Zach Article

fordham96 said:
I have moved on from debating if there will be a change. There will be.

I am more worried who they will target.
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Knowing SJU's they'll screw it up as usual. This has nothing to do Shanley or Cragg.
Yes Cragg will recommend the coaches I guess to Shanley, and Shanley would relay it to the BOT.

The BOT will just say no, no, no until the 5th or 6th name then they'll vote yes, and no true SJU fan will really give 2 blanks about that coach.
If Cragg and Shanley had the final say on who the next coach will be, I'd feel alot better.
 
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fordham96 said:
Does anyone believe Zach writes that piece (obviously it is ostensibly an op-ed piece) if he doesn't ALREADY have an inkling that Mike Anderson will not be retained at season's end?
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I 100% believe that Zach has zero knowledge. I think he had an assignment to write 500 words and went on what was essentially a message board rant. He didn't uncover anything new, he takes wild stabs at salary and he doesn't offer any alternatives. IT's an Op-ed and an incredibly pandering. I especially like ST John's fans are showing up with ~12k fans going to the MSG games. First off that's only like 60% full and second we schedule the teams whose fans travel. It's not an accident that every year UCONN, Nova, Providence and Gtown get to play the garden.

Honestly, several board members should be owed royalties for this article. Plus Fordham has the right attitude.
 
RedStormRising said:
I 100% believe that Zach has zero knowledge. I think he had an assignment to write 500 words and went on what was essentially a message board rant. He didn't uncover anything new, he takes wild stabs at salary and he doesn't offer any alternatives. IT's an Op-ed and an incredibly pandering. I especially like ST John's fans are showing up with ~12k fans going to the MSG games. First off that's only like 60% full and second we schedule the teams whose fans travel. It's not an accident that every year UCONN, Nova, Providence and Gtown get to play the garden.

Honestly, several board members should be owed royalties for this article. Plus Fordham has the right attitude.
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Do Gtown fans travel? My recollection from attending a number of games in DC was that GTown’a fan base was nearly as apathetic as ours. I don’t recall them traveling well at all. Guess we’ll see tonight.

I also don’t recall Providence’s fan base traveling particularly well, but maybe that’s changed as they’ve become more successful.
 
I’m all for ripping the media. Most are hacks. Hell in some ways Zach is a hack.

But with all the ribs on Zach reading the forum. Well no shit. If you’re writing a piece you should do research. That being said Stevie Wonder can see the same things that people happen to post here. It’s not like we’re all geniuses unearthing something that nobody else can see.

I guess the proverbial patting on the back whenever Zach comes out with a hit piece is a bit much to me. I’m happy there is still a beat writer and a NY paper that ‘covers’ us.

Disclaimer I’ve never met Zach and never spoken a word to him in person or online.
 
Amaseinyourface said:
With how confident, and perhaps rightfully so, people are he will get let go. I’m surprised there’s not more talk of potential candidates. I just really think the Mike Brey connection might be something in possible. And I don’t necessarily love that.
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There's a thread that has 41 pages, 809 replies and has been viewed 40,000 times lol
 
Many may think Zack poached this site for his insights...but I doubt it. I'm pretty sure he reads the posts here when someone mentions his name. That's human nature.

Only a couple of posters break new ground here...i.e. the "insiders" with recruiting news.

Other than that, it comes down to "The coach sucks...he's inept...clueless" "Soriano has turned himself into a stud" "Curbelo...etc".

Our record speaks for itself.

Another record...since Oliva began his involvement with athletics in 2000...the basketball program has been in free fall. We've gone from Big East and national relevance to a team that wouldn't make noise in the Atlantic 10. We beat everyone in the softer part of our schedule, so we'd probably be successful in the MAAC or Colonial.

If Zach wanted to break new ground in his wonderful rant, he should have called for Oliva's head. I guess he doesn't know as much about the program as you think he does.
 
Good job wish he had been around while Norm was here.
One thing that bothered me with Norm bothers me with Anderson.
I don’t care if they are nice men. If you lose games as the coach of a team I root for you are a jerk as far as I am concerned.
 
It was clear Mike was gone after season ended. Like Fordham, my attention will be on who they target. Additionally, I want Father S to be prime guy leading the process. I could care less if Cragg appears to be chairman to not embarrass him, but Shanley has to be the alpha dog. I am in minority, but I don’t think Joe Oliva has the clout he had in Mullin hire year.

We can throw out high end, splash names, but to what end? Pitino seems extremely unlikely, so sure this search involves a lot of risk. They had no choice but to stop the bleeding. This job is tainted, but is a BE position w a solid salary, so there will be candidates, but I bet none will be slam dunks. I expect guys with proven track records at lower level will be the sweet spot, not retreads. “We are Risk U” 😇
 
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Agree with several of the above. He is stating the obvious, just as many here do, BECAUSE IT IS OBVIOUS.

But, it is important that the media pick up and publish this since that raises the profile of the situation and could force the hand of those who may not want their hands to be forced. It certainly puts more pressure in favor of a change to have the media that covers the team openly state that a change is needed.
 
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paultzman said:
It was clear Mike was gone after season ended. Like Fordham, my attention will be on who they target. Additionally, I want Father S to be prime guy leading the process. I could care less if Cragg appears to be chairman to not embarrass him, but Shanley has to be the alpha dog. I am in minority, but I don’t think Joe Oliva has the clout he had in Mullin hire year.

We can throw out high end, splash names, but to what end? Pitino seems extremely unlikely, so sure this search involves a lot of risk. They had no choice but to stop the bleeding. This job is tainted, but is a BE position w a solid salary, so there will be candidates, but I bet every one will not be slam dunks. I expect guys with proven track records at lower level will be the sweet spot, not retreads. “We are Risk U” 😇
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Actually incredible when you think no NCAA win in 23 years
 
paultzman said:
It was clear Mike was gone after season ended. Like Fordham, my attention will be on who they target. Additionally, I want Father S to be prime guy leading the process. I could care less if Cragg appears to be chairman to not embarrass him, but Shanley has to be the alpha dog. I am in minority, but I don’t think Joe Oliva has the clout he had in Mullin hire year.

We can throw out high end, splash names, but to what end? Pitino seems extremely unlikely, so sure this search involves a lot of risk. They had no choice but to stop the bleeding. This job is tainted, but is a BE position w a solid salary, so there will be candidates, but I bet every one will not be slam dunks. I expect guys with proven track records at lower level will be the sweet spot, not retreads. “We are Risk U” 😇
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At this point, I would target Speedy since he has exceed expectations in this market. I don't know if he would have any interest but I assume he would. I know it is a risk, but I don't know of any who would not be. He is a known quantity here, would get a needed honeymoon period and I think can coach and recruit well enough, with the right assistants, to in several years be very good. JMHO.
 
The part in Zach’s piece about going “hat in hand” to Repole is interesting (I admit I enjoy piecing tidbits together in a conspiratorial kind of way).

I think they have already begun to mend fences. Maybe Repole has softened up a bit too. Maybe winning the Belmont Stakes, has tempered his emotions, but not his passion for winning.

However, in no way does anyone discuss this until after Anderson is gone. In not, Repole would certainly be asked what he thinks about Anderson. Even though everyone knows the answer, it would make for a very uneasy situation for all parties.

Once Anderson is dismissed, you can bring back Repole and whoever else and just thank Anderson for his hard work and being a good role model to the young men of the team, but unfortunately things did not work out.

Then you can pivot the discussion about looking forward to a bright future of SJU basketball.

While I am firmly behind Pitino, there are other very good candidates out there as well. In the end, just make a good hire and let’s resurrect this f*cking program because that is what we all want in the end.

We are…
 
Inappropriate language
RedStormRising said:
I 100% believe that Zach has zero knowledge. I think he had an assignment to write 500 words and went on what was essentially a message board rant. He didn't uncover anything new, he takes wild stabs at salary and he doesn't offer any alternatives. IT's an Op-ed and an incredibly pandering.
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I'm pretty sure I've never liked a post before - and in fact I think'd be a huge improvement if the site added a hate button - but this is spot on. Brazziler is a shit writer and a worse journalist: he makes tortured dwarf Mike Lupica look like Grantland Rice. No knowledge, no sources, no insight. That he's the St John's beat writer (to the extent that St John's has a beat writer) is a testament to what a truly garbage program this is. Besides which what else was he going to do, suck Anderson's dick? He'd have to wrestle it out of Tim Brando's mouth first.
 
paultzman said:
It was clear Mike was gone after season ended. Like Fordham, my attention will be on who they target. Additionally, I want Father S to be prime guy leading the process. I could care less if Cragg appears to be chairman to not embarrass him, but Shanley has to be the alpha dog. I am in minority, but I don’t think Joe Oliva has the clout he had in Mullin hire year.

We can throw out high end, splash names, but to what end? Pitino seems extremely unlikely, so sure this search involves a lot of risk. They had no choice but to stop the bleeding. This job is tainted, but is a BE position w a solid salary, so there will be candidates, but I bet none will be slam dunks. I expect guys with proven track records at lower level will be the sweet spot, not retreads. “We are Risk U” 😇
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Since you brought up “Risk U”, I am now looking at coaches from universities that have R.U. and have mid-major basketball programs.
 
Truth hurts. No glossing over this train wreck. Only part missing is Fr. S should have a lot of questions for Mr. Cragg. It was his decision to give Coach MA an extension when he really didn’t have too. Is he the right person to lead this Program forward? I don’t know the answer. I suspect they won’t do anything but everything should be on the table.
 
paultzman said:
Additionally, I want Father S to be prime guy leading the process. I could care less if Cragg appears to be chairman to not embarrass him, but Shanley has to be the alpha dog.
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Shanley displayed mind-boggling financial incompetence with CMA’s extension. You have far more faith in his decision-making abilities than I do.
 
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