beast of the east
Active member
First of of, as I've expressed several times over the last few months, I believe we have a great community of students, alumni, and fans of SJU that root for our teams and interact on the site. You guys have almost all been great to me, and are helping me through a difficult time.
We have a growing and ardent fan base, and this season at times has looked very promising. A talented starting 5, the Big East defensive player of the year, quite possibly Big East POY, and high profile transfer, a sleeper juco who has worked out beyond all expectations, and a rock solid forward. Many times it was generally acknowledged that we may have the best starting 5 in the Big East, and possibly one of the better 5 man rotations in the country. However, the deficiencies were well known. The transfer eligible center got injured, had surgery, and hasn't played well. Other bench players appeared too green, including the only other big man on the roster. Still we've rooted like hell, with the best attendance in 28 years.
Of course after losing three winnable games in a row that catapulted us from 3rd to 7th place by the margin of a single win, all hell broke loose after a 2nd loss to DePaul. Posters called our coaching staff inept, lazy, and the winner was "low class".
In terms of inept, I'd really like to know what strategy could be deployed when opponents packed it in and dared us to shoot from the perimeter. When we make shots it's a bad strategy, and when we miss, you'd have to tell me what a coach is to do? Still attack the hoop, even when refs don't blow the whistle and shot after shot is contested by bigger front lines? On defense, how do you defend against teams that had big front lines, some with skilled big men who could post and shoot from mid range? Of course, I'd agree that fundamentally, we didn't appear to box out well, and at times we rushed shots. Not sure that correcting those things would turn games around, but to be fair, it's reasonable to critique.
In terms of lazy, and not being around as much as some fans demanded, it's now clear that Chris was attending to a terminally ill brother in addition to reasonably travelling periodically to the west coast to see part of his family. Neither occurrence was planned, and while some lunatics here criticized Lavin for taking most of year two off to get treatment for cancer, and others lambasted him for attending his father's funeral, while Rod Mullin was spending his last hours on earth, Chris decided to coach this very big game for us. Disinterested? Not caring about the job, the team, or the school? Cashing a paycheck. To anyone of us who asserted that, or failed to defend that we should be ashamed of yourselves for representing our school that way. It's an embarrassment, really, and I'm ashamed I didn't speak up more.
I did defend Chris against the low class comment someone made about him, and glad I did. I apologize for sometimes acting as a torchbearer to defend Chris, but the following example tells you a little about the man, and a tiny bit about his brother.
I met Rod Mullin just once I believe. He played at Siena and his career overlapped Chris by one or two seasons, and I really don't remember him sitting with his parents at Chris' games at SJU, even though they sat only 2 rows above us (in the cushioned row of seats above the bleachers).
Rod was present at Chris' SJU HOF induction breakfast back in 2015. My wife and I attended, and back in those days before kids she and I attended the games when Chris played. After all the inductions, I asked my wife if she wanted to go up and congratulate Chris, and she was excited at the chance to meet him. there was a short line of people waiting to congratulate him and when we introduced ourselves as season ticket holders who had met and chatted his parents back in his playing days, Chris smiled warmly and said "One loud one and one quiet one!" we laughed, no sure which was which, but before we could ask, Chris said "I'd like you to meet my family, and introduced them one by one, as if we were old friends. It was so polite, so classy, so unexpected, that my wife and I (who had interacted with Chris over the years as a player here) were really impressed with his decency.
Of course we all know the promise at his initial press conference that he would work his tail off recruiting. That he knew every gym and still had the keys to a few. That he would restore all the relationships that had withered away. So, yea the lack of presence on the recruiting trail as reported by other users here was/is a concern.
Many here in frustration started taking swipes at Chris, about his dedication, about his interest in the job, about how lazy he is, how stubborn he is. Some were just plain knuckleheads who come in and flame boards. Others were rabid fans who refused to consider what might be going on. Heck, a couple of users insisted he was in California, even when at the same moments Paul Massell's son was at CA interviewing Chris for a video he agreed to be in. But these things take on a life of their own, some have even persisted today, even after the announcement that Rod Mullin had passed away.
How disgustingly offensive to think that as Rod Mullin was spending his last moments on earth, with his younger brother Chris coaching a make-or-break game for our season in Cincinnati, coaching because he came here to do a job, to restore this once storied program, who weighed everything that was going on, and decided he belonged on the sidelines, there was many of us, yes of US, not you, who questioned everything from his coaching intellect, to passion for being at SJU, to milking his contract. So many permutations, and so disgusting in character assassination, that I'm embarrassed.
There are times in my own life where I wish I was a little more restrained before shooting off my mouth emotionally, before I knew the whole story, when ashamedly I didn't give the benefit of the doubt to someone who deserved exactly that. I've been there and hope that those events become non existent in the future.
I'm not even certain what impact Rod's illness had on Chris' availability, but if what Chris Mullin was silently dealing with out of the public eye caused him to make difficult decisions about where he should be at any moment, and being with his brother won out over meeting a recruit, then shame on anyone who would think that's the wrong decision.
I waited a couple of days to post this, and apologize for anyone that feels offended by it, but one thing that I am completely certain about is that Chris Mullin is the real deal as a person. Going forward any criticism of Chris, other than egregious actions on his part committed publicly, should be limited to X's, O's, W's and L's. The rest is up to his superiors at SJU.
We have a growing and ardent fan base, and this season at times has looked very promising. A talented starting 5, the Big East defensive player of the year, quite possibly Big East POY, and high profile transfer, a sleeper juco who has worked out beyond all expectations, and a rock solid forward. Many times it was generally acknowledged that we may have the best starting 5 in the Big East, and possibly one of the better 5 man rotations in the country. However, the deficiencies were well known. The transfer eligible center got injured, had surgery, and hasn't played well. Other bench players appeared too green, including the only other big man on the roster. Still we've rooted like hell, with the best attendance in 28 years.
Of course after losing three winnable games in a row that catapulted us from 3rd to 7th place by the margin of a single win, all hell broke loose after a 2nd loss to DePaul. Posters called our coaching staff inept, lazy, and the winner was "low class".
In terms of inept, I'd really like to know what strategy could be deployed when opponents packed it in and dared us to shoot from the perimeter. When we make shots it's a bad strategy, and when we miss, you'd have to tell me what a coach is to do? Still attack the hoop, even when refs don't blow the whistle and shot after shot is contested by bigger front lines? On defense, how do you defend against teams that had big front lines, some with skilled big men who could post and shoot from mid range? Of course, I'd agree that fundamentally, we didn't appear to box out well, and at times we rushed shots. Not sure that correcting those things would turn games around, but to be fair, it's reasonable to critique.
In terms of lazy, and not being around as much as some fans demanded, it's now clear that Chris was attending to a terminally ill brother in addition to reasonably travelling periodically to the west coast to see part of his family. Neither occurrence was planned, and while some lunatics here criticized Lavin for taking most of year two off to get treatment for cancer, and others lambasted him for attending his father's funeral, while Rod Mullin was spending his last hours on earth, Chris decided to coach this very big game for us. Disinterested? Not caring about the job, the team, or the school? Cashing a paycheck. To anyone of us who asserted that, or failed to defend that we should be ashamed of yourselves for representing our school that way. It's an embarrassment, really, and I'm ashamed I didn't speak up more.
I did defend Chris against the low class comment someone made about him, and glad I did. I apologize for sometimes acting as a torchbearer to defend Chris, but the following example tells you a little about the man, and a tiny bit about his brother.
I met Rod Mullin just once I believe. He played at Siena and his career overlapped Chris by one or two seasons, and I really don't remember him sitting with his parents at Chris' games at SJU, even though they sat only 2 rows above us (in the cushioned row of seats above the bleachers).
Rod was present at Chris' SJU HOF induction breakfast back in 2015. My wife and I attended, and back in those days before kids she and I attended the games when Chris played. After all the inductions, I asked my wife if she wanted to go up and congratulate Chris, and she was excited at the chance to meet him. there was a short line of people waiting to congratulate him and when we introduced ourselves as season ticket holders who had met and chatted his parents back in his playing days, Chris smiled warmly and said "One loud one and one quiet one!" we laughed, no sure which was which, but before we could ask, Chris said "I'd like you to meet my family, and introduced them one by one, as if we were old friends. It was so polite, so classy, so unexpected, that my wife and I (who had interacted with Chris over the years as a player here) were really impressed with his decency.
Of course we all know the promise at his initial press conference that he would work his tail off recruiting. That he knew every gym and still had the keys to a few. That he would restore all the relationships that had withered away. So, yea the lack of presence on the recruiting trail as reported by other users here was/is a concern.
Many here in frustration started taking swipes at Chris, about his dedication, about his interest in the job, about how lazy he is, how stubborn he is. Some were just plain knuckleheads who come in and flame boards. Others were rabid fans who refused to consider what might be going on. Heck, a couple of users insisted he was in California, even when at the same moments Paul Massell's son was at CA interviewing Chris for a video he agreed to be in. But these things take on a life of their own, some have even persisted today, even after the announcement that Rod Mullin had passed away.
How disgustingly offensive to think that as Rod Mullin was spending his last moments on earth, with his younger brother Chris coaching a make-or-break game for our season in Cincinnati, coaching because he came here to do a job, to restore this once storied program, who weighed everything that was going on, and decided he belonged on the sidelines, there was many of us, yes of US, not you, who questioned everything from his coaching intellect, to passion for being at SJU, to milking his contract. So many permutations, and so disgusting in character assassination, that I'm embarrassed.
There are times in my own life where I wish I was a little more restrained before shooting off my mouth emotionally, before I knew the whole story, when ashamedly I didn't give the benefit of the doubt to someone who deserved exactly that. I've been there and hope that those events become non existent in the future.
I'm not even certain what impact Rod's illness had on Chris' availability, but if what Chris Mullin was silently dealing with out of the public eye caused him to make difficult decisions about where he should be at any moment, and being with his brother won out over meeting a recruit, then shame on anyone who would think that's the wrong decision.
I waited a couple of days to post this, and apologize for anyone that feels offended by it, but one thing that I am completely certain about is that Chris Mullin is the real deal as a person. Going forward any criticism of Chris, other than egregious actions on his part committed publicly, should be limited to X's, O's, W's and L's. The rest is up to his superiors at SJU.
Last edited: