[quote="Rob" post=399200][quote="Beast of the East" post=399166][quote="otis" post=399128]St. John's basketball is less of a "mom and pop" show with The Honorables Mike Cragg and CMA on board.[/quote]
They are both by all means exceptional individuals to be leading SJU going forward. It does not change the fact that they are hampered by the lack of financial resources to upgrade facilities. They both are aware that winning first may improve the financial outlook, but not change the fact that delays in upgrading facilities impede our ability to attract and retain top notch talent. We are on the right path though.[/quote]
Legitimate question on this, since I don't know the answer (perhaps Beast or another informed poster can respond).
We always discuss our shortcomings in facilities. A few friends of mine are Seton Hall boosters. They too are always complaining about their facilities and believe it has made Willard's recruiting challenging, especially early before they had any success, but even now coming off their best season in like 20 years. And they tell me our practice facilities are 1000 times better than the Hall's. Relatedly, Lavin and to some extent Mullin were able to secure 4 or even 5 star kids, despite our facilities. What drove that success if the lack of top notch facilities is such an impediment? Was it that Lavin was simply such a skilled recruiter he could "paper" over that and/or that Mullin was fortunate with Ponds always wanting to stay home and some of the other 4/5 star kids we landed (Heron, Simon, etc) coming via the transfer route in which facilities may not be nearly as big of a deal for a kid that has seen a Power 5 school and decided the grass is greener?[/quote]
Hi Rob,
It's a great question, so let me take a swipe at it. I think the most important thing is to have a winning program that gives our players the best chance to showcase their talents to a world wide audience - the NCAA tournament. If you have a top 5 program, our facilities can be at Jamacia high school and it wouldn't hurt too badly. However, if you want to be a top program and are not, the lack of top facilities hurt our chances to attract top recruits.
Yes, Lavin had success recruiting but if you recall, it wasn't sustained, and it wasn't enough. Recruiting at St. John's always seems to be pushing a ball uphill. It's funny, though. Our nearby competitors for students - Hofstra, Adelphi, Molloy, each further from NYC than SJU - all promote and attract students from out of state because of proximity and access to Manhattan. So, for students at least, that's a big plus.
Our practice facilities are first class, and that's also a plus. However, when I toured the basement of Carnesecca Arena last summer, NOTHING had changed over forty years except EVERYTHING was 40 years older. It is a decrepit dungeon. The weight room where athletes work out is down there, and while they were in process of upgrading it, just imagine a recruit walking into a school where athletic exercise facilities rival Equinox, above ground with beautiful surroundings, state of the art equipment and awesome aesthetics. Athletic department offices need to be upgraded seriously as well, and hopefully the Athletic department will unveil a master plan for supporters to get behind.
To your point, I've been told that Cameron is an aged, decrepit stadium, with even less space between bleacher seats than CA. For now, fans cram in shoulder to shoulder and consider themselves the lucky ones who got tickets. After K, we will see if they make a major investment there, and they probably will have to.
The short answer is, Yes, you can build a winning program without first class facilities, but the uphill push is much steeper with a much lower chance of long term success. VIllanova very smartly allocated a ton of money towards upgraded athletic facilities, but importantly, alumni ponied up BEFORE two national championships, with money donated for an overhaul to the Pavillion ($22 million by Finneran in 2014). But to be fair, Jay Wright had already established VIllanova as the class of the league well before then.
The bottom line is that programs can get establish moderate success, or lightning in a bottle intermittent success without first rate facilities. But to build a sustainable, winning program, where recruits coming here see facilities that are as good as anyone's, will take a considerable investment. The sooner we do that, the faster we can build a sustainable, consistent winner.
