Best post I have read tonight.
In 1982 I had to take evening summer courses at SJU. Every night before class I saw Ron Rutledge walking with a tall young man who looked very out of place to class. When class was over there was Ron Rutledge again waiting for this young man. After a few weeks I went over to Ron and asked him who the young man was. He said his name was Walter Berry.
Having followed high school basketball I knew who Walter was. Difference was Rysheed was ranked much higher than Berry coming out of high school, Rysheed was eligible and all they had to do was keep him eligible while Berry was not eligible. Staff put in two summers and a full year at SJU in an attempt to get Walter eligible, which unfortunately did not materialize, but they certainly put in the effort. Success just does not come about it is a result of consistent hard work. Now you can call it babysitting or anything else you choose but boy did that staff work hard to recruit, keep, get eligible and rerecruit Walter while having Mullin, Wennington, Jackson, Glass ,Jones etc on the team. They were going to be good without Walter and were great with him.
The staff wasn't stuffing their faces with pizza and wings, banging every Ho available and taking selfies at trendy restaurants. They cared about their players and went out of their way to make these kids productive citizens.
Like every other kid Rysheed needed love and discipline. Staff didn't have to give him love but certainly had to give him discipline and there they failed miserably.
1 of 7 kids with no father and a sick mother, growing up in abject poverty all the while being told you are great and will make millions. This kid had no chance on his own without strong guidance. Our shameless self- promoter had a chance to do something very special with this kid, the highest ranking recruit he got to SJU, but that entailed work, a concept that is foreign to Steve Lavin.[/quote]
This post is so abject over the top it's a joke right? Tell me it's a joke.
