Game #16: @Georgetown

I don't know, you seem to get it. The ball movement is atrocious and except for Dunn no one can create their own shot and he can create them but can't make them. I love LJF but he's checked out - he either throws up that dopey runner or takes a 40 footer. Heron's Marvin Clark two point oh. The rest of them didn't get recruited for a reason.

The OOC was fool's gold - a bunch of three star misfit toy underclassmen bullying a bunch of no star recruits based on size and speed. They beat WV by two at home in a game where they shot 15 more free throws (speaking of blaming the refs Jethro) and squeaked by Arizona who was looking past a patsy ahead to Arizona State. Bottom line, they're not very good and Iron Mike isn't making them any better.

Totally agree with all of this Foad. LJ really even seemed to check out of the Butler game, wasn't playing well and looks like he almost intentionally committed that 4th foul 25 feet from the basket on purpose to get out of the game. Then on the bench when they started to make a run wasn't really doing anything. They really do not have any ball movement whatsoever. When Dunn is in, they wait for the shot clock to run down and all wait and watch for dunn to do something with he ball.

We don't run anything. Nothing. We have 3 guys on the floor who can't score and teams lock in on Heron and LJ.

We have to look at lineup combos a lot better and use guys situationally. No pick and roll, no sets to get a guy to catch a ball in post or in iso for him to do work. If you ran stuff to get Heron to catch ball in post and he can open pivot he'd eat guys for breakfast.

Exactly! I go to games with a friend and some of the lineups that they have in at times I say to him "who on earth is going to score with this unit in?" They don't run anything for specific players. If heron has a smaller or weaker guard on him they don't run him into the post for a 1-1 to open things up, or if a slower guard is on him they do not try to iso him.

What were you expectations prior to the season? Total wins? Postseason?

We are at same record I thought we'd be at right now. I had W vs Vermont, Butler but L vs Arizona St, WVU

I thought 6 conference wins, 1 win in BET to put us at 18 wins.

Can we stop living in a vacuum and look at things realistically? Were these 2 players not upperclassmen last year? Is Rutherford just a “step down” from Ponds? Is Champagnie just a “step down” from Simon? Is Roberts just a “step down” from Clarke?

Last year we finished in 7th place with an 8-10 record. That was the best we finished in 4 years! Who cares about the returning players if the expectation is to challenge for a last place finish?

Who are the cornerstone players on the roster that we can build around for the future? This is why it’s a rebuilding year.

Last year every team in America was different as well. Every team lost bodies. Are they also rebuilding?

We are at same record I thought we'd be at right now. I had W vs Vermont, Butler but L vs Arizona St, WVU

I thought 6 conference wins, 1 win in BET to put us at 18 wins.

6 conference wins and 9th place sounds like you are rebuilding

6 conference wins and 9th place sounds like you are rebuilding

Big East might get 7-8 teams in tournament this year.

We aren't rebuilding but you are correct its not enough to win at the Big East level which has been my point from jump street with Anderson.

This statement is part of the problem.

Based on what? One day this statement may be true, I hope so, but as of this printing he's 0-3 and just got blown out by a projected BE bottom dweller. Or, it might turn out he's a worse coach than Chris Mullin and you'll have to eat about a million words or so. We'll know this is the case soon enough if CFC doesn't dance in any of his first 3 seasons.

Based on the the last 400 college basketball games. That’s I why I think he can coach. For some reason if he goes Oliver purnel and quits. And we lose the next 4 years. It will prove that mike Anderson was washed up. If you are expecting that you are not paying attention.
NOTHING and I repeat NOTHING will make him worse then coach Mullin. You watched coach fxck you do nothing. Being non competitive is not part of the process. So far in 15 games we have played 3 disgraceful halves. The team has responded each time.
We are 0-3 so far. I don’t expect to go 20-59. If for some reason that happens. They BOTH suck.

'NOTHING and I repeat NOTHING will make him worse then coach Mullin. You watched coach legend do nothing.' 

Oh yes something will.  If he doesn't dance once in his first 3 seasons or twice in his first five seasons (if he lasts that long), then he's worse.

Oh yes something will.  If he doesn't dance once in his first 3 seasons or twice in his first five seasons (if he lasts that long), then he's worse.

If that makes you happy. Honestly don’t know what you are looking for. I don’t love mike Anderson. I love my team and want to win. I believe Anderson is a good coach. If he doesn’t win in 5 years I won’t be sticking up for him. He has been here 6 months. He brought in a great staff. It’s clear he is trying. I like his system. I prefer to play his way. I am confident he will get his kind of guys here and we will win.
I watched Chris mullin for 4 years. He was not almost ok. He was not kind of good. He was an empty suit who didn’t take his job seriously.

If that makes you happy. Honestly don’t know what you are looking for. I don’t love mike Anderson. I love my team and want to win. I believe Anderson is a good coach. If he doesn’t win in 5 years I won’t be sticking up for him. He has been here 6 months. He brought in a great staff. It’s clear he is trying. I like his system. I prefer to play his way. I am confident he will get his kind of guys here and we will win.
I watched Chris mullin for 4 years. He was not almost ok. He was not kind of good. He was an empty suit who didn’t take his job seriously.

I think you can think whatever about any coach but the problem remains in the administration's commitment. Lavin's problems were fixable and he shouldn't have been let go. When you make the move to Mullin you had to know there would be growing pains and they should have stepped in to bridge gaps instead of cut the cord. It's a bad look and it's why no one wanted to come here.

The lack of or refusal by our fans to apply logic consistently is both amusing and very troubling.


Two days ago we had two posters discussing that 23 wins was possible but 21 was more likely. Those same posters are now complaining about a sh*tty roster and selling a rebuild hard with a 5-6 win conference slate staring them in the face.

Just last week Anderson was a savior.

Mullin was being killed for not playing Roberts and Anderson was getting credit for “developing” Roberts. Now the Anderson fanboys say Roberts sucks but refuse to walk the credit they gave to Anderson for developing him. Yikes.

Here are some facts:  We have the worst half court offense we’ve had in 20 years and that includes Norm. Heron and LJ hate Anderson and I’ve heard they aren’t alone. Anderson simply doesn’t know how to use them in his gimmicky system. Both players are best in space and Anderson can’t get them any doesn’t even try.

Anderson is deficient in several areas as a coach. However, he does seem to have his guys prepared and he does run a gimmicky system.

He’ll do better with a roster full of his guys next year. He knows exactly what he wants.

I think you can think whatever about any coach but the problem remains in the administration's commitment. Lavin's problems were fixable and he shouldn't have been let go. When you make the move to Mullin you had to know there would be growing pains and they should have stepped in to bridge gaps instead of cut the cord. It's a bad look and it's why no one wanted to come here.

We all know the administration at St. John's is clueless and is hindering the success of the men's basketball program. However, I'm not quite sure what gaps the administration could have bridged gaps with Mullin.

Put yourself in their shoes. Mullin begins to lobby for the job before Steve Lavin is even released. Repole revealed this in his interview with Francesa. The administration understands there will be growing pains with Mullin and agree to invest heavily (by SJU standards) in his staff. They go out and pay Slice big bucks and convince him to leave his cushy job at Kentucky for St. John's.

Not long into his tenure, Mullin can't keep his two top assistants from hating each other to the point where they essentially can't work together anymore. Mullin chooses Matt over Slice leaving SJU to have to pay Slice a hundreds of thousands of dollars to not work there anymore.

Instead of Mullin going out and finding a competent replacement for Slice, he promotes his friend Mitch Richmond to that position. A guy who doesn't coach and doesn't recruit.

They guy Mullin chose over Slice then decides to leave for Nebraska leaving Mullin with Mitch Richmond and Greg St. Jean as his only assistants. The staff at this time have recruited a grand total of zero players between them.

Now, unless Mullin was begging the administration to let him go out and find a quality assistant to replace Matt and another one to replace Mitch and they refused I don't see what more they could have done. And it's fairly obvious that this is not what happened.

So Dave, let's say you're calling the shots at SJU in April of 2019. Your Head Coach is neither an competent tactician or recruiter. One of his Assistants is also neither a competent tactician and does zero recruiting that Mullin refuses to get rid of. The other Assistant is a hard working guy but is still learning and also has zero recruiting chops. If you're not cutting the cord with Mullin what do you do that will lead to success in the future for the basketball program?

Heron and LJ hate Anderson and I’ve heard they aren’t alone.

Most of what you say in that post is probably true but you don't know jack shit about which players do or don't hate Anderson so don't pretend that you do.

If that makes you happy. Honestly don’t know what you are looking for. I don’t love mike Anderson. I love my team and want to win. I believe Anderson is a good coach. If he doesn’t win in 5 years I won’t be sticking up for him. He has been here 6 months. He brought in a great staff. It’s clear he is trying. I like his system. I prefer to play his way. I am confident he will get his kind of guys here and we will win.
I watched Chris mullin for 4 years. He was not almost ok. He was not kind of good. He was an empty suit who didn’t take his job seriously.

Your accusations and innuendo concerning our hero are meaningless.  It's a result oriented business. You either make the Ncaa tournament or you don't. Mullin made it once in 4 years. Would it have been nice if he did it twice? Yes. He started with NOTHING.

Anderson will eventually be held to the same standard and judged by the same criteria. Can he exceed or match the results of his predecessor?  Only time will tell. Early returns not so good.

Last year every team in America was different as well. Every team lost bodies. Are they also rebuilding?

If they finished in 7th place with a 8-10 conference record and lost their best player, 3/5th of their starting line up and replaced them with lesser players on top of that a coaching change who runs a system that most of the returning players aren’t the right fit for then yes it’s a rebuilding year.

The lack of or refusal by our fans to apply logic consistently is both amusing and very troubling.


Two days ago we had two posters discussing that 23 wins was possible but 21 was more likely. Those same posters are now complaining about a sh*tty roster and selling a rebuild hard with a 5-6 win conference slate staring them in the face.

Just last week Anderson was a savior.

Mullin was being killed for not playing Roberts and Anderson was getting credit for “developing” Roberts. Now the Anderson fanboys say Roberts sucks but refuse to walk the credit they gave to Anderson for developing him. Yikes.

Here are some facts:  We have the worst half court offense we’ve had in 20 years and that includes Norm. Heron and LJ hate Anderson and I’ve heard they aren’t alone. Anderson simply doesn’t know how to use them in his gimmicky system. Both players are best in space and Anderson can’t get them any doesn’t even try.

Anderson is deficient in several areas as a coach. However, he does seem to have his guys prepared and he does run a gimmicky system.

He’ll do better with a roster full of his guys next year. He knows exactly what he wants.

I’ve been pretty consistent with my message that this is a rebuilding year, and Roberts is the same player he was last year and the only difference is Anderson is playing him and what he asks him to do which works against lesser competition and that your a fraud.

We all know the administration at St. John's is clueless and is hindering the success of the men's basketball program. However, I'm not quite sure what gaps the administration could have bridged gaps with Mullin.

Put yourself in their shoes. Mullin begins to lobby for the job before Steve Lavin is even released. Repole revealed this in his interview with Francesa. The administration understands there will be growing pains with Mullin and agree to invest heavily (by SJU standards) in his staff. They go out and pay Slice big bucks and convince him to leave his cushy job at Kentucky for St. John's.

Not long into his tenure, Mullin can't keep his two top assistants from hating each other to the point where they essentially can't work together anymore. Mullin chooses Matt over Slice leaving SJU to have to pay Slice a hundreds of thousands of dollars to not work there anymore.

Instead of Mullin going out and finding a competent replacement for Slice, he promotes his friend Mitch Richmond to that position. A guy who doesn't coach and doesn't recruit.

They guy Mullin chose over Slice then decides to leave for Nebraska leaving Mullin with Mitch Richmond and Greg St. Jean as his only assistants. The staff at this time have recruited a grand total of zero players between them.

Now, unless Mullin was begging the administration to let him go out and find a quality assistant to replace Matt and another one to replace Mitch and they refused I don't see what more they could have done. And it's fairly obvious that this is not what happened.

So Dave, let's say you're calling the shots at SJU in April of 2019. Your Head Coach is neither an competent tactician or recruiter. One of his Assistants is also neither a competent tactician and does zero recruiting that Mullin refuses to get rid of. The other Assistant is a hard working guy but is still learning and also has zero recruiting chops. If you're not cutting the cord with Mullin what do you do that will lead to success in the future for the basketball program?

Why is this so hard to understand? No one is calling Anderson Rick Pitino, but he is a significant upgrade from the prior regime. If he can emulate the success during the Lavin years I’ll be happy with that.

Last year every team in America was different as well. Every team lost bodies. Are they also rebuilding?

Every team in America didn’t behave like our’s did. Every team in America didn’t try transfer U. We had 2 guys coming back. And 3 low level recruits who barely played. That’s not normal. That’s not like the other teams in the country.

Your accusations and innuendo concerning our hero are meaningless.  It's a result oriented business. You either make the Ncaa tournament or you don't. Mullin made it once in 4 years. Would it have been nice if he did it twice? Yes. He started with NOTHING.

Anderson will eventually be held to the same standard and judged by the same criteria. Can he exceed or match the results of his predecessor?  Only time will tell. Early returns not so good.

Yes it is a results business. 8-10 in conference. Beating no one out of conference. Getting killed in the big east and the play in game is not a good season. Especially with the roster we had.
You personally can be as proud as you want of that achievement. No one else is.
Losing badly for 3 years and then producing last years season gets you fired.
Tomorrow is a big game for Anderson. Although the team isn’t talented. We can’t lose to last place DePaul at home.

Now, unless Mullin was begging the administration to let him go out and find a quality assistant to replace Matt and another one to replace Mitch and they refused I don't see what more they could have done. And it's fairly obvious that this is not what happened.

So Dave, let's say you're calling the shots at SJU in April of 2019. Your Head Coach is neither an competent tactician or recruiter. One of his Assistants is also neither a competent tactician and does zero recruiting that Mullin refuses to get rid of. The other Assistant is a hard working guy but is still learning and also has zero recruiting chops. If you're not cutting the cord with Mullin what do you do that will lead to success in the future for the basketball program?

If they'd let Mullin hire Mike Rice in the summer of 2018 your spring 2019 scenario is moot.