Every single one of our head coaching hires after Lou (A.F.) has been a compromise. We never attempted to hire an established head coach because we never intended to pay the going rate for top tier coaches. That only changed with the Lavin hire when reality hit St. John's in the face. So, I give Lavin all the credit for bringing us back to relevance both in national profile and in the coaching ranks. I personally liked him as a person but not as much as a celebrity which he saw himself while at St. John's. With Chris Mullin we currently have the best of both worlds in that he is an established celebrity bringing attention to the program and a dedicated St. John's loyalist who, unlike Fraschilla and Jarvis, is not looking for his next bigger coaching job. That said, we continue to pay the price in the x and o end of the job. I personally do not see Mullin as a quick study and question his ability to work with a better more experienced staff around him. Right now I see him singing "My Way", a Frank Sinatra hit but performing it in the Johnny Rotten version.
Tend to disagree. Other than Norm they were all logical hires. Fran was a local boy on the come, Jarvis was a minority on the rise and even I was excited about Lavin until I got to know him. Mullin had better not fail, because there's no where to go after him.
Brian Mahoney was likely the biggest compromise St. John's made in the post Carnesecca era. The school allowed Lou to designate him as heir when in fact he was always a mediocre assistant coach and was a complete disaster when he left the program to coach Manhattan. Fran was a good hire and good recruiter but, like Jarvis, only used the St. John's job to enhance his resume. Norm Roberts was a decent man who never recruited talent to mask his coaching weaknesses. I still think that had Mike Dunlap never left for his short stint in the NBA and had Lavin never gotten ill with cancer that Steve Lavin's career at St. John's could have flourished. Water under the bridge now. I, like everyone here, am a very big fan of Chris Mullin. However, I was not a fan of his hiring. I am not sold that coaching, in the long run, is in his DNA. In retrospect either of the Hurley boys would have been more logical hires but the internal shenanigans surrounding the decision making process convinced the new SJU president that Mullin was the only choice (savior). We may have been the only Division 1 school in the power basketball conferences to hire a middle aged man who had never coached a day in his life. His first year was emblematic of his lack of experience. The disintegration of his relationship with Slice after only a few months also left a bad taste in many fan's mouths who questioned his management and decision making abilities.
While there would still be a basketball program should Mullin falter I agree it would be difficult to attract a top tier coach because of our substandard facilities, negative history with previous coaches who all failed after St. John's and the lack of fan support. We are all rooting for Mullin to succeed. He just needs to speed up his learning process because the honeymoon is over.
