question for you Why do I have to have Chris Mullin on this pedestal when I never saw him play once? As a younger generation fan the only Mullin memories I have is how he was an awful Coach. That's my memory. I was not even born when he was playing. Yes he is the schools best player and I will respect that and cheer for him whenever he is back at MSG but he played in the 80's and has ZERO relevance to my St. John's Rooting years.....awesome he was hell of a player a legend at st. johns but he was a AWFUL coach and will be forever linked to that also......Get out of the 80's we are in 2020. We are not talking about playing years we are talking about his Coaching.
Answer for you: I don't think you have to have Chris Mullin on a pedestal. Maybe Carmine does, but he's not terribly bright. Ignore him, I have for 10 years and my life is far the richer for it. As to your memories I'm not much for post modernism but in this case you have your own version of the truth and you have every right to it.
Now I have question for you: why are we talking about Chris Mullin at all? He's not the coach, he's no longer affiliated with the university and I suspect that other than LC's funeral we're never going to see him again. So why are we talking about him? As far as I can tell it's because the only way defenders of Coach Home Run can defend Coach Home Run is to say well at least he's better than Mullin and to blame Mullin for CHR's failings. Well, in the first place, we'll see if CHR is better, because I think he stinks and as a long time SJ fan I can recognize stink when I see it. And in the second if Mullin was an AWFUL coach in all capital letters what kind of defense of CHR is it to say that he's better than AWFUL. There's lots of things that aren't awful that are still terrifically unpleasant. A pus-shake is better than a shit sandwich. (I speak from experience.) That's doesn't mean pus is delicious. Pol Pot murdered fewer people than Stalin, does that mean Pol Pot was a benevolent ruler? Or is it possible that neither had the best interest of their subjects at heart.
I can understand people who say: sure, this year kind of stinks but a little patience is in order, give the guy with a track record of success a chance to bring in his own players and implement his own system and develop a winning culture. That's reasonable. I don't know that that's what's happening but that's at least reasonable. What isn't reasonable is to say that this shit show of a year is the fault of the former AWFUL coach who despite having recruited the most talented roster in the BE last year left his predecessor with the worst roster in the league this year and that therefore we're completely rebuilding with two all BE preseason players who comprised 40 percent of the most talented roster evah. What isn't reasonable is to say that well, the coaches picked SJ ninth, so CHR is doing just about what was expected of him, but that OTOH the two all BE preseason players who are not performing up to expectations, that has nothing to do with the coach not putting them in a position to be successful - like they were under the most AWFUL coach evah - it's because they were highly over rated by exactly the same people who were 100 percent dead on balls accurate in their prediction about ninth place. See the contradiction there? Because I do.
Regarding Mullin being "forever linked to" being awful, yeah no, that's not going to happen. Mullin will forever be linked to being a two time HOF basketball players and arguably the greatest player in SJ history and his coaching record will be an asterisk. Nobody forever links Ted Williams to being a mediocre manager, they remember him as the greatest hitter in baseball history. Nobody mentions Wayne Gretsky's moribund coaching record, he's just the greatest. Remembering Mullin as a failed coach - and nearly nobody does except for a few chronic malcontent posters in an obscure corner of the internets - is like remembering Willie Mays as a guy who got bonked on the head with a fly ball in 1973. It's ahistorical nonsense.