Mismanagement just one of Roberts blunders
By Theo Rabinowitz
RedStormReport.com Staff Writer
St. John's announced the transferring of shooting guard's Larry Wright and Mike Cavataio out of the Queens school on Monday, becoming the 8th and 9th transfers during the Norm Roberts regime.
The transfer of Larry Wright will hurt the product that St. John's puts on the playing floor next season, as the Michigan-native could shoot the lights out of the ball but never seemed to receive enough playing time for a team that was dead last in the Big East in points per game.
However, the mistake with the former St. Francis Prep star Cavataio came last year, when St. John's became the only high-major school to offer a scholarship to the 6'3" guard. While some players fly under the radar, Cavataio's offers indicated the type of player that he was and still is--a mid-major talent. I suppose that even Roberts himself realized that, because he offered and received a commitment from yet another shooting guard, Paris Horne, just a few months later. That idea was all but confirmed this past season, when Cavataio was the odd-man-out in a 7 player freshmen class and only averaged 5.9 minutes per game, many of which came in "garbage time" of contests that were blowouts (usually it was his own team getting blown out in what was an 11-19 season for Roberts' squad). Needless to say, Cavataio was upset with his playing time and has decided to leave the Queens school and will likely choose between Holy Cross, Richmond and Davidson as his next destination.
Roberts' decision to offer Cavataio has longer lasting effects than in what was a failure of a 2007-2008 season for the Red Storm. By offering Cavataio, Roberts has only been able to offer two scholarships in what was a loaded 2008 recruiting class in the New York City-area. Instead of being able to go after several players at once like they did with the 2007 class, Roberts and his staff were forced to limit themselves on the recruiting trail. For example, St. Raymond's senior point guard Darryl "Truck" Bryant stated publicly that he was interested in attending and playing for the Johnnies, but Roberts simply didn't have enough scholarships to give, and the New York Gaucho was left out of the recruiting fold. Bryant committed to Big East-rival West Virginia and St. John's is currently left scrambling for a point guard to back up former Christ the King star Malik Boothe. Roberts' team also currently lacks a backcourt player that can shoot the ball with consistency from the perimeter now that Wright has decided to leave. The Red Storm currently have zero commitments from the class of 2008 or 2009.
One prominent New York City AAU coach believes that the coaching staff at St. John's doesn't get involved with the players early enough in their high school career. "They are continuously late to offer underclassmen in their own backyard and they think that they're going to be able to compete with the bigger programs that jump on the players late, but that's just not the case," said the coach, as he added "the biggest thing that they're messing up on is that they're not getting on kids early enough, and with them being in New York, that's just inexcusable"
While St. John's continues to struggle on and off the court to become a factor in the best conference in America, Robert's continues to blame the mess that took place under the Mike Jarvis regime 5 years ago. While Jarvis deserves much of the blame for running the ship into an iceberg, Roberts has done little to patch the hole as the boat continues to sink.
If the St. John's men's basketball program were to be compared to a natural disaster, Mike Jarvis would certainly be Hurricane Katrina, but Norm Roberts deserves to be called FEMA. His failure on the court sings to a tune of a 48-67 record over the course of his career at St. John's and 9 transfers from his program in his 4 years at the helm. That surely has to be some sort of a "record" as well.