I disagree on the depth issue. I believe the depth in the Tri-state is same it is just that the depth and skill of rest of the country has improved tremendously, and "New York Basketball" has spread out. Plus, more and more city kids are leaving at 14...15 years old to prep schools so they lose the connections to the city. Those connections are huge Sealy, Artest, Mullin, etc. had connections with St. Johns starting when they were 11 and 12 years old. You can't recruit that kind of personal loyalty. We need to invest in that connection. Seriously invest, for example, are we giving free MSG upper bowl tickets to every youth basketball program? We have open seats at games why not allocate some of that lost revenue by inviting Basketball Stars of NY, Cavallier, Mo Motion, New York Kids Sports, YBL, Gauchos, BYSC, NYC Vipers, Team Scan, FHBL, NYSC, and Big Apple Basketball kids to attend a game. St. Johns should host one youth program at every game and give them like 60 tickets. That will not only get players thinking about St. Johns but it will make fans of them for life.
The key in my opinion is where St. Johns looks for the New York talent and what the players profile is. We've never been a school that lands the #1 New York City recruit, (Lew Alcinder, Stephon Marbury, Kenny Anderson, etc. etc.) Shoot outs for 4-stars are a waste of time for us. In my opinion, we need to stick to our strength and cultivate rising talents. Syracuse and Louisville have smartly scouted NY and beaten us to 3-stars for years now. They have pipelines that allow them to see who the stars will be before Kentucky sinks their teeth into them (Russ Smith, etc.). Look at Syracuse's class this year, 2 guys from New Jersey and 1 from NY, you've barely heard of them because 'Cuse locked them down early so there is no hype. That is good recruiting but it's also good scouting. Identifying those kids early and making them feel special is the key to our success recruiting NY. The second thing is cultivating the Prep Schools. We should have an advantage with the Prep Schools because so many kids at those schools are from the Tri-State area (players and students) and Mullins son was at a prep school so he must understand the landscape and know many of the coaches.
I also agree with what Francessa said yesterday, St. Johns has always been a place that welcomes transfers (Boo Harvey, Berry, Ron Rowan, Michael Porter, etc.). We need to make sure the word is out that this is a pipeline to St. Johns and those players are welcome here.
Finally, with Mullin, we have a great advantage that if you are upside and are Gym-rat type guy you can learn from the best. St. Johns should be the place to develop your skills. Due to that, I think we need to focus on finding under appreciated guys who can develop their game. The name that pops to mind here is Wally Szczerbiak. There are a number of players in the Tri-State area (particularly on Long Island and Westchester) who have a similar profile to Szczerbiak and Jimmer coming out out of high school we're losing them to Mid-Majors when we focus all of our effort on the Isiah Briscoe's of the world. We need to scout those guys early and make them understand that in Chris Mullin they have a fellow traveler. And we need to add one every year because you need 4 to find the superstar.
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