Where is the mystery candidate?

Pouring rain today down here and I'm in our local Publix supermarket looking for a nice wine to have with a fish stew I'm making for dinner. I have my red St. John's hat on (which my son claims looks like a MAGA hat) and a guy asks me if I need help looking for wine. I say no I'm ok and he then asks me who is going to be your next coach.
Turns out he grew up in Providence and is a huge PC fan. We gab for a while and he says PC made the right move by taking Cooley a local guy who'd never want to coach anywhere else - says Hurleys are state school guys, need to get a private school guy. Wound up talking hoops for a good 10 minutes or so. Hats are great conversation pieces!
 
MAGIC JOHNSON....MIKE JARVIS COACHED PATRICK EWING,SO WHILE KEVIN BOYLE SOUNDS GOOD..WHO KNOWS...DONT THINK CLUESS IS THE ANSWER.. WHY HASN'T HE EVER BEEN MENTIONED FOR OTHER JOBS..REMINDS ME OF FRANK MULZHOFF..DONT WANT ANOTHER CARNESECCA LINKED COACH...
 
[quote="ctstorm" post=340557]A number of posters alluded to a mystery candidate who would thrill us and that Hurley and Cluess were mere feints. Time for him to emerge from the shadows. Or maybe there are some other Duke alums who are looking for a raise from their current schools and their names can be floated.

For the record I would love to see Pitino and would strongly support Cluess. At this point I might even welcome Norm back. Mostly I would l like to see a decision and not a soap opera.[/quote]
_______________

Don't believe everything you read on this site.

Most (not all) posters that post on the site would have you believe they know more than they do. Recall the repeated criticism former Coach Mullin received last summer by the "insiders" over his refusal to add Rice to his staff only to have it come out that Mullin sought to add Rice to the staff but was overruled by the Administration.

There is no mystery candidate.
 
Last edited:
Just keep in mind that any candidate or mystery candidate is going to have to be satisfactory to SJU's beancounters. It is clearly apparent that the school either doesn't have or doesn't want to spend bigtime money on the basketball staff. It seems oddly inconsistent with the direction the new AD wants to go in, but it seems pretty clear that the Hurley hiring did not happen due to the money involved, and Iona has pretty well telegraphed that they are going to want to be bought out of Cluess contract, which may well be the holdup there. And who knows how much they are paying Mullin to not coach.

At the end of the day they are either going to have to find an up and comer whose school has not locked him up, a retread who's willing to work at a discount (yes Pitino comes to mind here), or they are going to have to suck it up and spend the money. Otherwise, St. Jean really will end up as the coach.

And to think all of this could have been avoided if they had hired McKillop years ago .. or Jay Wright instead of Jarvis ... or Cluess instead of Lavin ... or either of the Hurleys instead of Mullin. Not that anybody (cough cough) said that each of those times. Well, no use crying over spilled milk. But don't be surprised if SJU manages to spill some more for being pennywise and pound foolish.

FWIW, my "mystery candidate" would be Frank Martin, but that would require a real financial commitment.
 
[quote="BOB BARKER" post=340850]MAGIC JOHNSON....MIKE JARVIS COACHED PATRICK EWING,SO WHILE KEVIN BOYLE SOUNDS GOOD..WHO KNOWS...DONT THINK CLUESS IS THE ANSWER.. WHY HASN'T HE EVER BEEN MENTIONED FOR OTHER JOBS..REMINDS ME OF FRANK MULZHOFF..DONT WANT ANOTHER CARNESECCA LINKED COACH...[/quote]
BOB BARKER IS THAT YOU?
 
[quote="PharmDJohnnie11" post=340762]What about Kevin Boyle?

-He's won 4 out of the last 6 high school championships at Monteverde.

-He has local ties, winning 5 state titles at St. Patrick's in NJ, and played at Seton Hall, and St. Peter's.

-If RJ Barrett goes top 3 this year in the draft (he will) he would have coached 6 top 3 NBA draft selections since 2011 including Kyrie Irving, Joel Embiid, D'Angelo Russell and Ben Simmons.

-He'd definitely bring some recruiting clout with all his high school and AAU ties.



I'd definitely look into him if I were Cragg. Can't hurt.[/quote]

He's 56 years old. Not much different than TC.
 
Would Billy Donavan survive a first round exit? Would Cragg survive a marillac ambush if he made him wait a week? I’m guessing no on both of those but I doubt there’s any chance he’d be interested in the first place.
 
[quote="bamafan" post=340859]
BOB BARKER IS THAT YOU?[/quote]

Bamafan, come on down! You're the next contestant on The Cap Lock Is on the Left Side of the Keyboard!
 
[quote="Paultzman" post=340826]Other names in the mix at St. John's include Porter Moser of Loyola-Chicago and Ryan Odom of UMBC.
Zagoria fwiw[/quote]

If it's a choice between the two of them, I'd pick Odom (Moser's resume before last year's Final Four is actually not that great, and they were an 11 seed, so it's not like he built a program, or anything like that), but either one would be very, very underwhelming, at least to me.

Even Odom probably would not be a candidate if that Virginia game didn't happen last year, but at least he's won games consistently. To me though, he's a less proven Tim Cluess, so I would just pony up for Cluess, if that were the case.
 
Last edited:
[quote="Amaseinyourface" post=340863]Would Billy Donavan survive a first round exit? Would Cragg survive a marillac ambush if he made him wait a week? I’m guessing no on both of those but I doubt there’s any chance he’d be interested in the first place.[/quote]

Come on Harkless. Do it for SJU
 
How in the world do we have a "mystery candidate" thread without Jeff Van Gundy's name in it?

I know I've been off Redmen.com for awhile, but you guys are really failing me.
 
Couple things:
A) Odom seems like a good candidate. I reject the fact that we should be worried that he will jump ship. If he does, well, that means he's won here. That's something we haven't had in a while.

B) Our friend Zach tweeted that the admin did not block the Rice hire FWIW.
 
[quote="RedStormRising2" post=340906]Couple things:
A) Odom seems like a good candidate. I reject the fact that we should be worried that he will jump ship. If he does, well, that means he's won here. That's something we haven't had in a while.

B) Our friend Zach tweeted that the admin did not block the Rice hire FWIW.[/quote]

He might leave at any moment.
Manning has had 1 winning season in 5 years at Wake. What if they fire him next year like someone pointed out. Did he build a winner then if he's gone in 1-2 years.

People were concerned about Bobby jumping whereas this jump is a lot more realistic.
 
Then we'd finally get a buy out coming towards us and we could buy those seat backs :D

Seriously, though, buy out after year 1 of the contract could be an off putting number, but as you said WF does have big pockets. If Odom goes 8-24 then 14-19 does WF want him? Do we want him?

If he is a miracle worker and goes 16-17 then 20-13 in his first two season, heck let's try to ride those coattails even if he does make the jump.

I guess no matter how you look at it, every candidate is going to have a wart or two .
 
[quote="RedStormRising2" post=340924]Then we'd finally get a buy out coming towards us and we could buy those seat backs :D

Seriously, though, buy out after year 1 of the contract could be an off putting number, but as you said WF does have big pockets. If Odom goes 8-24 then 14-19 does WF want him? Do we want him?

If he is a miracle worker and goes 16-17 then 20-13 in his first two season, heck let's try to ride those coattails even if he does make the jump.

I guess no matter how you look at it, every candidate is going to have a wart or two .[/quote]

Whoever takes this job next year starts in Year 2. Next year its survive and don't have further implosions
 
[quote="Amaseinyourface" post=340863]Would Billy Donavan survive a first round exit? Would Cragg survive a marillac ambush if he made him wait a week? I’m guessing no on both of those but I doubt there’s any chance he’d be interested in the first place.[/quote]

There is nothing Cragg can do to convince me he is competent in hiring coaches or that he didn’t completely blow this process.

One of two things happened: the buffoon was surprised by the 2 mill buyout Cluess had and decided that’s too much (6 mill in buyouts) for a hire of Cluess’ caliber or (much more likely) Cragg is playing an adorable game of hardball with Cluess. Sh*t runs downhill and Cragg wants to take the beating Hurley handed him and put it in a 60 year old MAAC coach who has never been been represented before. Cragg is a big bad executive after all.

His role at Duke was like lifeguarding at a portable Walmart pool. We trusted the dummy to guard a lake and someone drowned the first day.

I’m sure he’s great around the water cooler.
He probably brought donuts on Fridays and went out to karaoke nights and holiday parties with the athletic department. That can keep almost anyone employed in a college athletic department for 31 years...rising up with attrition.
 
I come back to the site for one day - ONE DAY - and it takes under 10 minutes for me to remember why I don't post here anymore. As much as I like and respect some of the posters, the worthwhile discussion gets drowned in a sea of idiots.
 
[quote="lawmanfan" post=340953]I come back to the site for one day - ONE DAY - and it takes under 10 minutes for me to remember why I don't post here anymore. As much as I like and respect some of the posters, the worthwhile discussion gets drowned in a sea of idiots.[/quote]

Love you
 
And you know I love you right back. Respect your dedication to the site and the program.
 
Anyone know why Mark Jackson's name hasan't popped up? He did a good job for the Warriors and handed Steve Kerr a team that was on the rise.
 
Back
Top