Semi Interesting SJU Stuff on a Slow news cycle

mjmaherjr

mjmaherjr

Well-known member
2023 $upporter 2022 $upporter
Spoke to someone today who would feed my friend info about the inner workings of sju and what's happening with the team the last few years and he is friends with a lot of the players and he knows the coaches from Lavin to Mullin and is around school a lot ( doesn't get much recruiting info. Just stuff from players etc )

Couple of things that I can say. 1st question I asked him is who does he like better Lavin or Mullin. Surprisingly he said he couldn't really pick because he said they are polar opposites. He loves both. He said Lavin is the most polished person and genuine friend and he has learned more about life from Lavin than anyone. He said Mullin is a genius talking hoops. He said Lavin was around practice more than people thought but basically that was it. Apparently someone would pick him up and drive him to practice and then drive him home. He said Mullin is around all the time. First one in and last to leave. He isn't sure if Mullin can coach but he knows his hoops which isn't exactly groundbreaking stuff.

He personally didnt think Lavin should have been let go but as he said it kind of is what it is. He pretty much verified all the different Slice rumors we have heard here about why things didnt work out and most are true. To my surprise he is very high on St Jean. He said he lives sleeps and breathes hoops and is a born coach although that definitely was a sideline issue in more ways than 1 this past year. I think he said him and Mullin lived a few houses away from each other in Cali but I might be off on that. He also loves Mitch Richmond. Said Mitch has only been around a couple of days this summer though but is literally one of the nicest guys he has ever met and he has met him a lot

He is hopeful for the program. Definitely more optimistic in nature than me overall ( not that I'm not optimistic this year just that he is more of an optimist in general than me ) but it was nice to hear his thoughts as he is really close to past and present regimes and has no axe to grind
 
Spoke to someone today who would feed my friend info about the inner workings of sju and what's happening with the team the last few years and he is friends with a lot of the players and he knows the coaches from Lavin to Mullin and is around school a lot ( doesn't get much recruiting info. Just stuff from players etc )

Couple of things that I can say. 1st question I asked him is who does he like better Lavin or Mullin. Surprisingly he said he couldn't really pick because he said they are polar opposites. He loves both. He said Lavin is the most polished person and genuine friend and he has learned more about life from Lavin than anyone. He said Mullin is a genius talking hoops. He said Lavin was around practice more than people thought but basically that was it. Apparently someone would pick him up and drive him to practice and then drive him home. He said Mullin is around all the time. First one in and last to leave. He isn't sure if Mullin can coach but he knows his hoops which isn't exactly groundbreaking stuff.

He personally didnt think Lavin should have been let go but as he said it kind of is what it is. He pretty much verified all the different Slice rumors we have heard here about why things didnt work out and most are true. To my surprise he is very high on St Jean. He said he lives sleeps and breathes hoops and is a born coach although that definitely was a sideline issue in more ways than 1 this past year. I think he said him and Mullin lived a few houses away from each other in Cali but I might be off on that. He also loves Mitch Richmond. Said Mitch has only been around a couple of days this summer though but is literally one of the nicest guys he has ever met and he has met him a lot

He is hopeful for the program. Definitely more optimistic in nature than me overall ( not that I'm not optimistic this year just that he is more of an optimist in general than me ) but it was nice to hear his thoughts as he is really close to past and present regimes and has no axe to grind
Click to expand...

At some point I believe St. Jean family & Mullins were neighbors in addition to obvious relationship CM had with the father through NBA experience.
 
Great stuff, thanks.

Mullin and Gary St. Jean both lived in Danville.

For the longest time I honestly thought Mullin was helping out his buddy's son with a highly paid internship before the younger St. Jean got an NBA front office job.

But maybe two weeks or so ago, I came to the realization that St. Jean is our future coach. I see Mullin sticking around until 60 and passing off the reins.
 
Great stuff, thanks.

Mullin and Gary St. Jean both lived in Danville.

For the longest time I honestly thought Mullin was helping out his buddy's son with a highly paid internship before the younger St. Jean got an NBA front office job.

But maybe two weeks or so ago, I came to the realization that St. Jean is our future coach. I see Mullin sticking around until 60 and passing off the reins.
Click to expand...

You could be right about that if we start winning and whenever Mullin decides no mas. While the guy had nice things to say about Matt A he said if the next coach comes from our bench it would be St Jean. He said you can't even compare the 2 with knowledge of hoops. Matt is a great recruiter but the born coach is St Jean

He actually thinks St Jean will be an NBA head coach one day but that made me wonder if he just got off a flight from colorado but he legitimately knows the guy real well so his opinion to me was real interesting
 
He actually thinks St Jean will be an NBA head coach one day
Click to expand...

The crazy thing is that St. Jean is so young that he could take over for Mullin, be here 20 years, and still not be a fossil by the time he started an NBA coaching career.
 
I sense Matt knows his niche.
Click to expand...

And it's a great niche if Mullin and then possibly St. Jean get this thing going and keep it going. Matt would have 25+-year career as a decently paid assistant at his favorite school, and be such an institution here that it would be impossible for St. Jean's replacement to not retain him for 2043-44 and beyond. :lol:
 
I sense Matt knows his niche.
Click to expand...

And it's a great niche if Mullin and then possibly St. Jean get this thing going and keep it going. Matt would have 25+-year career as a decently paid assistant at his favorite school, and be such an institution here that it would be impossible for St. Jean's replacement to not retain him for 2043-44 and beyond. :lol:
Click to expand...

That stability almost doesn't even register for a st johns fan.

BTW just his opinion but he said if Richmond isn't required to go out and recruit he thinks he will do a hell of a job developing the kids and they really look up to him now. If his job is recruiting then time will tell how good it works out
 
Now this is a FUN thread. A great way to spend a few minutes. Nice stories.
 
Great stuff, thanks.

Mullin and Gary St. Jean both lived in Danville.

For the longest time I honestly thought Mullin was helping out his buddy's son with a highly paid internship before the younger St. Jean got an NBA front office job.

But maybe two weeks or so ago, I came to the realization that St. Jean is our future coach. I see Mullin sticking around until 60 and passing off the reins.
Click to expand...

You could be right about that if we start winning and whenever Mullin decides no mas. While the guy had nice things to say about Matt A he said if the next coach comes from our bench it would be St Jean. He said you can't even compare the 2 with knowledge of hoops. Matt is a great recruiter but the born coach is St Jean

He actually thinks St Jean will be an NBA head coach one day but that made me wonder if he just got off a flight from colorado but he legitimately knows the guy real well so his opinion to me was real interesting
Click to expand...

Better basketball minds than me have spoken highly about St. Jean and I like him. Knows his hoops, is a good instructor and teacher.
 
Great post!

The ying/yang of St. Jean is that if he is really motivated and cut out to be a coach and good at it, he won't wait for Mullin to move on, and will take a HC job somewhere sooner than later. This is clearly an internship for him - good project pursuant to a real job.

Thanks for verifying what one side of the argument has felt about Lavin - that there are some good things about him, even if it didn't work out well here for him or SJU.

I kind of think Slice wouldn't have given an experienced HC a lot of crap, but maybe even disrespected Mullin to an extent because of Chris' lack of experience. Any smart employee knows never to disrespect your boss, and I think that was part of Slice's undoing. Like every dispute though, there are two sides to a dispute and plenty of blame to go around.
 
Great post!

The ying/yang of St. Jean is that if he is really motivated and cut out to be a coach and good at it, he won't wait for Mullin to move on, and will take a HC job somewhere sooner than later. This is clearly an internship for him - good project pursuant to a real job.

Thanks for verifying what one side of the argument has felt about Lavin - that there are some good things about him, even if it didn't work out well here for him or SJU.

I kind of think Slice wouldn't have given an experienced HC a lot of crap, but maybe even disrespected Mullin to an extent because of Chris' lack of experience. Any smart employee knows never to disrespect your boss, and I think that was part of Slice's undoing. Like every dispute though, there are two sides to a dispute and plenty of blame to go around.
Click to expand...
your last paragraph could very well be true because there were certainly some arguments between the 2 of them. In the end I think they both have responsibility for this that happened.

Hopefully the buyout happens soon and we move Mitch up or someone else and just get it over with
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top