Where we go from here

Interesting that Mullin acknowledges that he needs help by turning the huddle over to St. Jean. But he is not recognizing that St. Jean is as inexperienced as he is.

There is alot of thing going well with the program. Replacing St. Jean or Richmond with an experienced college basketball coach would likely make a significant difference.
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Why did Mullin hire such an inexperienced staff considering his lack of exp.?
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Please see my post a little earlier in this thread about having an athletic director. Had we had an AD when Chris was hired I don't believe he would have allowed him to assemble a staff void of experience.

On another note, many of us myself included, have alluded to the fact that Mike Rice would be a big asset to this staff. My buddy FUN pointed out that he thought we could do better than a psychopath with a poor BE coaching record. He may certainly have a point. But assuming Houston e no longer wips basketballs at players heads in practice and calls them names which are politically incorrect, perhaps his fiery personality is just what this staff needs. Someone to jump up and down and get in players faces following a missed defensive assignment, not boxing out etc.
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. I agree . Rice also isn't asking for much money. I still say not hiring an experienced asst. is poor judgement by Mullin and poor judgement by SJU.
 
I have preached patience with the staff and with the kids pretty much as much as anyone on this board, however after the last few weeks culminating with today's game, I am really starting to question whether or not Chris is up to the task of turning around our program, and/or whether his heart is really in to it. I am not bailing on him just yet, but my gut is starting to tell me the same things it told me about BM, Norm and SL. And in addition to my gut having gotten much larger over the years, it's also gotten much more accurate. If Chris were to decide to leave after this year I'd be fine with it, just so long as Matt could be retained. We have a foundation of decent talent on the roster, and more coming on board next year. Unlike when Jarvis and Lavin left, a new coach coming in next year would not have to start from scratch, and he'd already have an ace recruiter on the staff. That would have an immense amount of appeal to an up and coming coach(IE Danny Hurley). I'm not labeling the CM experiment a failure just yet, but if that's the direction we are headed, it would be much better to make a change sooner(end of the season) rather than later.
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Nice Monte but no need to bail on anything - very disappointing now of course - but CM - forget being dealt a bad hand - was given no hand. This was an expansion Div 3 expansion team. If CM wants to stay he needs at least a few more years...thanks
 
First thing we do is give Mullin another year to right the ship. Then we put in a phone call to Mark Jackson and see if he has any interest in leading St John's back to it's former glory. Jackson has experience as a head coach. And he would be an attractive name to future recruits
 
First thing we do is give Mullin another year to right the ship. Then we put in a phone call to Mark Jackson and see if he has any interest in leading St John's back to it's former glory. Jackson has experience as a head coach. And he would be an attractive name to future recruits
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It has been well documented here that the SJU / Mark Jackson relationship is non existent.
 
So the new over/under this year is 8 wins. And I'm counting on beating Syracuse as a win! I wouldn't mind a reclamation project like Tim Welsh as associate HC.
 
Continuing to lose in this manner may have to result in route of "graceful exit" at year's end. I know CM deserves more time, but what is going on now is disconcerting & painful, for Chris more so.
 
Chris is a straight shooter in his press conferences (which is refreshing and a far cry from our last coach) but to constantly hear how we are learning from losing is getting tiring. If that were truly the case we would have the smartest team in college basketball by now.
 
Chris is a straight shooter in his press conferences (which is refreshing and a far cry from our last coach) but to constantly hear how we are learning from losing is getting tiring. If that were truly the case we would have the smartest team in college basketball by now.
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If we are learning from losing then team and staff would be Mensa's by now

Losing to a big east team is one thing but this is on a whole other planet of losing
 
I am not ready to give up on Mullin and start anew.

Mullin needs a seasoned assistant with college experience (think George Blaney, and Bill Hahn).

I am sure that others can come up with a longer list but among the long list of seemingly unemployed/ underemployed coaches with successful records are (in non particular order):

... Mike Lonergan with college coaching levels of 474–226 (67.7%)

... Mike Rice with college coaching record of 117–82

... Tim Welsh with a college coaching record of 215–148 (59.2)%

... Trent Johnson former head coach at Stanford, LSU, and others with a college coaching record of 276–264 (51.1)

... Donnie Jones former UCF head with a career record of 133–128 (51%)

... Dave Rice with a 5 year head coaching record at UNLV of 98–54 (64.5%)

... Jim Crews, a long time assistant for Bobby Knight who was the head coach at Evansville, Army and most recently as 4 year head at St.Louis who compiled a career record of 431–404 (51.6%)
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Steve Lavin 237-150, .61.2%.....oops Sorry
 
Hope Matty A is retained by next coach.
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If the losing continues why would you want this? Matt can't be our Herb Williams . Sorry but losing culture is losing culture and there are other people in this world who do there job like Matt and also actually coach. He is the guy recruiting these players who are losing .. And if it's on the staff and not the players then either way he would be part of the problem. Probably not the most popular of posts because people like Matt so much when all along he is just doing what he is getting paid to do . The last staff made us lose sight of what work actually was.
 
Hope Matty A is retained by next coach.
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If the losing continues why would you want this? Matt can't be our Herb Williams . Sorry but losing culture is losing culture and there are other people in this world who do there job like Matt and also actually coach. He is the guy recruiting these players who are losing .. And if it's on the staff and not the players then either way he would be part of the problem. Probably not the most popular of posts because people like Matt so much when all along he is just doing what he is getting paid to do . The last staff made us lose sight of what work actually was.
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You can have a recruiting specialist on staff if there is at least one guy or girl that can actually coach the game of basketball.
 
Hope Matty A is retained by next coach.
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If the losing continues why would you want this? Matt can't be our Herb Williams . Sorry but losing culture is losing culture and there are other people in this world who do there job like Matt and also actually coach. He is the guy recruiting these players who are losing .. And if it's on the staff and not the players then either way he would be part of the problem. Probably not the most popular of posts because people like Matt so much when all along he is just doing what he is getting paid to do . The last staff made us lose sight of what work actually was.
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You can have a recruiting specialist on staff if there is at least one guy or girl that can actually coach the game of basketball.
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I don't disagree with you one bit and have nothing against Matt but he isn't the only guy in the country who does what he does.
 
We must stick with CM. Giving up on him would indicate a total capitulation and would send a message that we are dead as a big time program and we will never ever get another big time recruit. We put our money on CM and we must ride him all the way or surrender
And join the the likes of Fordham and Manhattan type of basketball programs.
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We already are Fordham and Manhattan type of basketball program.
My concern is that Mullin is not cerebral enough to figure things out on his own AND that he does not take advice easily. In Mullin's case he may be his own worst enemy. As has been regurgitated many times St. John's will not fire Mullin the way an NBA team would with his NBA street game and obvious inferior coaching skills against lesser opponents but it would not surprise me if he resigned after two or three seasons if he feels he just cannot cut it. He is wealthy enough not to need a buyout settlement and St. John's has shown they are willing to pay a very competitive salary. They just need to free themselves of the opinions and influence of the a few people that have no business making basketball decisions.
 
I still think it is important to give this time to play out. Many things can look terrible after a brutal loss like today but it makes little sense to look at taking things apart now. When Lavin left we had a team that had made the NCAAs twice in a five year span. For many that was not enough progress (even following the Roberts years of no appearances) to warrant a vote of confidence to stay the course with the Lavin regime. There was of course some sound reasons to make that change. The future did look dark with just about no returning players, a lack of a strong recruiting presence and no roster balance going forward. Given the start from virtually nothing Mullin has been remarkable in bringing in some good talent quickly.

So far the wins have not come and the product on the floor has disappointed most fans. It is just that growth does not usually happen in a straight line. It is typically a series of advances and retreats. Recently it has been mostly retreats and not advances. That is frustrating and makes most fans edgy.

As for being at today's game I can say that watching the 35 to 5 run live was pretty embarrassing. This was especially true considering we were playing a team that appeared, at least on paper, to be a relatively even match with us. It also seemed to me that Lovett was only about 75%. He was limping noticeably and was definitely not 100% comfortable out there. His performance (six turnovers to one assist} along with Ahmed's five turnovers and no assists was disconcerting to watch. Add in a 3 for 17 shooting day by Ponds including 1 for 10 from two point range and it was a recipe for a bad blowout loss.

How much of this should be put on the coach. Ponds and Lovett are freshman and undersized. Despite their obvious talents, handling both the physical and mental adversity of playing at a new level makes their development a work in progress. Ahmed has talents, but I watched his JUCO games on-line and his struggles at this level were predictable given the better competition and defenses he now faces. The loss of Sima and the injury to Alibegovic, while on the surface might not have seemed huge, greatly hurts our depth on the inside. When you don't have the most talented big men then you need to rotate multiple bodies to allow for more fouls to compensate for the lack of top players at the position. Today Owens was by far our best inside player. He had a double double (11 points and 11 boards) but was also hampered by foul trouble. More bodies would have definitely helped him today.

Ultimately Coach Mullin and his staff have the bottom line responsibility here for the product on the floor. I think my biggest concern so far is that the team the last two years has not established any kind of a strong consistent defensive presence. That should be a staple of winning programs even in the absence of the best talent or the most experienced teams. That defensive intensity keeps lost seasons to a minimum.

I believe there are brighter days ahead. The present roster has some talent and will hopefully continue to develop. Clark and Simon should be very good additions next season and there will be more good recruits to follow. Hopefully we will get some more wins this year and games like today will be few and far between. I am taking the tactic of having some patience and some faith. I think if we give this time and don't panic we will see some sun coming through the other end of that tunnel before too long.
 
Despite the frustration, I'm all for a bit more patience... but despite how we finish up, next year will bring about it's own set of challenges even for the bright spots

- Simon and Clark are being counted on heavily, but they will have to shed one year of rust and still unknown
- Brown cannot be counted on to suit up, academically or legally... And even if he does we'll have a freshman.

- Even if some, or all, of the above suit, up, will have the same excuses as this year.. New guys learning how to play with each other and how to work in with the returnees.

- Even if Ali B, and/or Williams are gone, I still have to suspect at least one other player will be gone

- The coaching is mysterious to me... I'm far from a coach, but I can easily see when a time out is needed to try to break up momentum of a huge run by opponent... I also can't seem to wonder if they are having any conversations with Bashir Ahmed about his continual bull rushing the paint uncontrollably... You would think seeing that a few times on video would become clearer to him and/or coaches telling him that must be pulled in. Same for Lovett continually feeling it's OK to dribble wildly into the paint with no ball control. These are the little things that add up that continue to repeat themselves.

- I don't know if Richmond and St. Jean are the problem, but definitely not seeming to bring anything new as time passes and losses rack up that give hope that they are getting better in their new roles.
 
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