Rick Pitino - Head Coach at St John’s University!!!

kranmars said:
This is somewhat I remember.

Mike Quick who had a weekly High School sports show on MSG Network at the time, asked Artest to announce on the show, his college choice of SJU or Miami.

Prior to this, Artest had apparently told Fran he was coming, earlier that week. Quick’s show aired on a Friday. delaying the announcement an extra day or two, which would allow Miami a window to continue recruiting him, and possibly change his mind.

Fraschilla was a paranoid mess, and was irate with Quick. It was turning off Artest and his family a bit, and also annoyed Quick, who was popular among the HS community.

Rutledge had to swoop in and smooth things over with Artets and his family. It obviously worked and sealed it.
Click to expand...

I remember watching Ron announce in studio on Mike Quick's show.

And I was one of the cool, popular kids who used to stay home on Saturday nights to watch Quick's show religiously to catch stories/highlights about Felipe, Marbury, etc.
 
Silly Donovan said:
Oh really, so the best the search committee could come up with was Brian Mahoney whose head coaching record prior to that at Manhattan was
16-62? You really expect people to believe that Looie had nothing to do with the decision even though Looie nixed several coaching hires of other qualified candidates in the past like John Calipari and had a lot to do with the Mullin hire among others?
Click to expand...
I don't know how old you are of if you were a STH but Mahoney held the clipboard, Mahoney ran timeouts, Mahoney drew up.plays. For all that he wasnt on the selection committee's radar. SJU reached out to Cremins, a NYC guy. They thought guys like Knight (West point and a great admirer of Lapchick and SJU would be interested in NYC and MSG and our "great tradition". No.one, no one, showed even curious interest. Our pay was low, our home court small and 30 years old, and our history wasn't a top ten program.

Looie of course would endorse Mahoney, but in no way did he demand they did so.

We've all heard stories of Calipari and cancer rumors. Who else did Looie nix?


In terms of Mullin, Bobby G was the guy who pushed for Chris.
 
Last edited:
MainMan said:
Mahoney won BE COY in year 1.

He recruited better than anybody before or since.... at least on paper.

But he failed at the most important position of all: point guard.
Click to expand...
I believe that he passed on Kareem Reid for Tarik Turner. If true, it was a bad decision in retrospect.
 
Silly Donovan said:
Oh really, so the best the search committee could come up with was Brian Mahoney whose head coaching record prior to that at Manhattan was
16-62? You really expect people to believe that Looie had nothing to do with the decision even though Looie nixed several coaching hires of other qualified candidates in the past like John Calipari and had a lot to do with the Mullin hire among others?
Click to expand...
 
Ralph318! said:
I believe that he passed on Kareem Reid for Tarik Turner. If true, it was a bad decision in retrospect.
Click to expand...
Tarik Turner, who played at Oak Hill, committed early for us. Kareem Reid had an outstanding se or year at St Rays and was selected as a McD Aa. There were questions about his academics and he had not committed to any school at the time the game was played at Alumni Hall. Since St. John’s already had a freshman PG coming in, they did not go after Reid who would up committing to the Razorbacks and IIRC sat out his freshman year as a Prop 48 player.
 
My Ron Ron recollection. Ron was not allowed to sign with Miami due to NCAA recruiting violations. Ron met with a Miami assistant coach at a diner on Astoria Blvd in astoria during a recruiting blackout period.
 
Beasts of the East said:
I don't know how old you are of if you were a STH but Mahoney held the clipboard, Mahoney ran timeouts, Mahoney drew up.plays. For all that he wasnt on the selection committee's radar. SJU reached out to Cremins, a NYC guy. They thought guys like Knight (West point and a great admirer of Lapchick and SJU would be interested in NYC and MSG and our "great tradition". No.one, no one, showed even curious interest. Our pay was low, our home court small and 30 years old, and our history wasn't a top ten program.

Looie of course would endorse Mahoney, but in no way did he demand they did so.

We've all heard stories of Calipari and cancer rumors. Who else did Looie nix?


In terms of Mullin, Bobby G was the guy who pushed for Chris.
Click to expand...
I was around back then and without going into detail, was fairly connected to the happenings at tge school, and can tell you that Looie’s words held a lot of weight. Had Mahoney not gotten the job, Looie would have felt completely disrespected. And that my friend comes from the man himself.
 
Silly Donovan said:
I was around back then and without going into detail, was fairly connected to the happenings at tge school, and can tell you that Looie’s words held a lot of weight. Had Mahoney not gotten the job, Looie would have felt completely disrespected. And that my friend comes from the man himself.
Click to expand...
So who were the more qualified candidates who wanted the job?

And even if Looie would have felt disrespected, there is no evidence Mahoney got the job as a "tribute to Looie" over better qualified candidates.

I don't even think they interviewed anyone.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top