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Red Storm rising? For new St. John’s AD Mike Cragg, a turnaround starts with trust
By Brandon Lilly / The ATHLETIC
NEW YORK — Before the press conference this month at which he was introduced as the athletic director at St. John’s, Mike Cragg sat, coffee in hand, alone in the bleachers of Carnessecca Arena. He had not planned to take a contemplative moment. In truth, he did not yet have the keys to his office and the arena was the only room open to him, the door having been propped open with a brick. Yet as he sat, Cragg began to think about all the things that had led to this moment, to leave a job at Duke where he was the assistant AD in charge of basketball, to take over the athletic department at a basketball-first school that has made just two NCAA Tournament appearances in the past 15 years.
“My dream for years has been to be an athletic director and to find the right match and to be at a place that has a championship-level basketball program,” Cragg said. “Throw in the fact that we have a legend as a coach, there’s a lot for us to get excited about.”
Cragg unquestionably knows his way around a successful basketball program. For the previous 31 years, he had worked at Duke, primarily tending to needs of coach Mike Krzyzewski and the Blue Devils. Job One for Cragg at St. John’s is to try and stop a recent slide into irrelevancy. The program has won only one tournament game this century, and that was back in 2000 during the Mike Jarvis era, which was four coaches ago. To provide a level of consistency that has been absent, through several coaching changes and now the school’s third full-time athletic director in five years, is Cragg’s top priority.
“You have to have vision and creativity and strategic plans in order to make improvements at a place like St. John’s,” Cragg said. “It’s not going to happen overnight. There are a lot of needs. But our job is to create an environment for success. And I’m here for the long haul.”
As he walked past a concession stand in the arena before the basketball program’s annual tip-off night, Cragg noted that it “feels a little tight back here.” Welcome to St. John’s! Any story about the challenges that an incoming athletic director faces, at any school, would focus on the facilities’ arm race that has taken over college athletics in recent years. But St. John’s is a special case.
Still primarily a commuter school, the campus is dominated by parking lots. All of the athletic fields are crammed into the back corner of the property. The offices for all of the Olympic sports teams are in a subterranean cramped annex in the basement of Carnessecca Arena with ceilings that are no more than eight feet high. And although the basketball offices seem palatial in comparison, they are downright tiny compared to the facilities at most other schools in the Big East. Space is at a premium, so when Cragg looks at a small patch of grass between the soccer and baseball stadiums, he muses about a potential spot for locker rooms and offices for those two programs.
All of this would aid the basketball program, because the more teams that can be moved out of Carnessecca Arena, the more space the basketball team will have. Cragg noted that from a facilities standpoint, the situation at St. John’s reminded him of how things were when he arrived at Duke. That was in 1987.
“Duke basketball of 30 years ago was not what you and I say see today,” Cragg said. “It’s going to take a lot of imagination, and a lot of passion and love for the institution to make the leap. But all the ingredients are there because the people want to be great.”
Asked about how things were going with his new boss, Red Storm coach Chris Mullin was surprisingly stone-faced. Asked if he and Cragg have gotten off on the right foot, Mullin simply nodded.
Mullin is often tight-lipped when it comes to answering media inquiries, but in this case his reluctance to sing the praises of his new AD is justifiable. There may not be a whole lot of trust at the moment between him and the athletics administration. Since taking over in April 2015, Mullin has seen five people sit in the AD’s office. Chris Monasch, who hired Mullin’s predecessor, Steve Lavin, resigned not long after Mullin was hired. After short stints by two interim ADs (Joe Oliva and Kathy Meehan), Anton Goff took over in November 2016, but he resigned in June ’17, citing family reasons. Meehan again settled into the interim role before Cragg was hired.
“We’ve had an enormous amount of turnover over the last few years, which leads to an enormous amount of lost trust between people,” Cragg said. “We have to rebuild trust within the athletic administration. And after being in one place for 31 years, I guess I’m the poster child for stability.”
Conference realignment and uninspiring teams have led to a reduction in number of games the Red Storm plays in Madison Square Garden. For the second consecutive season, St. John’s will play only five games on Broadway, against traditional Big East foes Georgetown, Seton Hall, Providence and Villanova, plus a game against Princeton. Butler and Creighton are not the kind of draws that UConn, Syracuse and Louisville once were, but the main issue is that the Red Storm has been losing games in bunches over the last few years. In three seasons, Mullin is 38-60, including 12-42 in Big East play.
“Going forward with Madison Square Garden, it’s a business relationship and it has to be a partnership,” Cragg said. “You can’t be a losing program and expect to have a full house in Madison Square Garden. It’s on us to have a championship caliber program and move the needle.”
The through line, from facilities to stability issues to trying to get more games at MSG, is that the basketball team has to win more games. Win more games, and more donations roll in to help improve facilities. New York loves a winner, so win more games and St. John’s will be more regularly appearing on the back pages of the tabloids, and playing a team such as Xavier in the Garden becomes a more appealing proposition economically for both sides. Cragg referred to a winning basketball program as the high tide that raises all boats for the school, and fortunately for him, it looks like the Red Storm may be on the verge of winning again.
Mustapha Heron, a star transfer from Auburn, received a waiver that made him eligible immediately, and paired with returning All-Big East point guard Shamorie Ponds, St. John’s may have the most dynamic backcourt in the country. The team’s nonconference slate, outside of a February trip to Cragg’s old stomping grounds at Duke, is dreadful. But Cragg saw firsthand how devastating the Johnnies can be when they have the Garden crowd behind them, as Ponds dropped 33 points against Duke last year in an 81-77 victory at MSG.
“If we play the way they played against Duke last year every night, we’ll go undefeated,” Cragg said.
A return to winning ways, indeed, would cure all ills.
By Brandon Lilly / The ATHLETIC
NEW YORK — Before the press conference this month at which he was introduced as the athletic director at St. John’s, Mike Cragg sat, coffee in hand, alone in the bleachers of Carnessecca Arena. He had not planned to take a contemplative moment. In truth, he did not yet have the keys to his office and the arena was the only room open to him, the door having been propped open with a brick. Yet as he sat, Cragg began to think about all the things that had led to this moment, to leave a job at Duke where he was the assistant AD in charge of basketball, to take over the athletic department at a basketball-first school that has made just two NCAA Tournament appearances in the past 15 years.
“My dream for years has been to be an athletic director and to find the right match and to be at a place that has a championship-level basketball program,” Cragg said. “Throw in the fact that we have a legend as a coach, there’s a lot for us to get excited about.”
Cragg unquestionably knows his way around a successful basketball program. For the previous 31 years, he had worked at Duke, primarily tending to needs of coach Mike Krzyzewski and the Blue Devils. Job One for Cragg at St. John’s is to try and stop a recent slide into irrelevancy. The program has won only one tournament game this century, and that was back in 2000 during the Mike Jarvis era, which was four coaches ago. To provide a level of consistency that has been absent, through several coaching changes and now the school’s third full-time athletic director in five years, is Cragg’s top priority.
“You have to have vision and creativity and strategic plans in order to make improvements at a place like St. John’s,” Cragg said. “It’s not going to happen overnight. There are a lot of needs. But our job is to create an environment for success. And I’m here for the long haul.”
As he walked past a concession stand in the arena before the basketball program’s annual tip-off night, Cragg noted that it “feels a little tight back here.” Welcome to St. John’s! Any story about the challenges that an incoming athletic director faces, at any school, would focus on the facilities’ arm race that has taken over college athletics in recent years. But St. John’s is a special case.
Still primarily a commuter school, the campus is dominated by parking lots. All of the athletic fields are crammed into the back corner of the property. The offices for all of the Olympic sports teams are in a subterranean cramped annex in the basement of Carnessecca Arena with ceilings that are no more than eight feet high. And although the basketball offices seem palatial in comparison, they are downright tiny compared to the facilities at most other schools in the Big East. Space is at a premium, so when Cragg looks at a small patch of grass between the soccer and baseball stadiums, he muses about a potential spot for locker rooms and offices for those two programs.
All of this would aid the basketball program, because the more teams that can be moved out of Carnessecca Arena, the more space the basketball team will have. Cragg noted that from a facilities standpoint, the situation at St. John’s reminded him of how things were when he arrived at Duke. That was in 1987.
“Duke basketball of 30 years ago was not what you and I say see today,” Cragg said. “It’s going to take a lot of imagination, and a lot of passion and love for the institution to make the leap. But all the ingredients are there because the people want to be great.”
Asked about how things were going with his new boss, Red Storm coach Chris Mullin was surprisingly stone-faced. Asked if he and Cragg have gotten off on the right foot, Mullin simply nodded.
Mullin is often tight-lipped when it comes to answering media inquiries, but in this case his reluctance to sing the praises of his new AD is justifiable. There may not be a whole lot of trust at the moment between him and the athletics administration. Since taking over in April 2015, Mullin has seen five people sit in the AD’s office. Chris Monasch, who hired Mullin’s predecessor, Steve Lavin, resigned not long after Mullin was hired. After short stints by two interim ADs (Joe Oliva and Kathy Meehan), Anton Goff took over in November 2016, but he resigned in June ’17, citing family reasons. Meehan again settled into the interim role before Cragg was hired.
“We’ve had an enormous amount of turnover over the last few years, which leads to an enormous amount of lost trust between people,” Cragg said. “We have to rebuild trust within the athletic administration. And after being in one place for 31 years, I guess I’m the poster child for stability.”
Conference realignment and uninspiring teams have led to a reduction in number of games the Red Storm plays in Madison Square Garden. For the second consecutive season, St. John’s will play only five games on Broadway, against traditional Big East foes Georgetown, Seton Hall, Providence and Villanova, plus a game against Princeton. Butler and Creighton are not the kind of draws that UConn, Syracuse and Louisville once were, but the main issue is that the Red Storm has been losing games in bunches over the last few years. In three seasons, Mullin is 38-60, including 12-42 in Big East play.
“Going forward with Madison Square Garden, it’s a business relationship and it has to be a partnership,” Cragg said. “You can’t be a losing program and expect to have a full house in Madison Square Garden. It’s on us to have a championship caliber program and move the needle.”
The through line, from facilities to stability issues to trying to get more games at MSG, is that the basketball team has to win more games. Win more games, and more donations roll in to help improve facilities. New York loves a winner, so win more games and St. John’s will be more regularly appearing on the back pages of the tabloids, and playing a team such as Xavier in the Garden becomes a more appealing proposition economically for both sides. Cragg referred to a winning basketball program as the high tide that raises all boats for the school, and fortunately for him, it looks like the Red Storm may be on the verge of winning again.
Mustapha Heron, a star transfer from Auburn, received a waiver that made him eligible immediately, and paired with returning All-Big East point guard Shamorie Ponds, St. John’s may have the most dynamic backcourt in the country. The team’s nonconference slate, outside of a February trip to Cragg’s old stomping grounds at Duke, is dreadful. But Cragg saw firsthand how devastating the Johnnies can be when they have the Garden crowd behind them, as Ponds dropped 33 points against Duke last year in an 81-77 victory at MSG.
“If we play the way they played against Duke last year every night, we’ll go undefeated,” Cragg said.
A return to winning ways, indeed, would cure all ills.
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