[quote="newsman13" post=352000][quote="Logen" post=351993][quote="SJUFAN2" post=351976][quote="Logen" post=351974][quote="SJUFAN2" post=351973][quote="Andrew" post=351961]
For some reason we had attendance that we haven’t seen in years last season. I guess Mullin had nothing to do with that.....[/quote]
He definitely deserves some credit for the good attendance figures for most of this past season. I applaud him for doing a solid job on that front. His numbers last year are very much in line with what we expect, and what we had in Lavin's last season.
Tell me though, who do you want to assign the blame to for the not so rosy attendance figures in his first 3 seasons after inheriting a team that went to the NCAA tournament?[/quote]
I have no problem with you bashing Mullin, I took Lavin to the cleaners many times and the fact is Mullin was not a good coach. I understand his personal problems but frankly, if they affected his ability to do the job he was paid to do he should have resigned for those personal reasons. Having said that, what does what the team did the preceding year have to do with Mullin's first year since none of the members of that NCAA team were available to him? I guess one could argue Obepka but even that is a huge stretch. There is enough to criticize him legitimately without distorting what he inherited.[/quote]
I'm not bashing Mullin. I'm just pointing out to those who can't, or won't see it, that the "emperor had no clothes". If people stop spinning him as something he wasn't as a coach, I'll stop calling them out on their BS...fair?
And you have a very fair point. If someone had mentioned that he'd taken over a team that had lost nearly all of its players then I'd have agreed with that. He did. That's why I really don't hold his first year against him, other than it was foreshadowing of things to come.
My argument was against the claim that he took over a program "in the toilet." He didn't. You would think a guy with his name recognition, player work ethic, iconic local stature, hoops knowledge, and with two ELITE college recruiters on his staff taking over a team that had just been to the NCAA tournament would be a recipe for SUCCESS. Yet it wasn't. It was actually a pretty dismal failure.
You know why I think that it failed, but perhaps I'm wrong. Tell me why you think that scenario above flopped the way it did.[/quote]
Frankly, not sure of your point, seems to me you are calling out BS with BS. You still insist on listing the previous NCAA tournament appearance as relevant and to me that is complete BS. Me, I think Mullin failed simply because he wasn’t a coach. He approached the job as what he was since retirement, an administrator. That role became easier to fall back on once his personal issues surfaced.As for your other points, we disagree on one for sure, Rohressen, IMO, was never an elite recruiter, he was a bag man. Biggest mistake we made was hiring him.[/quote]
I don't know about slice. Whatever. You're right on one point. The last NCAA appearance was relevant considering how far we came. Mullin "failed", not because he wasn't a coach...but because the mediocre standards set by our historic past was way too much to overcome. No one has done it since the Frank McGuire years. That was my point in a previous thread where you thought I was bashing Anderson. St John's isn't Duke, NC or any other elite program. Our DNA says we're mid major hiding in a major conference. When Fran/Jarvis/Lavin and Mullin got here...we were under the delusion we could become big time. It never happened. All we're left with is coaches to bash...until the next one comes along.[/quote]
Maybe we are due for a change? Anderson isn’t like some of the other guys we have hired. He’s got a proven track record, has hired a good staff and maybe things are turning for us. We shall see but he looks overall like a much better candidate than many of our prior coaches.