[quote="RedStormNC" post=345783][quote="MarkRedman" post=345770]Chris is St John's. He is the best player that ever came through the program and has represented us with grace, dignity and class throughout his career. While his short lived coaching career was not as successful as everyone would have liked it to have been, he was a victim of circumstance. He took over a team that was totally void of talent. As a novice coach, he should have been given more help, support and direction. But there was nobody around to do so. Regardless, our win total improved each year and he left the program in far better shape than when he took over.
I hope that Chris remains connected to St John's. Much like Looie, he is an ambassador for our program and school. Thanks for providing us with so many wonderful memories that all of us will always cherish. Chris is a St John's legend.[/quote]
Agree with much of what you said, but in no way was Mullin a victim of circumstance. Regardless of his lack of coaching experience, he knew what he was getting into, created the staff, responsible for the players in/out etc. As an "NBA executive" he should have been saavy enough to know change should have been made quickly. Even if not, he should have had enough contacts to give him the feedback all of us saw here. Not having an AD shouldn't be a cover.
Not trying to dump on him, as I love him as a player like everyone else, but his tenure as a coach should be looked at in the same light as Mahoney, Roberts or anyone else that didn't achieve as much as we hoped.[/quote]. For not trying to dump on Mullin , you did a pretty good job . A bit harsh in my opinion but , your opinion is equally valid as mine . . I think few of us fans realized how bare the Cupboard was that Mullin inherited from Lavin . It’s too bad Steve didn’t have to endure that 1-17 BE Season . The Hiring/Firing of Rohrseen is probably better known to others as to the details but , it unquestionably helped torpedo the Program . And , for those who missed it , Rohrseen was highly applauded by nearly every poster when he was hired . Barry never did the job he was tasked with, for whatever reasons . The other point about St John’s recruiting that gets overlooked is that , excepting the first Lavin Recruiting class of DLO, Harkless, Pointer, etc , we really haven’t had the stud HS recruit or even the 4 star kid come here , with the exception of Ponds . Steve missed on a lot of local
Kids , especially those who went to Seton Hall, I.e. Delgado, Rodriguez , etc . The lack of getting that kind of Recruit goes back to the Roberts era and is possibly more a reflection of 20 years of bad basketball that is more attributable to the damaged Brand that our School has become than the inability of any 1 Coach . As time showed , Rysheed Jordan and Chris Obepka proved to be less than expected and caused problems in the way they exited our program . Not replacing Rohrseen hurt us immensely as his role was to be Primary Recruiter . Blaming Mullin for not getting another AC looks to be more the blame of School Administrators and not Chris .,The folly of getting Rejected by all the candidates , prior to Anderson’s hire , seems to offer the proof that all blame was not on Chris . What is missing too,and bears mention is that Mullin’s core Players all seemed to love playing for him . The kids who transferred out is par for the Course in college BB today and really should not be a harsh criticism . Kids today have big ME aspirations and if they don’t get the role they want , they transfer . Forgotten too easily was the Lovett Defection last year and the loss of a high quality PG . Easily forgotten under Mullin was the 2 Wins last year vs Duke and Villanova and again the Nova Win this year and 2 of 3 vs Marquette . More a factor here and again , my opinion , is that with the personal and family issues that Mullin was dealing with , impacted his time and desire to the Program . Lastly , and this fact is often ignored , is the reality that this Year’s Team was just not as talented as our fans thought they were. I don’t want to get into the critiques of Player Performance but , suffice it to say , I think Mullin got as much from his players as they were capable of giving. Which as we know should have been a 9-9 BE Season . Coaching College BB is a difficult occupation . Witness our new Coach , Mike Anderson , being fired from Arkansas just a few weeks ago , after 2 Decades at Arkansas as a AC and Head Coach . And , he had a overall winning record but , didn’t win enough against Kentucky , Auburn , Alabama, LSU, Etc in a tough Conference . So , let Chris Mullin leave with good wishes and respect that he has earned time and again as a Player and Coach .