but that's just my opinion
me thinks you know a coach and players and future player on that team recruiting for us now
