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Slice couldn't recruit at St.John's either! Maybe St. John's is looking for somebody that has more than one year's experience running a college basketball practice and who actually designed defensive plays.
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The quiet opinion of many area coaches is that NR had no clue from the sidelines and never did, going all the way back to his being a freshman coach at Molloy. Not the same deal with Pecora, who is definitely a respected bench coach.
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Yet leave it to St. John's to hire this "home run" of a coach who had no clue all the way back to Queens College. We followed him with another "home run" with a guy that had not coached in 6 years and was also clueless from the sidelines followed by a legendary player who had not coached a DAY in his life. Meanwhile over at Xavier or Butler they almost always follow a home run with another home run. Heck, we can't even get the hiring of an Athletic Director done right! At the rate we are going, Tom Pecora may be the most qualified coach we have hired in 12 years.
As for Mitch Richmond, I am not sure he wants the 24 hour, 365 day a year gig at St. John's given his total absence from NYC all summer.
Yet leave it to St. John's to hire this "home run" of a coach who had no clue all the way back to Queens College. We followed him with another "home run" with a guy that had not coached in 6 years and was also clueless from the sidelines followed by a legendary player who had not coached a DAY in his life. Meanwhile over at Xavier or Butler they almost always follow a home run with another home run. Heck, we can't even get the hiring of an Athletic Director done right! At the rate we are going, Tom Pecora may be the most qualified coach we have hired in 12 years.
As for Mitch Richmond, I am not sure he wants the 24 hour, 365 day a year gig at St. John's given his total absence from NYC all summer.
Would like to see a new assistant coach with a fire in the belly, rather than a guy doing his friend a favor.
True it won't make or break but could certainly help a great deal. Richmond from a recruiting and practice perspective , as the guy has a great pedigree , while Pecora can certainly help out in practice and in games. He has a ton of experience. Both can be valuable pieces of our expanding staff.
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Starting the Mullin bashing early? Mullins??
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You may be right since in reality our 3rd assistant was Barry Rohrssen so it may be a "wash" but since the athletic department and the basketball budget geniuses are still trying to accrue savings by not hiring an athletic director they likely will take their time and by the time Pecora joins the staff the preseason practices will be over. Then again it may not happen at all since the Maven is firing off emails to anyone who would listen that a gigolo and skirt chaser doesn't belong anywhere near virginal coeds and that he will no longer support St. John's. Come to think of it, that may make the Pecora hire much sooner than expected.
I can see the case for hiring Tom Pecora in some capacity. May not agree with it, but can see the case especially given the general inexperience of our current staff.
Game strategy would not be a part of that case. Have watched many Pecora teams play, especially the last 5 years, and he is one of the worst tacticians I have ever seen at the collegiate level. It's not like his performance at Fordham was in a middling range where it can be discarded or justified. He was 62 games under .500 in 5 seasons and was 13-69 (.159) in A-10 play. That's another level of underperformance.
But that macro-look isn't what is important from an SJU evaluation perspective. He inherited a very difficult situation, so being conservative you can give him the first 3 years at Fordham. In the last 2, at which point he had actually done quite well to elevate the overall talent level on the roster (clearly a defined strength over his career), he had back to back 10-21 seasons and was 2-14/4-14 in conference. Especially in that final season, that team underperformed relative to the talent on the roster, which suggests potential coaching down and not up, the latter of which would be all I could potentially see SJU being interested in from a value-add perspective to the staff at this time.
Further to this point and damaging to Pecora as a game coach was Neubauer arriving and, with what could fairly be called a similar team (minus Villanova-bound Eric Paschall, plus quality guard Chartouny and more overall seniority/experience), and used to coaching up at Eastern Kentucky, goes 17-14/8-11 in Year 1. While Neubauer undoubtedly benefitted from talent Pecora recruited getting to upperclassmen levels, it is likely not a coincidence that he effectively had twice as much success in Year 1 as Pecora had in any of his 5 years. Results are results and there weren't a lot of variables there.
Inexperience acknowledged, at this juncture I don't think we need another old name that's been mentioned around this program forever and that has most recently been associated with significant underperformance. If we had brought him in initially to help guide the intricacies and general management of a 365 day D1 operation, and to assist in getting the recruiting piece off the ground, that would have been one thing.
But it's a new/fresh program now, the recruiting has been astonishing, and given that we just moved on from Slice I'm not sure what Pecora would really bring, especially in a role that isn't likely to move the needle much in the first place. Would rather not recycle another old name and just let Matt A. and St. Jean keep running this thing young and hungry with the pedigree of Mullin/Richmond underwriting the entire operation. It doesn't appear those 4 need much help at the moment.
Game strategy would not be a part of that case. Have watched many Pecora teams play, especially the last 5 years, and he is one of the worst tacticians I have ever seen at the collegiate level. It's not like his performance at Fordham was in a middling range where it can be discarded or justified. He was 62 games under .500 in 5 seasons and was 13-69 (.159) in A-10 play. That's another level of underperformance.
But that macro-look isn't what is important from an SJU evaluation perspective. He inherited a very difficult situation, so being conservative you can give him the first 3 years at Fordham. In the last 2, at which point he had actually done quite well to elevate the overall talent level on the roster (clearly a defined strength over his career), he had back to back 10-21 seasons and was 2-14/4-14 in conference. Especially in that final season, that team underperformed relative to the talent on the roster, which suggests potential coaching down and not up, the latter of which would be all I could potentially see SJU being interested in from a value-add perspective to the staff at this time.
Further to this point and damaging to Pecora as a game coach was Neubauer arriving and, with what could fairly be called a similar team (minus Villanova-bound Eric Paschall, plus quality guard Chartouny and more overall seniority/experience), and used to coaching up at Eastern Kentucky, goes 17-14/8-11 in Year 1. While Neubauer undoubtedly benefitted from talent Pecora recruited getting to upperclassmen levels, it is likely not a coincidence that he effectively had twice as much success in Year 1 as Pecora had in any of his 5 years. Results are results and there weren't a lot of variables there.
Inexperience acknowledged, at this juncture I don't think we need another old name that's been mentioned around this program forever and that has most recently been associated with significant underperformance. If we had brought him in initially to help guide the intricacies and general management of a 365 day D1 operation, and to assist in getting the recruiting piece off the ground, that would have been one thing.
But it's a new/fresh program now, the recruiting has been astonishing, and given that we just moved on from Slice I'm not sure what Pecora would really bring, especially in a role that isn't likely to move the needle much in the first place. Would rather not recycle another old name and just let Matt A. and St. Jean keep running this thing young and hungry with the pedigree of Mullin/Richmond underwriting the entire operation. It doesn't appear those 4 need much help at the moment.
Always out Ken, as far as Serbia!
High school check
Junior college check
International check
Transfers check
all in the net
What else could CM & staff be fishing for?
Excellent recruiting approach IMO