The Red.Fans Happenings Vol. 1

Jack Williams

Well-known member
2023 $upporter
Welcome to what I hope to be a monthly series where we come together as a forum and analyze whats been going on around the site!

Now, it has been 23 days since news broke that Rick Pitino was going to be the next head coach of St. John's University Mens basketball program. Since that day, a lot has happened. We have been linked to many recruits/transfers. Our roster from last season has been sent packing save for a few guys. Now, here on red.fans, we play the waiting game. Waiting on some good news. We need some good news. In the meantime, the site is lively as ever, lets tap into some highlights.


Houston We Have A Problem

A poster by the name of "Rocket" has been on the site mixing it up lately. He's an interesting guy, has a lot of interesting references in his posts that rub people the wrong way. I'll say this, the slight political references made in posts doesn't really bother me. A lot of times, it really is just a harmless reference. Rocket likes to flex his abundance of knowledge about the world, current events and history. So keep going Rocket. I will say, the username changes for OG posters need to stop. If you are gonna come back after all this time, man up and call yourself what you used to call yourself. Kudos to Logen for reappearing and and naming himself logen. Marillac returned, called himself Marillac2. Fine with that too..... Alright alright, you know what... let me back track. Cause the more I think on this, I understand it was a whole process moving from redmen.com to red.fans for some posters. A lot of usernames had to be changed, and I understand that. So I guess this whole point is a wash. Everyone do what is comfortable for you, don't let me or any of the other armchair detectives on this board tell you what to call yourself on this blessed site. Next topic

Moderator Moment of the Week

It has been an active week for the moderators. Shout out to all of you for all the work you do on this site. My favorite moderator flex of power this week was from our guy Kranmars. Kranmars had a post this week that really cracked me up. Someone was talking about how Florida was a bad place to live or something, and it was getting a tad political. Kranmars shut this down. Not only did he put out a disclaimer saying that the political talk needed to stop, he also simultaneously had a rebuttal against the posters point. All in one post. It was like if a parent walked in on their kids slapping each other silly, took one look and said "alright enough! This is done! Right after I slap the shit out of you guys once to show ya how its done!" just excellent work from Kranmars. Exquisitely handled.


The Posh Debate


Obviously this topic has been beaten to death the last few weeks and I really don't mean to pile on. Well yes I do it is a big reason I am here. I am here to make a case for the following: lets stop generalizing and putting posters in boxes because they hold one (1) opinion. Fellas, I will admit it, I am guilty of this too. There will be times where I read one or two people unnecessarily hate on Posh, and then throw my hands up and be like "THIS SITE IS HOPELESS" when really if I just took a deep breath I would realize that its just a couple people and it is not an indictment on the whole site.

The reason I bring this up now is because today I read some stuff on the site where posters, not naming any names, started the whole charade where we act like the whole board falls into two buckets. Let me find the post to illustrate my point.

"There are 2 types of fans on this board right now:

1- Exited to have Pitino

2- Have a posh bobblehead on their nightstand"

Now, my knee jerk reaction may be to be bothered by this post. Or mention that the person who wrote this made one of my biggest pet peeve spelling errors, which is mixing up exited and excited. which by the way (sidebar)- before we get to next season I have homework for many on the site. Figure out the difference between "losing" and "loosing". I do not want to log on next year and read about how we are "loosing to Uconn at the half" or whatever. You guys can do it.

Now back to what I was really talking about. My problem with the red text above, is that one opinion does not a poster make. For instance, take me for example. I was defending Posh like he was on trial and I was his attorney. ("Jack Williams, Attorney at Law" has quite a ring, too bad im a school teacher in Brooklyn making dogsh*t money)

But yea, I was defending Posh left and right. I don't have a Posh bobblehead, but I wouldn't say no if I was offered one, so I guess that puts me in bucket #2 of that red text. Why does that mean I am not excited to have Pitino? Come on. It doesn't make sense. Fellas, the generalizations have run rampant on here lately and I am realizing it has become very played out. Again, I admit I can be part of the problem. Don't get it twisted. But I am so tired of the posts on both sides of arguments that are trying to tie large groups of posters down to one opinion and claim that because they have that opinion they are somehow against Pitino? Huh? The math isn't adding up.


And I'll admit, there are people on my side of the Posh debate that do this same thing. Where it is like "oh you don't want Posh back? You hate him personally!" No no no no. Aside from maybe one poster who I think really does hate him, most people just hate that he can't shoot and thinks we can do better. That is OK. They aren't bad fans. They aren't being disloyal. They are being basketball fans who want to win and think their way of building the roster can help win. Thats fine.

So to wrap this up, I will just go back to my initial point in bold. lets stop generalizing and putting posters in boxes because they hold one (1) opinion.


Rick Pitino: Panic Meter Watch



This will be a fun thing to track as we move through next season. Everyone is handling our recruiting "struggles" here out of the gate differently. This is ironic because I just said specifically NOT to put posters in boxes, but bear with me. Here is where I view the panic meter at this juncture:


The "Unbothered Zone" aka The "Chris Mullin during a timeout zone": If you are in this zone, it means you are much like our buddy Chris during his team huddles when he was coach: just kinda vibing out. No real concerns yet. You trust Rick Pitino, you know he is one of the greatest coaches of all time, and you trust that despite a slow start, Ricky will get the guys he needs and he will win and win immediately. Team Captain of this zone: SJUWillRockNYC because he has been very positive about Rick and I love that energy


The "Okay I am not worried, or am I?" zone aka the "Larry Wright zone": This zone is named after Larry because he perfectly exemplifies what this zone is. Uncertainty. When I read Larry's posts, I have absolutely no clue whether he is concerned or not. He acts concerned at times, but it may all just be an act. Or maybe he's just joking around to make himself feel better because deep down he does not like what he has seen so far. I put myself in this zone as of now. I am leaning the Unbothered zone, but also am kinda hovering in this zone. Subject to change. I am confident in Rick, but lets just say to this point my eyebrows are raised. Team captain of this zone: Larry Wright of course


The "We Are Screwed" zone aka the "Chris Obekpa Drug test zone": This is for the doomers who think that Rick is too old and not ready to adapt to the way NIL works now. They are convinced that once Rick doesn't work out here, it will be clear that no one will ever be able to make it work here. This zone represents my deepest fears and insecurities about SJU hoops and I hope I never actually end up in this zone of the panic meter. Team captain of this zone: the devil on my shoulder

Anyways we have a long way to go in the recruiting process, our roster will be built up and we will have a season in November. When the games arrive and we start playing, I am sure this panic meter will be fluctuating all over the place poster to poster. Regardless, I am excited to see what the future holds. Above all else, we all log in here because we care about SJU hoops. Which connects us all. So remember that. Just remember that next time you wanna call someone an elitist piece of sh*t. We are......!
 
Jack , you did a good job here . Just a few questions , if I may ?

One , is this a subscription thing ? You know the thing How much will it cost ?

Next , you use a lot of paragraphs . No doubt to favor Kranmars . No problem with that but , I can’t speak for him ..

Lastly , you mentioned being a Teacher in Brooklyn . Public or Catholic ? If Public , stay the course for 20 years or more and you will be quite well off …. Most of the NY Teachers I know here in SC have great Pensions , Medical Benefits are low cost and 401 k’s too or , I guess they are 403’b ‘s as a Gov’l sponsored plan .

It’s inevitable that 2 Groups of fans will often have different views . For instance , there are even purported Giant fans that think neither Phil Simms or Eli Manning belong in the Pro Football HOF? Can you believe it
And , so it is here too. You have fairly accurately defined them on the Pitino issues .
Rick will get it done ! Have no doubt . And , don’t be surprised if he pulls one of the top portal players out of the pack and brings him here . I , like many , thought Clayton jr was a slam dunk . I was wrong . I do wonder if it was a surprise to Pitino though ? And , what’s happening with Jenkins ? I thought that was a slam dunk too . We shall see .
 
Jack , you did a good job here . Just a few questions , if I may ?

One , is this a subscription thing ? You know the thing How much will it cost ?

Next , you use a lot of paragraphs . No doubt to favor Kranmars . No problem with that but , I can’t speak for him ..

Lastly , you mentioned being a Teacher in Brooklyn . Public or Catholic ? If Public , stay the course for 20 years or more and you will be quite well off …. Most of the NY Teachers I know here in SC have great Pensions , Medical Benefits are low cost and 401 k’s too or , I guess they are 403’b ‘s as a Gov’l sponsored plan .

It’s inevitable that 2 Groups of fans will often have different views . For instance , there are even purported Giant fans that think neither Phil Simms or Eli Manning belong in the Pro Football HOF? Can you believe it
And , so it is here too. You have fairly accurately defined them on the Pitino issues .
Rick will get it done ! Have no doubt . And , don’t be surprised if he pulls one of the top portal players out of the pack and brings him here . I , like many , thought Clayton jr was a slam dunk . I was wrong . I do wonder if it was a surprise to Pitino though ? And , what’s happening with Jenkins ? I thought that was a slam dunk too . We shall see .
You are getting the hang of this paragraph thing.
 
Welcome to what I hope to be a monthly series where we come together as a forum and analyze whats been going on around the site!

Now, it has been 23 days since news broke that Rick Pitino was going to be the next head coach of St. John's University Mens basketball program. Since that day, a lot has happened. We have been linked to many recruits/transfers. Our roster from last season has been sent packing save for a few guys. Now, here on red.fans, we play the waiting game. Waiting on some good news. We need some good news. In the meantime, the site is lively as ever, lets tap into some highlights.


Houston We Have A Problem

A poster by the name of "Rocket" has been on the site mixing it up lately. He's an interesting guy, has a lot of interesting references in his posts that rub people the wrong way. I'll say this, the slight political references made in posts doesn't really bother me. A lot of times, it really is just a harmless reference. Rocket likes to flex his abundance of knowledge about the world, current events and history. So keep going Rocket. I will say, the username changes for OG posters need to stop. If you are gonna come back after all this time, man up and call yourself what you used to call yourself. Kudos to Logen for reappearing and and naming himself logen. Marillac returned, called himself Marillac2. Fine with that too..... Alright alright, you know what... let me back track. Cause the more I think on this, I understand it was a whole process moving from redmen.com to red.fans for some posters. A lot of usernames had to be changed, and I understand that. So I guess this whole point is a wash. Everyone do what is comfortable for you, don't let me or any of the other armchair detectives on this board tell you what to call yourself on this blessed site. Next topic

Moderator Moment of the Week

It has been an active week for the moderators. Shout out to all of you for all the work you do on this site. My favorite moderator flex of power this week was from our guy Kranmars. Kranmars had a post this week that really cracked me up. Someone was talking about how Florida was a bad place to live or something, and it was getting a tad political. Kranmars shut this down. Not only did he put out a disclaimer saying that the political talk needed to stop, he also simultaneously had a rebuttal against the posters point. All in one post. It was like if a parent walked in on their kids slapping each other silly, took one look and said "alright enough! This is done! Right after I slap the shit out of you guys once to show ya how its done!" just excellent work from Kranmars. Exquisitely handled.


The Posh Debate


Obviously this topic has been beaten to death the last few weeks and I really don't mean to pile on. Well yes I do it is a big reason I am here. I am here to make a case for the following: lets stop generalizing and putting posters in boxes because they hold one (1) opinion. Fellas, I will admit it, I am guilty of this too. There will be times where I read one or two people unnecessarily hate on Posh, and then throw my hands up and be like "THIS SITE IS HOPELESS" when really if I just took a deep breath I would realize that its just a couple people and it is not an indictment on the whole site.

The reason I bring this up now is because today I read some stuff on the site where posters, not naming any names, started the whole charade where we act like the whole board falls into two buckets. Let me find the post to illustrate my point.

"There are 2 types of fans on this board right now:

1- Exited to have Pitino
2- Have a posh bobblehead on their nightstand"

Now, my knee jerk reaction may be to be bothered by this post. Or mention that the person who wrote this made one of my biggest pet peeve spelling errors, which is mixing up exited and excited. which by the way (sidebar)- before we get to next season I have homework for many on the site. Figure out the difference between "losing" and "loosing". I do not want to log on next year and read about how we are "loosing to Uconn at the half" or whatever. You guys can do it.

Now back to what I was really talking about. My problem with the red text above, is that one opinion does not a poster make. For instance, take me for example. I was defending Posh like he was on trial and I was his attorney. ("Jack Williams, Attorney at Law" has quite a ring, too bad im a school teacher in Brooklyn making dogsh*t money)

But yea, I was defending Posh left and right. I don't have a Posh bobblehead, but I wouldn't say no if I was offered one, so I guess that puts me in bucket #2 of that red text. Why does that mean I am not excited to have Pitino? Come on. It doesn't make sense. Fellas, the generalizations have run rampant on here lately and I am realizing it has become very played out. Again, I admit I can be part of the problem. Don't get it twisted. But I am so tired of the posts on both sides of arguments that are trying to tie large groups of posters down to one opinion and claim that because they have that opinion they are somehow against Pitino? Huh? The math isn't adding up.


And I'll admit, there are people on my side of the Posh debate that do this same thing. Where it is like "oh you don't want Posh back? You hate him personally!" No no no no. Aside from maybe one poster who I think really does hate him, most people just hate that he can't shoot and thinks we can do better. That is OK. They aren't bad fans. They aren't being disloyal. They are being basketball fans who want to win and think their way of building the roster can help win. Thats fine.

So to wrap this up, I will just go back to my initial point in bold. lets stop generalizing and putting posters in boxes because they hold one (1) opinion.


Rick Pitino: Panic Meter Watch



This will be a fun thing to track as we move through next season. Everyone is handling our recruiting "struggles" here out of the gate differently. This is ironic because I just said specifically NOT to put posters in boxes, but bear with me. Here is where I view the panic meter at this juncture:


The "Unbothered Zone" aka The "Chris Mullin during a timeout zone": If you are in this zone, it means you are much like our buddy Chris during his team huddles when he was coach: just kinda vibing out. No real concerns yet. You trust Rick Pitino, you know he is one of the greatest coaches of all time, and you trust that despite a slow start, Ricky will get the guys he needs and he will win and win immediately. Team Captain of this zone: SJUWillRockNYC because he has been very positive about Rick and I love that energy


The "Okay I am not worried, or am I?" zone aka the "Larry Wright zone": This zone is named after Larry because he perfectly exemplifies what this zone is. Uncertainty. When I read Larry's posts, I have absolutely no clue whether he is concerned or not. He acts concerned at times, but it may all just be an act. Or maybe he's just joking around to make himself feel better because deep down he does not like what he has seen so far. I put myself in this zone as of now. I am leaning the Unbothered zone, but also am kinda hovering in this zone. Subject to change. I am confident in Rick, but lets just say to this point my eyebrows are raised. Team captain of this zone: Larry Wright of course


The "We Are Screwed" zone aka the "Chris Obekpa Drug test zone": This is for the doomers who think that Rick is too old and not ready to adapt to the way NIL works now. They are convinced that once Rick doesn't work out here, it will be clear that no one will ever be able to make it work here. This zone represents my deepest fears and insecurities about SJU hoops and I hope I never actually end up in this zone of the panic meter. Team captain of this zone: the devil on my shoulder

Anyways we have a long way to go in the recruiting process, our roster will be built up and we will have a season in November. When the games arrive and we start playing, I am sure this panic meter will be fluctuating all over the place poster to poster. Regardless, I am excited to see what the future holds. Above all else, we all log in here because we care about SJU hoops. Which connects us all. So remember that. Just remember that next time you wanna call someone an elitist piece of sh*t. We are......!
Should we expect a volume II, or are you into Mel Brooks us like he did with “History of the World”?

Editor’s note: The recently released volume 2 does not count.
 
Jack, forget being a Teacher . Become a Sports Writer . You can transfer from that into being a WFAN Commentator . After that ? Who knows ? Look how far Ian Eagle has gotten .
Being a sports writer was always a dream of mine. I even have a journalism degree from SJU. But unfortunately just hasn't worked out for me that well. Teaching has been a fall back option and I gotta say... I hate it lol
 
Being a sports writer was always a dream of mine. I even have a journalism degree from SJU. But unfortunately just hasn't worked out for me that well. Teaching has been a fall back option and I gotta say... I hate it lol
Keep trying . You know you aren’t going to start a Sports Writing Career at the NYPost .
How about your local Papers and TV stations ? I’m sure you have tried all that stuff already ? How about your Journalism teachers ?
 
Should we expect a volume II, or are you into Mel Brooks us like he did with “History of the World”?

Editor’s note: The recently released volume 2 does not count.

I just heard recently there is a Volume II. I take it you didn’t care for it.

The "We Are Screwed" zone aka the "Chris Obekpa Drug test zone" 😂😂😂
 
Being a sports writer was always a dream of mine. I even have a journalism degree from SJU. But unfortunately just hasn't worked out for me that well. Teaching has been a fall back option and I gotta say... I hate it lol
Jack, you’re a bright young man and I enjoy your posts. If I may offer a note of personal advice, do whatever you have to and move into a job you love.
Kids don’t deserve teachers who hate teaching. You can move on but they’re stuck there.
(Taught for 30+ years at a public high school and at St. John’s, where my students included Walter Berry, Ronnie Plair, and Johnny Franco.)
Teaching is a wonderful career.
Do something you love!
 
Being a sports writer was always a dream of mine. I even have a journalism degree from SJU. But unfortunately just hasn't worked out for me that well. Teaching has been a fall back option and I gotta say... I hate it lol
Teaching was my fall back option as well. Got the masters. Did the student teaching. Subbed. Absolutely hated it.

After thinking I wasted 40$ something K on a meaningless degree I didn’t want to use, good old NYS department of Education found me and I was able to use that degree to jump a bunch of applicants.

The stress I have in this job is a tiny grain of sand compared to being in a classroom (god bless you) I’m sure if you wanted to go that route you could. And you’d be able to carry your pension/retirement credits with you.
 
For years I was just a reader of this board, and recently a poster. To me this thread is getting at the bond between us. Whether you went to the school (I didn’t) or sat at an adjacent table to Louie at Dante’s just after his retirement and watched a waiter bring him and his two OLDER SISTERS a special bottle of chianti with no label, being an SJU fan is authentic New York experience. Why do we do it? The highs (say, the first Uconn game) are so quickly wiped out by the lows. And they’re sooo painful. A day--a few days, a week--are ruined, for some of us, by a bad loss. Why do we feel it so deeply? These Posh\Pitino arguments are cutting right to the bone. Are we parents to these kids? Are we clinging to the innocence of amateur sports (non-existent in the NIL era)? I only know that I remain riveted to this board as if it were, say, a forum between Plato and Socrates…….or some of those dudes! Onward!
 
I remember when Steve Serby did high school sports. Brian Kilmeade from FOX started out doing high school soccer. At one point, I freeelanced at the Post for bupkis... Think sub-minimum wage Rock and Roll...and doing lots of stuff for free. In other words, go to high school and college games and start writing about them on your own. After you've collected enough clips, try to find an outlet that'll read them... Probably one who pays shit or less than shit will use some of your stuff...but you'll have a resume and clips. That outlet might be able to get you a credential...so you can cover pro and college sports...and develop a writing style...and you'll have contacts. I'm grateful for so many who helped me along the way.

I started at shit hole radio stations that had no problems credentialing people to cover stuff freelance for shit money.

It takes HARD WORK to do something that really isn't work at all.

And very important...don't give up your teaching job. Yes...it's full time, but in reality you're working half a year. You have to pay the rent.
 
Being a sports writer was always a dream of mine. I even have a journalism degree from SJU. But unfortunately just hasn't worked out for me that well. Teaching has been a fall back option and I gotta say... I hate it lol
I hope you blog. Keep your pen and wit sharp.
 
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