Mike Anderson to Tulsa

I’m with you here by and large. With the exception of Mo’s first year, Lavin’s teams had some good quality depth and some very nice talent until D-lo’s senior year. The 13-14 team had great depth - how that team failed to make the tourney and go beyond is nuts and was the biggest indictment on his coaching.

The issue with Lavin was that he didn’t seem all that interested towards the end of his tenure, the coaching overall, the constant drama/turmoil, and failing to recruit a bench for D-Lo and Dom’s senior year because if they had one the team could have done much better.

Bad take here. St. John's is not a blue blood, you need to roll the dice sometimes. The players Lav brought in far outweighed the players that didn't pan out.

There were a lot of teams in Big East who tried to get Jordan and Obekpa too.

I’m with you here by and large. With the exception of Mo’s first year, Lavin’s teams had some good quality depth and some very nice talent until D-lo’s senior year. The 13-14 team had great depth - how that team failed to make the tourney and go beyond is nuts and was the biggest indictment on his coaching.

The issue with Lavin was that he didn’t seem all that interested towards the end of his tenure, the coaching overall, the constant drama/turmoil, and failing to recruit a bench for D-Lo and Dom’s senior year because if they had one the team could have done much better.

That’s not what happened. Lavin coached a great season. The team started off terribly. From memory we were 0-5 in conference. From mid January through the end of February we were one of the best teams in the country.
At the time I blamed Lavin for the early season losses. It was his fault. That team tried to play the worst zone that I can I ever remember seeing. I assumed he started listening to whitesail. The team started playing much better defense and won plenty of games.

I think that team massively underachieved.  A roster of Sheed, D-Lo, Greene, Sampson, Obekpa, Sanchez, Branch, Dom and Gift in the new Big East should have sailed into the tournament and been a threat to win a few games.  Should have never started off as badly as we did.  And even with that had the chance to win what was basically a play-in game against Providence in the first round of the BE tourney (I sat almost court side for that one).  Got our doors blown off early, made the furious comeback only to have Sampson miss that bunny.  Then of course the Robert Morris debacle.

That’s not what happened. Lavin coached a great season. The team started off terribly. From memory we were 0-5 in conference. From mid January through the end of February we were one of the best teams in the country.
At the time I blamed Lavin for the early season losses. It was his fault. That team tried to play the worst zone that I can I ever remember seeing. I assumed he started listening to whitesail. The team started playing much better defense and won plenty of games.

I think that team massively underachieved.  A roster of Sheed, D-Lo, Greene, Sampson, Obekpa, Sanchez, Branch, Dom and Gift in the new Big East should have sailed into the tournament and been a threat to win a few games.  Should have never started off as badly as we did.  And even with that had the chance to win what was basically a play-in game against Providence in the first round of the BE tourney (I sat almost court side for that one).  Got our doors blown off early, made the furious comeback only to have Sampson miss that bunny.  Then of course the Robert Morris debacle.

That team should have achieved much more. No doubt about it. We had a good team that didn’t gel early in the season. Plenty disappointing. Still it was plenty fun.

There were some fun games that year.  It was certainly better than being at the bottom of the league.  But that was probably the most disappointed I was in any of the Lavin years.  Year 1 was awesome; year 2 was expected to be a rebuild and there were some nice young players you could project on; year 3 was somewhat disappointing because of the D-Lo stuff but we were still in the old Big East (I think) so my expectations were calibrated.  Year 5 was fun because of Dom's emergence, some nice W's and getting to see that senior group finish their career by getting into the dance.  Year 4 always nagged at me because that team had everything you need at the college level to be very good; two ball handlers, shot makers, insane athleticism, size, rebounding/shot blocking ability, and depth all over.  I think our current coach would have done some damage with that roster, although it goes back to whether he and the staff had the recruiting chops to get the talent we had on that team (TBD).

I’m with you here by and large. With the exception of Mo’s first year, Lavin’s teams had some good quality depth and some very nice talent until D-lo’s senior year. The 13-14 team had great depth - how that team failed to make the tourney and go beyond is nuts and was the biggest indictment on his coaching.

The issue with Lavin was that he didn’t seem all that interested towards the end of his tenure, the coaching overall, the constant drama/turmoil, and failing to recruit a bench for D-Lo and Dom’s senior year because if they had one the team could have done much better.

I don't think you're wrong. I think there was a combo of things on his end and on school's end that could have been done to reenergize and right the ship

Quote from Coach MA’s son “Never doubt @Iron_MikeMA. His track record speaks for itself.

Ignore the noise. Good win for Pops! First of many. #SJUBB 💪👊”

Mike loves NY, his PG (wife) especially loves NY, she’s a big fan of stylish clothes and fast living, he’s gong to try to build a successful program here, there’s only two options that’s going to happen- he’s either going to retire here or he’s going to be fired after 3-4 years if he hasn’t made the tourney yet.

There is a fire lit under him by being fired from his dream school and St. John’s is going to get every last ounce out of him to try to build a winner because he wants to show Arkansas and their fans that they made a big mistake.

What's Arkansas' record?

What's Arkansas' record?

I know that was rhetorical, but I’ll answer anyway. They are an impressive 16-5 heading into their home contest with #17 Auburn, who is led in scoring by former St. John’s commitment, Samir Doughty.

Arkansas made the best decision in decades by firing Anderson and hiring a stud like Musselman. He’s clearly a few notches up.

The maniacs on our forum will lead you to believe that all of the improvements Arkansas has shown at the team and player level are due to Anderson. All of them. That is how we operate here. It’s all or nothing.

Arkansas made the best decision in decades by firing Anderson and hiring a stud like Musselman. He’s clearly a few notches up.

The maniacs on our forum will lead you to believe that all of the improvements Arkansas has shown at the team and player level are due to Anderson. All of them. That is how we operate here. It’s all or nothing.

Best decision in decades? Wheres the nuance? Can anyone show marillac some middle ground?

The guy anderson replaced (Pelphrey) had an overall winning % of .539 and a conference winning % of .391. The guy Pelphrey replaced (Haith) had an overall winning % of .536 and a conference winning % of .388.

Anderson while at Arkansas had an overall winning % of .624 and a conference winning % of .549.

Mackillac preaches middle ground yet at the same time wants to peg anyone who thinks Mike Anderson is building something here as an extreme poster. A walking double standard.

Mackillac preaches middle ground yet at the same time wants to peg anyone who thinks Mike Anderson is building something here as an extreme poster. A walking double standard.

Classic projectionist.

Classic projectionist.

Big time.

There were some fun games that year.  It was certainly better than being at the bottom of the league.  But that was probably the most disappointed I was in any of the Lavin years.  Year 1 was awesome; year 2 was expected to be a rebuild and there were some nice young players you could project on; year 3 was somewhat disappointing because of the D-Lo stuff but we were still in the old Big East (I think) so my expectations were calibrated.  Year 5 was fun because of Dom's emergence, some nice W's and getting to see that senior group finish their career by getting into the dance.  Year 4 always nagged at me because that team had everything you need at the college level to be very good; two ball handlers, shot makers, insane athleticism, size, rebounding/shot blocking ability, and depth all over.  I think our current coach would have done some damage with that roster, although it goes back to whether he and the staff had the recruiting chops to get the talent we had on that team (TBD).

It took until just around now for Sampson and Sanchez to co-exist that season.  They were getting in each other's way a lot.  In fact, one usually dominated when the other was not on the floor.  They got better at it towards the second half of the conference season, but their games were too similar, IMO.

Also, towards the end of the previous year, Dom got in that fight at Notre Dame. I believe he was asked by the coaches to tone down his emotions, and that wound up having a negative impact on his overall game.  The following year, he tripped a teammate (I forget who) at the open practice, and got a T early in the year, for throwing the ball in the direction of an opposing player, on the bench.  It was almost like the old fire was back.  I think, to get the most out of Dom, you had to live with moments like that.

Classic projectionist.

You can catch me at the AMC Theatre in Times Square tonight.

Mackillac preaches middle ground yet at the same time wants to peg anyone who thinks Mike Anderson is building something here as an extreme poster. A walking double standard.

I’m sure that’s not the first time you’ve been pegged.

You can catch me at the AMC Theatre in Times Square tonight.

You should keep your public restroom stall exploitations to yourself, this is a family friendly forum.

You should keep your public restroom stall exploitations to yourself, this is a family friendly forum.

#TheErectionProjection

Best decision in decades? Wheres the nuance? Can anyone show marillac some middle ground?

The guy anderson replaced (Pelphrey) had an overall winning % of .539 and a conference winning % of .391. The guy Pelphrey replaced (Haith) had an overall winning % of .536 and a conference winning % of .388.

Anderson while at Arkansas had an overall winning % of .624 and a conference winning % of .549.

Hiring a man you eventually fire doesn’t seem like a good decision at big time program. Arkansas is pretty damn close to a blue blood. They are one of just 15 schools to win a national championship since 1990.

Musselman is a stud. My only concern would be him leaving for the NBA.

Pelphrey was awful and certainly worse than Anderson.

Hiring a man you eventually fire doesn’t seem like a good decision at big time program. Arkansas is pretty damn close to a blue blood. They are one of just 15 schools to win a national championship since 1990.

Musselman is a stud. My only concern would be him leaving for the NBA.

Pelphrey was awful and certainly worse than Anderson.

You explicitly made it about more than just the hiring of Musselman. That was my issue.

I know that was rhetorical, but I’ll answer anyway. They are an impressive 16-5 heading into their home contest with #17 Auburn, who is led in scoring by former St. John’s commitment, Samir Doughty.

Arkansas made the best decision in decades by firing Anderson and hiring a stud like Musselman. He’s clearly a few notches up.

The maniacs on our forum will lead you to believe that all of the improvements Arkansas has shown at the team and player level are due to Anderson. All of them. That is how we operate here. It’s all or nothing.

This aged well, Marillac.