I enjoyed the game last night. We played tough and I was not embarassed by our play. We lack serious fundamentals out there, guys like Justin have been failed by the coaching staff in my opinion which is a real shame and hopefully will change, but guys like DJ and Sean have showed how far they have come and the kind of talent we have on this team. Either of those guys are good enough to replace Zoubek and Pocius as 5th-9th men on the Duke team (but that might be bc Duke never keeps a deep team and K's recruitign has sucked lately).
We had a ton of people at the Garden - yes all of the Dukies in NYC had something to do with it, but if you looked around the Garden there was a LOT more Red than there usually is at games. St. John's fans are out there. Maybe it's partially the economy's fault - and who could blame anyone. It's defintiely partially our lack of winning. But we ARE still a sleeping giant. If we start winning, people WILL come. Is that how it should be in college athletics? No. But we've never been a TRUE college program. St. John's is not located in a college town, st. John's plays in a professional arena --- we have always been more like a pro team of sorts compared to the likes of Duke, UNC, etc. so you can't expect our fans to be loyal like college fans - they are more like pro fans, but what can you do? There's benefits to playing in the city and MSG, and then there's negatives.
Could we evert be a UNC or a UK or IU? No - and anyone who complains that we're not should get their head examined. They are state schools with TONS of money to pay a coach --- and boosters to help with the coach and the facilities. They are in a different league than us and it's a crock when people compare us to them. We should aspire to have the recent successes of schools like Villanova, Georgetown, or Gonzaga. We need to compare ourselves to the comparable catholic schools without D-1A football programs who we SHOULD be competing with. But if you look at all of them, ALL of them at different times have had major bad streaks since 1990 --- consistent championship-level success at a school like this doesnt seem to be possible for 40-50 years like a Duke or UK or UNC or whatever. But --- consistent success, occasionally making a F4 or having a SHOT at a title but not necessarily winning it, making the tourney 7-8 years out of 10, THOSE are the kinds of things we should be able to do - with the right coach. Norm is NOT that coach.
Redstormhoopsfan is not an enabler. Do you really think that RSHF or Dave supporting this program is what is stopping CM and FH from firing Norm? Please. If they want to support their school we should let them - they are in the minority of supporters, right? The PROBLEM are the hoards of fans who post on these boards and do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to voice their displeasure. THEY are the ones who may be allowing CM and FH to not realize the gravity of the situation. Blaming the few supporters who are proud of their school should not be something we criticize. They aren't Normies - they are Johnnies - and some people just don;t have the taste or desire to knock a coach of amateurs --- while I agree with marillac and others that it is VERY much of a business - I respect the decision not to kill the college coach - to each their own. But it's up to the rest of us to get the word across.
And no, Dave, I don't think Marillac or slyfoxx or Hit or anyone like that is a "fairweather fan." All of those guys are posting on a St. John's message board daily despite us having sucked for years now. They are dedicated fans who love st johns and just express it in a different way even if they don't go to games.
All of us that post here have to be HUGE St. John's fans - we all want St. John's to succeed. We just have to hope the people in power have the program's best interests in mind, and in a year or two we'll all be meeting up at Stout talking about our chances to make the NCAAs. I can dream, can't I?