Roberts Looks to Take Back NYC

Quote from: newsman13 on October 26, 2008, 11:32:31 AM

norm is a cheap street hustler.  every word out of his mouth is self serving.

we won with lesser facilities.  we attracted studs with an old alumni hall as our "showcase".  

sure, he's a first time coach.  the questions are, what is he doing here in the first place...and why is he on a lifetime ticket??

St Johns atrracted studs by paying them, for years

how about some proof.

Quote from: JJ on October 26, 2008, 10:53:57 AM

Quote from: Randomhero423 on October 26, 2008, 09:25:58 AM

if we had a john calipari, sean miller, or bob mckillop, from the start we would be MUCH better.  norm has failed as a recruiter, and a lot of coaches would have done a lot better.

If we had roy williams, dean smith, bob knight we would be much better too. We don't though and facilities are important aspect of recruiting. St. John's was behind the 8 ball and this does not help a first time head coach in the deepest conference in America. Its not an excuse its more fact.

There are plenty of things we could have done better over the Robert's tenure but I'm more concerned about the future(this season and next) then I am about last season and the season before.

blame it on the facilities all you want, but honestly SJU had the worst facilities when Fran was here and he still recruited some of the best in NYC.

Our facilities weren't as outdated then as they were in the past 4 seasons and we were winning ball games in Fran's days too which trumps everything in landing recruits. When you aren't winning though you need an edge somewhere and between our conference you need to be up in the facilities arm race. Is it the path we all want to take, no, but its the reality we are in. We were rock bottom, no recruits, prohibited from post season play, and had a first time head coach in the toughest conference in America. This isn't exactly a recipe for success but we have been making strides(even if they are slow) in our campus and in player development. Lets see how the team does this year before we start this debate up again.

Quote from: redmannorth on October 26, 2008, 04:19:21 PM

Quote from: Marillac on October 26, 2008, 02:21:28 AM

Roberts continued,“St. John’s, for a long time, did not get everybody. Ed Pinckney went to Villanova, Rod Strickland went to DePaul, Kenny Smith went to North Carolina but what happened here is they got Mark Jackson. You didn’t worry about other guys going (out of New York). So we’ve got to deal with the guys we’ve got.”

That just sounds like such an excuse. 

You are a little off on how we got Mark Jackson. .  it certainly wasn't "settling"

Coach Carnesecca offered all three scholarships and made it clear to all three guys that the the first person to say YES was going to get the slot. .  Mark said yes first...


It does sound like an excuse and it is also fact.
1982-1983 there were 2 great pgs in NYC.
We were the runner-up for Pearl Washington which if we had gotten him we clearly would have won it all in 1985, were barely in the running for Kenny Smith and settled in the end for Mark Jackson.
Forget that MJ had a great NBA career, both Pearl and Kenny were MCAAs while Mark was barely top 100.
We have been settling for ages.

Where am I off ?
True he offered all 3 but Pearl was clearly our number 1 option, Kenny Smith had little interest if any, and when Mark committed to SJU the other 2 had already committed elsewhere.
We had no choice but to settle for Mark as the other 2 were off the board.

JUst a lil bit before my time, but was Pearl the best of the 3 in high School?

JUst a lil bit before my time, but was Pearl the best of the 3 in high School?

Pearl and Reggie Wiliams who went to Georgetown were the top  high school players in that class.

Quote from: NYCbuckeye on October 26, 2008, 07:06:14 PM

Quote from: JJ on October 26, 2008, 10:53:57 AM

Quote from: Randomhero423 on October 26, 2008, 09:25:58 AM

if we had a john calipari, sean miller, or bob mckillop, from the start we would be MUCH better.  norm has failed as a recruiter, and a lot of coaches would have done a lot better.

If we had roy williams, dean smith, bob knight we would be much better too. We don't though and facilities are important aspect of recruiting. St. John's was behind the 8 ball and this does not help a first time head coach in the deepest conference in America. Its not an excuse its more fact.

There are plenty of things we could have done better over the Robert's tenure but I'm more concerned about the future(this season and next) then I am about last season and the season before.

blame it on the facilities all you want, but honestly SJU had the worst facilities when Fran was here and he still recruited some of the best in NYC.

Our facilities weren't as outdated then as they were in the past 4 seasons and we were winning ball games in Fran's days too which trumps everything in landing recruits. When you aren't winning though you need an edge somewhere and between our conference you need to be up in the facilities arm race. Is it the path we all want to take, no, but its the reality we are in. We were rock bottom, no recruits, prohibited from post season play, and had a first time head coach in the toughest conference in America. This isn't exactly a recipe for success but we have been making strides(even if they are slow) in our campus and in player development. Lets see how the team does this year before we start this debate up again.

All of that said - the team should be in a better place than it is now.  That mistake is, in a large part, on those who are above the coach.  The article itself isn't anything new; and everything is going to sound like an excuse until the fans see some wins.  Coach still has to show some results this year, I'd think, or else even the low point where his tenure/ the program started won't be enough to allow him to keep his job. 

Quote from: Marco Baldi on October 26, 2008, 09:49:59 PM

JUst a lil bit before my time, but was Pearl the best of the 3 in high School?

Pearl and Reggie Wiliams who went to Georgetown were the top  high school players in that class.

Pearl was an amazing player..   I thouth Smith was just as good but I was young kid and didn't really appreciate how good either was....     I do remember a debate a few years that that a few guys saying that if Kenny Smith played for any other coach besides Jack Curran he probably would have scored a ton more points....

Let's be honest, If your job performance was as bad as Norm Roberts' and you were making his money, you would find every excuse known to man to deflect blame from the fact that your record stinks and you are in over your head. Norm Roberts should return half of his salary to the school.