http://zsmart.blogspot.com/2010/02/becoming-norm.html A cluster of cliches have become the Norm for St. John's coach Norm Roberts.
"Give them credit," "they played hard," "we didn't guard," "we have to go back to the drawing board," "we'll get better."
The oh-so-familiar, re-illustrated thoughts emerge following a St. John's loss. Roberts frequently rolls into the post-game press conference sporting a sugarcoat.
Roberts has frequently indicated there's no strong emphasis on playing with a sense of urgency, defeating respectable programs or propelling the program into a deeply-talented conference's high-rent district.
Failing to close out games, suffering second half power outages. Surrendering mammoth runs without calling a timeout, as we witnessed in the West Virginia dumpoff.
It's all become the Norm.
Hearing Roberts following these losses is almost akin to listening to a dorky, upbeat kid in a pickup game toss up the "we'll get them next time" line on you, directly after an exasperating loss which could have easily been prevented.
The positive energy is certainly not frowned upon, but has St. John's Athletic Director Chris Monasch come to accept this?
With fans calling for his job and expressing the University's need for a fresh system and a winning formula, Roberts is still talking about "learning experiences."
Is this the brand of basketball St. John's, a once-prosperous program which carried the NCAA torch proudly for a basketball crazed-city, is content with?
Wasn't St. John's looking to break out of the tunnel of albatross since the beginning of the season? Clearly, the aspiration to emerge from cellar-dwellar to
ticket seller, from pretender to contender is currently nonexistent.
When your team is mired in a Big East freefall, relinquishing a 16-point lead to West Virginia in a Knicks-like second half meltdown, some order has to be restored.
Sooner or later, particularly after you get washed and walloped by a UConn team
that's encountered chemistry problems and is grappling for middle-of-the-pack credibility, the act of drinking the poison must halt.
The Huskies played hard and St. John's didn't guard. That sums up Roberts' analysis of that lopsided loss.
Sooner or later, the coach must realize that sitting one of your reeling team's most effective scorers in Dwight Hardy, could be detrimental to team success.
Roberts kept bench splinters in Hardy's behind for the first 13 minutes of the
second half during the Johnnies' inexplicable 71-66 loss to Cornell at Madison Square Garden back on Dec.21, sapping some momentum out of the Johnnies.
It also hurt that Jeff Foote, a relatively unknown 7-footer on Cornell (two years ago he couldn't run up and down the court and chew bubble gum at the same time), dropped 19 points and tore down 11 boards.
Hardy, known mainly as "buckets," put on a shooting clinic in the first half of
that battle. His performance was parallel to hotshot shows he turned in during games against Cincy (19 points in 20 minutes)and Villanova (19 points in 27 minutes on 7-for-15 FG).
Though Hardy averages a few more points than starting two-guard Paris Horne, gets the hot hand more often and in bigger games, Roberts chooses to start Horne.
Why not start Hardy, instead utilizing Horne as the sparkplug off the
pine?
Roberts hit the recruiting trails hard this summer and fall. He did a
commendable job getting Hardy, a local product who lit up the Orchard
Beach Hoops In The Sun tournament, to ink with the Johnnies.
Why not utilize every ounce of Hardy's scoring abilty?
I'm not going to sing the same old tired, sad swan tune because it's not that he Roberts can't maintain homegrown talent.
Roberts had been a solid local presence in constant, heavy pursuit of NYC thoroughbreds such as Villanova-commit Jayvaughn Pinkston Cincinnati freshman Lance Stephenson and Pittsburgh-commit JJ Moore.
Roberts has scoured Gotham's hotbeds, where most people appreciate his winning personality coupled with laid-back, positive and outgoing energy.
If you were a heavily sought after recruit from the big city of dreams,
however, would you pick St. John's over Pittsburgh, UConn, Villanova, or
Syracuse?
The aftermath of the Mike Jarvis quagmire forced St. John's to start from
scratch. That, however, was a while ago now...
A program that rakes up the non-conference puppies who can't play with
the pitbulls (Bryant, Georgia, Fordham Stony Brook, with a signature win over Temple aside) and then loses to lowly Rutgers before assuming a second half fetal
position to West Virginia needs some immediate adjustment.
It starts with harnessing talent better and addressing tumultous tendencies.
Now, we know Roberts is not a fiery Jim Calhoun type of coach. Calling out players and ripping them for their shortfalls is purely out of his nature. It's not a lot of
coaches' styles, but Roberts' disappointment following a loss is never really
visible.
What is evident, is Roberts' predilection for overplaying Malik Boothe despite the smurf-sized point guards tendency to turn the ball over. Malik Stith is clearly the better shooter and more capable of manufacturing offense.
Pointing out the few bright spots following losses has become the Norm.
Never taking any accountability for any losses or admitting that he was outcoached has become the Norm.
Surrendering a significant double-digit lead in the game's final, decisive
minutes and losing in overtime and then claiming "that's why basketball is an
awesome game. It's never over until it's over" (as he did following the
Johnnies' a choke show loss to Seton Hall four years ago) has become the Norm.
Setting the program that's been striving for turnaround with losses to Rutgers
and Cornell and knowing your job is very well intact, has become the Norm.
On top of it all, SJU men's basketball contact Mark Fratto runs the Johnnies' PR department like a Sensitive Sam. His antics include failing to give legit writers credentials and tweeting the positives of blowout losses.
Spin Dr. Fratto has gone overboard in attempt to alter the first amendment rights of some folks, as the following link would indicate:
http://thedirty.com/2008/10/02/st_john5c27s_university_cheerleader/