Next Coach?
- Thread starter Knight
- Start date
There have been posts here of Lavin's growth physically and his much disapproved UA zips to hide an expanded gut. My question, particularly as someone who disliked what Lavin did with his UCLA abundance of talent (teams that always seemed less than the sum of their parts) is whether any of the knowledgeable basketball people on this board are seeing evidence of growth in coaching acumen in Lavin?
beast of the east
Active member
He looks very good to most people when we win, and looks very bad when we lose. When we win, Whitesell gets credit for being animated on the sidelines and involved. When we lose, Lavin gets criticized for totally ignoring Whitesell during games. When we win, no one notices Keady and his yellow pad, taking notes. When we lose, he's rotting dead wood on the sidelines.
Winning fixes everything, always has. Like a snort of cocaine, the high vanishes under the stink of a loss. Hold on. It's a long season - more very nice wins, and more tough losses.
upstate redman
Member
Anyone but this clown
tom in salem
Well-known member
outrebounded by 13 today.
outrebounded 85-50 in the previous 2 games.
That's gonna continue all season.
Blue horseshoe loves Anacott steel.
Blue horseshoe says sell dook tickets.
outrebounded 85-50 in the previous 2 games.
That's gonna continue all season.
Blue horseshoe loves Anacott steel.
Blue horseshoe says sell dook tickets.
How about Steve Massielo? ;-)
Well that's the logical thing to do. I personally don't believe we can make the tournament after what I saw today but maybe it is just the emotion talking. It is smart to wait and see what happens and not get too high or too low after a win or loss. We all fall victim to it. Lotta season left.
beast of the east
Active member
You do know the game came down to the very last possession of the game, don't you?
Still don't see it happening. Fact of the matter is St. John's is caught between a rock and a hard place. If they renew Lavin, he'll probably put together a nice recruiting class. The downside is we will continue to see his deficiencies year in and year out.
If they fire Lavin, any current or prospective recruits are gone. The new coach will be taking over a roster void of talent (outside of Obekpa and Jordan who will most likely declare) and will have the difficult task of putting together a 5 or 6 man class with basically scraps. Reminds me of when Norm signed Eugene Lawrence, Cedric Jackson, and Dexter Gray immediately and we soon found out they weren't Big East caliber talent. Realistically speaking, they'll be the worst team in the conference in 2015-'16. The coach will need to hit the ground running and land a stellar class for 2016-'17, but they'll be all freshmen and most likely won't be ready for this level of competition. Which basically means we as fans won't be able to watch good competent basketball until earliest 2017-'18.
In no way am I arguing that Lavin be given a lifetime extension, but the fact of the matter is he's probably our best option going forward at this point. Sure, we know his limitations and the team is going to lose winnable games (such as today). But at least we know he'll keep us in the hunt, at least in the short term.
beast of the east
Active member
I wasn't claiming a moral victory, and had posted early that I felt this was a must win game. Do you honestly believe that except for the relatively small group that has been calling for a change win or lose, that had we hit a 3 on that last possession and won there would be little of this talk right now?
Yes there would be a lot less talk of this, and rightfully so. At that point, we'd be 1 game under .500 rather than 3. It didn't happen and we didn't come through when we needed to. This isn't an isolated incident either... just as we didn't complete the comeback against Seton Hall. Just as we didn't complete the comeback against Butler. Just as we didn't upset Nova despite playing close most the game. Tournament teams do not start conference play 1-4 and they generally don't lose to teams that will finish with RPIs around 200. 2-3 is a hell of a lot better than 1-4 with a loss to DePaul.
Sports in a way are illogical. They usually come down to one play or maybe a bad call. That's all irrelevant when you lose, which SJU has 4 out of 5 times now. A loss is a loss a win is a win. Period. This is the worst start anyone could have imagined.