New Coach

St Jean is staying

St Jean is staying

Good, now call LJ and bring him back.

Good, now call LJ and bring him back.

He's trolling.  But you're probably already aware. 

If true, then the next two assistants need to be filled with hard working, connected recruiters that will work their a&& off.  If it is Cluess, he has plenty of HC experience at different levels, and Greg can certainly help with scouting, game plan, practice, etc, and perhaps will have a much stronger and experienced voice to counterbalance his views.  And one of those assistants needs to have some coaching chops (at least one).  No more Matt's.

St Jean is staying

So this is precisely what I was referring to earlier.  The MAAC's decline to the 29th ranked conference by whatever metric that is using is a recent one.  Perhaps the last two or three years, brought on by a recent spate of transfers out of the conference to higher conferences.    It wasn't the 29th ranked conference during Cluess's entire tenure. 

The metric is kenpom.  In a down year the big east was the 5th toughest conference.  How far did the MAAC drop off from the glory years of the conference?  The recruiting rankings are 247.
 Point is this is a huge step up for Cluess.  SJU can't afford for this hire to fail.

Some things
 -Tell us about his recruiting and if he has had any success acquiring national talent, 4 stars etc.

-Also about his system- many of us have not been happy with the recent SJU systems of just heaving up the 3 balls with little attention to a front court and poor rebounding. I fear he is more of the same- you cannot win in the BE consistently (or nationally) with that system.

-Why have bigger programs largely avoided him?

In regards to your recruiting question
https://iona.247sports.com/Season/2018-Basketball/Commits/
All time Iona recruit list is at the bottom.  Only HS Cluess recruit is #6 and was ranked 311 in nation by 247.

People can point to Kevin Willard, Ed Cooley, Fran McCaffery etc that went from the MAAC to a high major and have been successful. The difference is all 3 of those guys were assistants at high-major schools before becoming head coaches at the lower level. They knew what high-major college basketball was already. Cluess doesn't.

That's fair, but the thing about Cluess is he's never lost anywhere. And if the end game is to turn SJU into Seton Hall or Providence, that's not really a high bar. Between the three coaches you mentioned they've won what is it - two? three? - NCAA tournament games in 50 or so combined years of coaching. (I'm so disgusted I CBA to look it up.) Cluess is a competent mid major coach; SJU is at this point a mid major school: looks like a match made in heaven.     

The metric is kenpom.  In a down year the big east was the 5th toughest conference.  How far did the MAAC drop off from the glory years of the conference?  The recruiting rankings are 247.
 Point is this is a huge step up for Cluess.  SJU can't afford for this hire to fail.

Without looking it up, during Cluess's tenure my guess the high mark for the MAAC in a given year might have been 15-16 rpi.  Last couple of years it has fallen off with defections due to transfers, which have accelerated throughout college hoops as you know.  I believe one kid transferred from Fairfield to St. John's, in fact, but I may be wrong.

Cragg needs to be fired ASAP. Let Mullin serve as AD...he’s already being paid.

Thanks for posting, brought back a lot of memories. Don't worry about Foad's response, he doesn't like anyone, but is very funny at the same time.

He's right, ignore me, I'm an asshole.

That's fair, but the thing about Cluess is he's never lost anywhere. And if the end game is to turn SJU into Seton Hall or Providence, that's not really a high bar. Between the three coaches you mentioned they've won what is it - two? three? - NCAA tournament games in 50 or so combined years of coaching. (I'm so disgusted I CBA to look it up.) Cluess is a competent mid major coach; SJU is at this point a mid major school: looks like a match made in heaven.     

Well that's the thing. If you want to hit a single and get to one, maybe two brief NCAA Tournament appearances and 3 NITs in the next 7 years then Cluess will probably be a solid hire.

I reject this idea that it's tough to win at SJU. It's not. The school just hasn't hired a good coach in a quarter century. That said, I'm not delusional to think we can or will ever become a Villanova type power. But there's no reason why we can't experience Xavier level success over the span of a decade.

I understand where SJU is in the landscape of college basketball. I want a coach that will leave us for a better job after 6 years here.

Some things
 -Tell us about his recruiting and if he has had any success acquiring national talent, 4 stars etc.

-Also about his system- many of us have not been happy with the recent SJU systems of just heaving up the 3 balls with little attention to a front court and poor rebounding. I fear he is more of the same- you cannot win in the BE consistently (or nationally) with that system.

-Why have bigger programs largely avoided him?

As you can imagine, even before the drop off to low rankings for the conference, it is very hard to recruit a 4 star recruit to the MAAC.  And a 4 star big man, forget it.  There just aren't that many tall people to filter down to the MAAC level who are also really good at basketball.  If you are 6'10" and a top level recruit, you aren't going to the MAAC. In my time following the MAAC, I cannot recall any team signing a 4 star recruit.  Iona did get MoMo Jones who transferred back from Arizona and who was ineligible for some reason to transfer to St. John's. 

Cluess played a very fast, up-tempo style at Iona, frequently pushing the attack,running after made baskets, etc.  Some of that I believe was to neutralize Iona's lack of size against longer/bigger opponents.  It is also his preferred method of playing.  I think Cluess's ideal team is five 6-7 guys who all can handle the ball and are interchangeable on the attack.  I don't think he likes the traditional half court offense with a big post player.
Defense at times appears to be an afterthought as I believe he'd rather simply outscore you and win 85-75, than play a traditional style.  He can coach defense when he has to, though, and did this year with a depleted roster that didn't have the shooting skills of his previous Iona teams.  He does love shooting three's in transition and Iona practiced with a 10 second shot clock.  Players have to be extremely physically fit in this system.  It can be fun to watch and breathtaking at times when the team is in sync.  As you point out it is a big question whether this style translates to success in the Big East.  He'll have to determine that early on and I believe, while he can be stubborn, is able to adapt to situations.

Bigger programs have made overtures regarding hiring him while at Iona, as I understand it, including Rhode Island, and he did have a flirtation with Hofstra (mostly because of location I believe), but, as you can see if you read the story I linked, he's a devoted family guy and did not want to leave the area with his kids in school here.  I think they are in college now. The one job Iona fans always thought he would take, and we wouldn't begrudge him for taking, is the St. John's job.  It is kind of like coming home for him.

Well that's the thing. If you want to hit a single and get to one, maybe two brief NCAA Tournament appearances and 3 NITs in the next 7 years then Cluess will probably be a solid hire.

I reject this idea that it's tough to win at SJU. It's not. The school just hasn't hired a good coach in a quarter century. That said, I'm not delusional to think we can or will ever become a Villanova type power. But there's no reason why we can't experience Xavier level success over the span of a decade.

I understand where SJU is in the landscape of college basketball. I want a coach that will leave us for a better job after 6 years here.

+1

Well that's the thing. If you want to hit a single and get to one, maybe two brief NCAA Tournament appearances and 3 NITs in the next 7 years then Cluess will probably be a solid hire.

I reject this idea that it's tough to win at SJU. It's not. The school just hasn't hired a good coach in a quarter century. That said, I'm not delusional to think we can or will ever become a Villanova type power. But there's no reason why we can't experience Xavier level success over the span of a decade.

I understand where SJU is in the landscape of college basketball. I want a coach that will leave us for a better job after 6 years here.

Well I think this hire tells us that we simply want competitiveness and a trip to the dance once every 4-5 years and try to stay out of the basement of the Big East.

It is quite possible that we could not hire anyone better or that Cragg feels Cluess is a home run. If so we are getting what we want.   

In regards to your recruiting question
https://iona.247sports.com/Season/2018-Basketball/Commits/
All time Iona recruit list is at the bottom.  Only HS Cluess recruit is #6 and was ranked 311 in nation by 247.

That list looks kind of incomplete and some of those guys, like Scott Machado, were not recruited by Cluess.  Willard recruited Machado.  Ironically Scott is one of the lower level recruits there but is currently playing with the Lakers.  Cluess unleashed Machado's potential which was hampered by Willard, imo, and turned him into a legitimate NBA prospect.  BTW Willard coached 4 years at Iona, took over from Ruland after the disaster 2-26 year and won 20 games in his last year before being hired by Seton Hall.  He never won a MAAC tournament game at Iona though, let alone a conference championship.

I was so anti-Scheyer when those rumors started kicking around but I'm starting to think that wouldn't be such a bad choice now that Cluess is looking very likely to get it

That list looks kind of incomplete and some of those guys, like Scott Machado, were not recruited by Cluess.  Willard recruited Machado.  Ironically Scott is one of the lower level recruits there but is currently playing with the Lakers.  Cluess unleashed Machado's potential which was hampered by Willard, imo, and turned him into a legitimate NBA prospect.  BTW Willard coached 4 years at Iona, took over from Ruland after the disaster 2-26 year and won 20 games in his last year before being hired by Seton Hall.  He never won a MAAC tournament game at Iona though, let alone a conference championship.

The point of showing that list is to point out that actually the majority weren't recruited by the coach you're on here pimping. Out of the top ten of your programs shitty recruiting history only 1, recruited almost a decade ago, was a high schooler recruited by cluess and his rank was 311th in the nation.

If we aren't getting 4 star level talent we will not be competitive in the big east.

Go young, this week so far now has me hoping it’s St.Jean or Scheyer never would of said that on Monday night

The point of showing that list is to point out that actually the majority weren't recruited by the coach you're on here pimping. Out of the top ten of your programs shitty recruiting history only 1, recruited almost a decade ago, was a high schooler recruited by cluess and his rank was 311th in the nation.



If we aren't getting 4 star level talent we will not be competitive in the big east.

Please don't tell me Cluess is beating out other locals for local talent when Lavin or Mullin couldn't

Momo fell in Cluess' lap and Pelle never suited up for Iona

Please don't tell me Cluess is beating out other locals for local talent when Lavin or Mullin couldn't

Momo fell in Cluess' lap and Pelle never suited up for Iona

He'll lose out on local talent but it's also essential that st johns recruit at a nation wide level.  The local hs coaches can support Cluess all they want but I sincerely doubt the head coach at Oak Hill Academy has any idea who Tim Cluess is or how successful he was in the maac.