You can thank Norm for this year

Polee was simply a superior athlete with little polish on his game. He actually got worse and not better as the season progressed. Watching how he could glide to the hoop and effortlessly elevate was a thing of beauty. His outside shot was hot and mostly cold, he is a horrendous ball handler for a 3, and his straight up defense was extremely weak. He gambled every single time on the passing lanes, and that resulted in the breakdown of our defense. By midseason, he was firmly planted on the bench during crunch time, with good reason. I think he saw the writing on the wall here with all the talent coming in, and knew he would have to fight for every minute. If he was resolute on improving all of the considerable weaknesses in his game, he would have stayed, improved and been a meaningful contributor. Instead, he bailed, in my opinion more disenchanted that he wasn't anointed last year than homesick. In the long run, we are better off without him, because I didn't see any signs of improvement, but many cracks in his game.

Your description of Polee sums up just about every single player on our roster....a great athlete, but not a great basketball player.
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I Think Polee at best would be considered one or two players ahead of Stith - no better. We have much better basketball talents than Polee on our squad right now.
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Seriously though in terms of this thread - We really should thank Norm. If he was simply adequate, he'd still be here and we'd be no better than mid Big East forever. Thankfully, because he was so awful, FH was convinced to spend major league buck to bring in not only a brand name head coach, but a major league staff under him. If the program wasn't in the dumper, we'd have hired a mid major guy ready to step up. So, thanks Norm - because of you, we have a great future! 
 
 polee would have been a star...he'll probably be a first rounder.

let's thank mr repole for our good fortune.

just thought i'd clarify things.
 
I don't think he was a bad kid, so I hope you're right. However, I'd like to bookmark your assessment and remind you in 2 1/2 years how wrong you are. No way he will be a first rounder unless he puts in an amazing amount of work. When he dribbles with his left hand it's all he can do not to lose control of the ball.

By the way, seated next to me in Denver at the NCAA regionals, there was some middle aged guy who started screaming for Lavin to "Put in Polee!!" His little kid picked up on it, and all friggin game there was a chorus of two, angrily screaming at Lavin to "put in Polee!!!" Was that by any chance you?

By the way, if Norm wasn't so bad, Repole wouldn't have started whispering in FH's ear about a coach. FYI, Repole has been EXTREMELY generous, but is not financing Coach L & crew's salary.


 polee would have been a star...he'll probably be a first rounder.

let's thank mr repole for our good fortune.

just thought i'd clarify things.
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 At the end of the day, when st johns is back as a perenial Top 20 program, the Roberts era will be a thing of the past. We will remember how well the seniors played in their final year and the rest may be an after thought. Lavin will have us on top again. It will take a couple of years, so enjoy the ride there!!!!
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I truly hope you're right. But I'm not ready to say we'll be a perennial Top 20 team in the next few years. My HOPE is that we are; but 4 top 100 recruits do not guarantee success. We play in a league (that for the moment at least) is littered with teams pulling in top 100 talent EVERY SEASON, and the occasional AA.

We're definitely moving in the right direction but I can't say I'm ready to "sit back". Nova fans have seen enough from Jay Wright to have the confidence to sit back and wait a season or two till they're back on top, G-town fans too know that sooner or later JTIII will produce a winner -- what have we seen from Lavin that has everyone so confident? He's better than Norm. He's an impressive recruiter, a great motivator, and an underrated tactician. This is all true. I was thrilled with the hire and the program is moving in the right direction. But we're not in sit back and relax mode yet.
 
Thank God we have Lavin and Norm is gone.
We have a young team so we will go through many ups and downs.
Saturday was a tough one. Bottom line this team already has more talent than Norm's team's ever did. Remember the old Wooden line, you recruit length and quickness. We have that. None of Roberts team's ever came close to this.
In Lavin we trust!  
 
Thank God we have Lavin and Norm is gone.
We have a young team so we will go through many ups and downs.
Saturday was a tough one. Bottom line this team already has more talent than Norm's team's ever did. Remember the old Wooden line, you recruit length and quickness. We have that. None of Roberts team's ever came close to this.
In Lavin we trust!  
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  It took Jay Wright 3 or 4 years to build Nova. I had low expectations this year anyway so while I might get upset after a couple of losses 24 hours later I'm pretty much over it for the most part.

With Norm and the last few years of the Jarvis error I didn't even have hope going into the next season. Now I don't just have hope but I have confidence that Lavin and the staff are going to get the job done.

The kids have loads of potential and are fun to watch. I just hope the kids don't get too down if things get tough this year because their futures are bright here in the big picture
 
Forget Roberts- everyone knows he cant coach, he is fired, forget him 

btw with SMU coming to the BE does that mean we get to see Doherty LOL
 
Forget Roberts- everyone knows he cant coach, he is fired, forget him 

btw with SMU coming to the BE does that mean we get to see Doherty LOL
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You missed the conversation on that topic a couple weeks back though you're no doubt thrilled. My point was and is Doh better take advantage of his last couple of years in CUSA to try and get just his third winning conference record in 11 years as a head coach. He'll be fired before it happens in the BE. But since they've already lost to Fresno, Colorado St and Oral Roberts I thinking a winning conference record this year is unlikely. On the plus side he's only got to play Memphis and Marshall once each this year. Doesn't matter. He sucks. ;)
 
Three NIT seasons, after inheriting a bad team for Wright. Top recruiting class after season one, led by Jason Fraser.

Year Four - Sweet 16
Year Five - Elite Eight.

Ten Seasons, 7 straight trips to the dance. Over the past 7 seasons, two sweet sixteens, one elite 8, and one final four.



Thank God we have Lavin and Norm is gone.
We have a young team so we will go through many ups and downs.
Saturday was a tough one. Bottom line this team already has more talent than Norm's team's ever did. Remember the old Wooden line, you recruit length and quickness. We have that. None of Roberts team's ever came close to this.
In Lavin we trust!  
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  It took Jay Wright 3 or 4 years to build Nova. I had low expectations this year anyway so while I might get upset after a couple of losses 24 hours later I'm pretty much over it for the most part.

With Norm and the last few years of the Jarvis error I didn't even have hope going into the next season. Now I don't just have hope but I have confidence that Lavin and the staff are going to get the job done.

The kids have loads of potential and are fun to watch. I just hope the kids don't get too down if things get tough this year because their futures are bright here in the big picture
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 Bottom line,

Roberts was the one who decided to add two JC players to a roster that already had 7 juniors on it to begin with (although those JC players were a big part of what we did last year). I understand that he was trying to save his job that last season, but when it doesn't work out, this is what you are left with. A program that is rebuilding from scratch.

I know Lavin was trying to be classy last year, when he said all of those times that Norm left the program in good shape. That was probably true WRT last year's team, but it's clear now that Norm left the cupboard bare (the ineligible rulings did not help either, obviously).
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Does that mean we can thank Norm for last year's magical run and NCAA appearance also? How about next year or the year after when we're in the Final 4, should we thank Norm for that? Maybe we can thank him for Pelle, Sampson, and Garrett being ineligible. And Lavin's prostate surgery. Perhaps today's gridlock in Manhattan should be on the "thank you, Norm" list.

Move on, dude. The story of this season isn't that we are starting a bunch of freshmen (although that's part of it), it's that we don't have enough of them and that they aren't tall enough - which wouldn't be the case had all of the recruits been eligible. With a full squad this might have been a borderline top 25 team.

But I'm sure if that were the case you would have started this thread thanking Norm anyway, right?
 
It's been great since Coach Lavin arrived and I hope we are all patient while his health and his ability to get this program running/balanced are on the upswing. 

If he regains his health and stays at SJU for the long haul, does anyone disagree that SJU will become a top program once again?

After Jarvis, Roberts et al (boy did they blow it and send us back to cave days) I can take a few ups and downs during this process of bringing the Red Storm back to prominence.

By the way as far as recruiting marginal players who did not qualify, maybe because he had to recruit so many players he took a chance on a few. Let's get real - most of the players are playing; one will apaprently play soon; and the other two? Not a poor ratio to be successful with the majority of last year's class.

all the best
 
The Northeastern game was a disappointment, however it really was a story of freshmen vs. experienced players. Northeastern's Smith (29 pts.) said so in the papers. He said that the team identified the "rookie" mistakes being made by St. John's and took advantage of them. We got out hustled, out rebounded and out played overall because our kids didn't have the experience. Let's hope they learned from this and come out playing smarter and harder from now on.
This season is going to be a roller coaster ride. We are going to get some quality wins down the road as well. There will be good and there will be bad, but at the end of the day we are on the right track and that would not be the case if we hadn't made a coaching change. 
 
 A few things here....

The current problems that the program faces in terms of eligible players falls squarely on the shoulders of this staff. They recruited 4 academic question marks and three didn't pan out. it was a risk, they took it, its didn't work out - there is nothing we can do.

We lost Pollee, nothing you can do there but he would be huge help this year. Just his length and understanding of how the zone works would be great for this group. Also, what would this staff do to have Ron Roberts right now... a long 6'8 forward who is an outstanding rebounder, letting him go was a mistake.

Newsman is right.. . lets thank Mr Reople for putting us in a potentially great situation moving forward instead of whinning about Norm Roberts.
 
 I just can't wait for Geno to graduate, he is .... Wait what year is this?
Thought I was in a time warp there for a second. Norm was about as terrible a coach as there could be, but could we please treat Norm like Bloody Mary and just avoid saying his name altogether? It has been two years he has been fired, really no reason to bring him up anymore just like there should have been a statue of limitations on blaming Jarvis.
Besides what is there to blame? This season will be a struggle but there is a lot of talent. Just enjoy the kids. The future, assuming Lavin's health will be bright! 
 
The Northeastern game was a disappointment, however it really was a story of freshmen vs. experienced players. Northeastern's Smith (29 pts.) said so in the papers. He said that the team identified the "rookie" mistakes being made by St. John's and took advantage of them. We got out hustled, out rebounded and out played overall because our kids didn't have the experience. Let's hope they learned from this and come out playing smarter and harder from now on.
This season is going to be a roller coaster ride. We are going to get some quality wins down the road as well. There will be good and there will be bad, but at the end of the day we are on the right track and that would not be the case if we hadn't made a coaching change. 
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I wouldn't necessarily call being out hustled and out rebounded "rookie" mistakes. Anyone can work hard and bust their butt, regardless of age. They are more of a result of us being lazy...
 
 A few things here....

The current problems that the program faces in terms of eligible players falls squarely on the shoulders of this staff. They recruited 4 academic question marks and three didn't pan out. it was a risk, they took it, its didn't work out - there is nothing we can do.

We lost Pollee, nothing you can do there but he would be huge help this year. Just his length and understanding of how the zone works would be great for this group. Also, what would this staff do to have Ron Roberts right now... a long 6'8 forward who is an outstanding rebounder, letting him go was a mistake.

Newsman is right.. . lets thank Mr Reople for putting us in a potentially great situation moving forward instead of whinning about Norm Roberts.
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Amen.
 
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