New Coach

Fran Frashchilla on coaching at St. John’s:

“There’s a lot of behind-the- scenes things about coaching at St. John’s that I wouldn’t wish on anybody.”

That would be our donors and so called insiders. This was essentially pre-internet too. It’s only become worse.

I've heard a handful of stories over the past several seasons.  Fraschilla's tale has legs.

We got rid of a loser coach who couldn't even finish above .500 once in league play in 4 seasons. And we are going to replace him with a proven, experienced winner.

That's an upgrade by any measure.

Wow...we just got rid of Chris Mullin to hire Tim f'ing Cluess.

This can’t be the case. Hurley was never an option. Not with what it would have cost. If so, then we could afford better than Cluess. He can’t be the only candidate Cragg looks at.

We got rid of a loser coach who couldn't even finish above .500 once in league play in 4 seasons. And we are going to replace him with a proven, experienced winner.

That's an upgrade by any measure.

He doesn’t coach defense. If anything the title game should have shown us is you can be a successful program if your coaching philosophy begins and ends with playing strong defense. If not, your out of consideration.

He doesn’t coach defense. If anything the title game should have shown us is you can be a successful program if your coaching philosophy begins and ends with playing strong defense. If not, your out of consideration.

While I agree with you to an extent, Norm’s teams were always scrappy and played tough d. 

He doesn’t coach defense. If anything the title game should have shown us is you can be a successful program if your coaching philosophy begins and ends with playing strong defense. If not, your out of consideration.

Cluess has a coaching strategy that makes sense for the conference he coaches in. Why assume that he wouldn’t adjust his strategy for a difference assignment?

Cluess has a coaching strategy that makes sense for the conference he coaches in. Why assume that he wouldn’t adjust his strategy for a difference assignment?

Cause he’s 60 years old and his philosophy has worked for him.

We got rid of a loser coach who couldn't even finish above .500 once in league play in 4 seasons. And we are going to replace him with a proven, experienced winner.

That's an upgrade by any measure.

A proven, experienced winner at a level 24 rungs below the big east

Again, middling programs like X and Butler that have had good enough success have had it because they make reasoned decisions about their staffing and once they make those reasoned decisions trust their reasoning. St John's makes hey look a squirrel decisions. Mickey Rooney showed more fidelity to his wives than St John's shows to its coaches. That's a problem and maybe the main one.

This was pretty much my entire point. The main difference between Xavier/Butler and us is that they have good coaching hire after good coaching hire, while we have done the opposite. Had our decision makers been competent at all we could have experienced similar success, and still can. All it takes is one good decision maker which it still looks like we have yet to find.

I understand the sentiment but I don't. I'm too old to rebuild every five years.

Usually when coaches leave schools for better jobs there is no rebuild that needs to be done because the coach did a good job in order to be so coveted at a place that is a step up from their current place. It's why Xavier + Butler haven't gone through complete rebuilds despite churning through pretty much as many coaches as we have. A coach having a good enough 6 year run here to be offered a better job would be the best thing to happen to us in two decades.

Usually when coaches leave schools for better jobs there is no rebuild that needs to be done because the coach did a good job in order to be so coveted at a place that is a step up from their current place. It's why Xavier + Butler haven't gone through complete rebuilds despite churning through pretty much as many coaches as we have. A coach having a good enough 6 year run here to be offered a better job would be the best thing to happen to us in two decades.

They also have good assistant coaches than learn under them that can take over and carry on the tradition. If your head coach sucks that almost guarantees their assistant coaches are worse. No good coach is gonna sit behind a poor head coach. They will leave and make something of their own. Think about our staffs. How many of our assistant coaches over the years were capable of leading our program? Who went on and had successful stints at a high level leading other programs? Doesn’t bold well for GSJ.

This was pretty much my entire point. The main difference between Xavier/Butler and us is that they have good coaching hire after good coaching hire, while we have done the opposite. Had our decision makers been competent at all we could have experienced similar success, and still can. All it takes is one good decision maker which it still looks like we have yet to find.

Usually when coaches leave schools for better jobs there is no rebuild that needs to be done because the coach did a good job in order to be so coveted at a place that is a step up from their current place. It's why Xavier + Butler haven't gone through complete rebuilds despite churning through pretty much as many coaches as we have. A coach having a good enough 6 year run here to be offered a better job would be the best thing to happen to us in two decades.

Xavier/Butler happen to promote assistants--should we promote Mitch or GSJ; I don't think so

Xavier/Butler happen to promote assistants--should we promote Mitch or GSJ; I don't think so

The reason why we have such bad turnover and massive rebuilds is because we never retain members
of the prior staff.

This time around it appears that the players will throw around their weight collectively to keep St. Jean. That could stop an exodus and prevent a total rebuild.

The reason why we have such bad turnover and massive rebuilds is because we never retain members
of the prior staff.

This time around it appears that the players will throw around their weight collectively to keep St. Jean. That could stop an exodus and prevent a total rebuild.

When you don’t promote from within that becomes more difficult. A new coach is gonna want to bring in his own people. Unless your Cluess.

If there is mutual desire between the incumbent staff and the incoming Coach to work together, the transition will be faster and allow for better stability and lead to a more rapid positive result!

According to Zach B., Hurley is out.

https://nypost.com/2019/04/11/bobby-hurley-out-of-st-johns-hunt-tim-cluess-still-in-forefront/

So we fired a coach who runs too much of a freestyle offense and a low resistance defense to hire a coach who runs a free style offense and low resistance defense.

Cluess' teams at Iona have gotten worse each of the past 6 years. Fortunately for him so has his conference.

He's consistently had superior talent in the MAAC and everywhere else before that, a luxury he won't have here.

Lets look at Iona's best wins year by year:

2019: Neutral court over Hartford
2018: Neutral court over Weber St
2017: Neutral court over pre-Martin twin Nevada
2016: @ Monmouth
2015: @ 15-19 Wake Forest
2014: @ Canisius
2013: @ St Bonaventure
2012: @ Denver
2011: Home over Richmond

And this guy was the 2nd option? What a joke. I hope I look back on this 4-5 years from now to see how laughably wrong I was

So we fired a coach who runs too much of a freestyle offense and a low resistance defense to hire a coach who runs a free style offense and low resistance defense.

Cluess' teams at Iona have gotten worse each of the past 6 years. Fortunately for him so has his conference.

He's consistently had superior talent in the MAAC and everywhere else before that, a luxury he won't have here.

Lets look at Iona's best wins year by year:

2019: Neutral court over Hartford
2018: Neutral court over Weber St
2017: Neutral court over pre-Martin twin Nevada
2016: @ Monmouth
2015: @ 15-19 Wake Forest
2014: @ Canisius
2013: @ St Bonaventure
2012: @ Denver
2011: Home over Richmond

And this guy was the 2nd option? What a joke. I hope I look back on this 4-5 years from now to see how laughably wrong I was

I want to believe that the interest in Cluess is more of a show.

I want to believe that the interest in Cluess is more of a show.

Unfortunately it's not

What’s Jim Calhoun up to these days?

Unfortunately it's not

Find it hard to believe that this is Cragg’s idea. He has no connection to Cluess. The university was willing to pay for Hurley but then you drop to Cluess? I find it odd that we have yet to hear about any other candidates. Could that mean Pitino may be in play? This is like bad comedy.