Mullin - Anderson Thread ***READ AT OWN RISK

People don’t want to hear this but Ponds, LoVett, Yakwe, and Mussini came to SJU curtesy of the Lavin regime.

Sure. So when Lavin was at St John's he recruited Joey Delarosa and Amar Alibagowirz and then two years after he left he landed Ponds and Lovett. Thanks for the mind numbingly stupid take.

mullin fans

A middle aged balding man dressed in wrinkled khakis and a white polo shirt tucked in so it hugs his love handles rises from his seat in a half full Long Island Railroad car and makes his way to the toilet. Around his neck is a whistle on a string. The man enters the toilet, retrieves his phone, lowers his pants, sits, and dials.

<Ring ring>

Hello?

Hi Ma.

Tony? Is this Tony? Hi honey.

Hi Ma.

What's up honey?

Nothing ma, on the train, thought I'd call and say hi. Hey ma, remember my friend foady from the internet?

Which friend's that hon?

You know ma, the guy his name is foad but I put a Y at the end of it, see? And it gets to him.

Why do you put a Cee at the end honey, I don't get it.

No ma, I put a Y at the end because it gets to him and I said see it gets to him, like see with your eyes.

Oh I get it. But I don't think I remember your friend.

Sure you do ma. Remember that time I called and told you about that guy on the internet's erection and how hilarious it was?

Oh that friend, the one with the penis. Sure, I remember now. What about him?

Well ma I'm getting to him. Every time he posts on the internet I say something clever right after like butt hurt or I tell him he's old or dare him to answer And it gets to him. So I'm winning.

That's good hon, but you shouldn't get too excited about people being butt hurt, remember what happened to that other gym teacher, that Mister Sandusky.

Physical education teacher ma, or coach, not gym teacher. How many times do I have to tell you.

Sorry hon, that other physical education teacher Mister Sandusky. So anyway how was gym class today - I mean physical education class, sorry hon.

Good ma. We're playing dodge ball this quarter and the boys get real sweaty. Today after class I watched real close when they were showering to make sure they used enough soap on their taints and sure enough Frankie Spumoni wasn't using enough soap on his taint and I said hey Frankie if you don't use enough soap on your taint I'll come over there and soap you myself. It was hilarious. Hey mom, remember when you showed me how to use enough soap on my taint that time you watched me shower?

Of course hon, it was only a few weeks ago. Speaking of a few weeks ago, how's your New Year's diet going?

Okay ma. I had a couple of donuts today fourth period in the teachers lounge, Maria Mustacciuoli the art teacher brought them and so I had a couple of jellies to be polite.

Maria Mustacciuoli, is that your girlfriend?

She's not my girlfriend ma, we're just friends.

Well you should get yourself a nice girlfriend Tony, maybe get married, gimme me a grandbaby, I'm not getting any younger. Maybe you should invite this Mustacciuoli to dinner Sunday, I'll make a nice pasticciotto.

I don't think so ma and anyway I can't make it for dinner Sunday.

Why not hon, your father and I was looking forward to seeing you.

Sorry ma, I have an important jay vee interview Monday, I have to get ready.

Jay vee! Oh Tony! I'm so proud! Wait till I tell Missus Bombolone from next door that you're gonna to be a jay vee basketball coach. She's always rubbing the fact that her son's a garbageman in my face. Except she says sanitation worker. Now I can tell her you're gonna be a middle school basketball coach, which is almost as prestigious.

Yeah, it's not basketball ma, it's wrestling. Girl's wrestling. And it's assistant coach. But I think if I do good there I'll have a real shot at moving up to being player development coach for the Lakers. They hire anyone.

Oh that's okay hon, girls wrastling is a good place to start. Your father used to like girls wrastling. When I first went to his apartment he had a poster of the Fabulous Moolah in the living room. That didn't last long though.

Hey ma how's pops doing anyway?

Well, speaking of butt hurt his piles have been acting up lately. You should say hello, I'll get him. Hey Petey -

No I can't now ma, my stop's next. Tell pops I'll call him tommorow morning after my bran muffin, okay?

Sure hon.

Okay ma, gotta go, love you.

Love you too hon, bye.

The man hangs up, wipes, sniffs his fingers, and satisfied with the smell pulls up his khakis. Taking a quick look in the mirror he carefully adjusts his whistle, flushes, and leaves the toilet

/ And scene

I have plenty of hair and I don’t wear khakis.

Sure. So when Lavin was at St John's he recruited Joey Delarosa and Amar Alibagowirz and then two years after he left he landed Ponds and Lovett. Thanks for the mind numbingly stupid take.

Really? How dumb is my take Dave?

Sure. So when Lavin was at St John's he recruited Joey Delarosa and Amar Alibagowirz and then two years after he left he landed Ponds and Lovett. Thanks for the mind numbingly stupid take.

I get the point, but that said Lovett was being recruited by Lavin when he was fired in late March, and then committed 2 months later. Similar story for Ponds, who committed 6 months after the firing.

We were barely mentioned with Ponds under lavin. To not give mullin credit for signing him is ridiculous.

We were barely mentioned with Ponds under lavin. To not give mullin credit for signing him is ridiculous.

Mullin was by far the primary reason we got Ponds.  That said, it is not accurate to say that we were barely mentioned with Ponds under Lavin.  Both things are true. https://www.zagsblog.com/2015/01/11/st-johns-minnesota-recruiting-2016-guard-shamorie-ponds-hard/ 

I thought you called it worse than mullin and norms staff?

You're right I did. My statement now just now doesn't eradicate nor contradict that either.

People don’t want to hear this but Ponds, LoVett, Yakwe, and Mussini came to SJU curtesy of the Lavin regime. Then look who we began to land out of HS, Trimble, Earlington, Roberts, and Williams. We had no one but Mack committed for the 2019 class. We had one recruiter who didn’t spend much time in HS’s.

Lavin deserves some credit for making inroads but Mullin's staff deserves credit for closing.

As for '19 class Mullin and staff were out the door and stopped recruiting. We would have had more commitments if Mullin got an extension.

Really? How dumb is my take Dave?

Trying to argue with me on posts I don't even make. Sheesh

People don’t want to hear this but Ponds, LoVett, Yakwe, and Mussini came to SJU curtesy of the Lavin regime.

Uhhh, no. The vast majority of the time players commit to coaches not to schools. Giving Lavin even a little credit for any of those guys is absurd.

Thinking Mullin was a bad coach and/or recruiter is fine. You don't need to make ridiculous statements like that to support your cause.

Trying to argue with me on posts I don't even make. Sheesh

I wasn’t arguing with you, but asking you to chime in on what the poster said was dumb.

I don’t hate Mullin. Last year was the best he was going to get us. We can be better than losing in the play in game every 4 years. That was our ceiling. His recruiting philosophy and not emphasizing defense and rebounding was not gonna cut it.

He had one of the greatest scorers in SJU history playing along with 4 & 5 star recruits and couldn’t generate a .500 record in BE play? He’s not getting another Ponds, mainly because they weren’t recruiting HS kids. This year was gonna be rough regardless of who the coach was.

Do you believe Mullin was going to bring us to the NCAA tournament this year if he was retained?

I don't know. None of us do and we never will.  Not withstanding the unusual certainty with which you write about a present that didn't happen and a future that never will.

Lavin deserves some credit for making inroads but Mullin's staff deserves credit for closing.

As for '19 class Mullin and staff were out the door and stopped recruiting. We would have had more commitments if Mullin got an extension.

He deserves credit for closing most certainly.

I don't know. None of us do and we never will.  Not withstanding the unusual certainty with which you write about a present that didn't happen and a future that never will.

I’m asking what you believe. Such as do you believe in God. None of us know for certain, but it doesn’t prevent you from proclaiming your belief.

Uhhh, no. The vast majority of the time players commit to coaches not to schools. Giving Lavin even a little credit for any of those guys is absurd.

In general yes however they hadn’t committed yet, but was already leaning SJU. The opportunity to play in MSG and learn from two hall of fame players had to be enticing. Little did they know. You think Mullin traveled to Milan to recruit Mussini?

Give them credit for closing, why wouldn’t the staff follow up on players who was showing interest in the school? Ponds was under recruited. St. John’s was a good move for him regardless of the coach. Lavin was gonna bring in some players trust that. He did a good job selling the program, not himself.

Yes, Chiles and Lav were recruiting Ponds. They had a good relationship. Was not a done deal.
Once Mullin was hired, new staff made recruiting him a priority and the Ponds family was in.

Mullin and Co. brought in talent. More talent than Mike Anderson will ever get to Queens. If his teams would've stayed together, especially Lovett and Owens, we would all be signing a different tune. Yes, retaining a full roster was where he failed and led to the lack of depth. We will see if Anderson can do more with less. TBD.

 We would be looking at a Curbello and CJ Wilcher backcourt next yr. Not to take anything away from Posh and Wusu, but these guys are a step above.

I thought Mullin was finding his coaching groove at many points last yr. Heron hurt his knee and Ponds broke down end of the season. He won 21 games, should've been 9-9 in conference and 3rd place. I think we all expected more though. We deserved it. Dixon leaving and Keita hurting his knee which he never recovered from also put a dent into things. The fact they didn't add a piece or two in the offseason was confusing.

Mullin really deserved a real AD. The guy bleeds St. John's. His whole family went here. Even his kids. He wasn't devoid of blame. He could've and should've done a few things differently. Would like to have seen him and Cragg elevating the brand together. Oh well.

You can’t develop and sustain a winning tradition off of transfers alone imo.

Transfers alone? In just Mullin’s last season had three high school kids.

Anderson loves transfers. He has two transfers committed already for next year and has offered at least one of Cole’s JUCO teammates. Are we in full blown bizzarro world now? We will almost cetainly grab a grad transfer too and, all told, we may be looking at 4-5 transfers total depending on who leaves. 

Yes, Chiles and Lav were recruiting Ponds. They had a good relationship. Was not a done deal.
Once Mullin was hired, new staff made recruiting him a priority and the Ponds family was in.

Mullin and Co. brought in talent. More talent than Mike Anderson will ever get to Queens. If his teams would've stayed together, especially Lovett and Owens, we would all be signing a different tune. Yes, retaining a full roster was where he failed and led to the lack of depth. We will see if Anderson can do more with less. TBD.

 We would be looking at a Curbello and CJ Wilcher backcourt next yr. Not to take anything away from Posh and Wusu, but these guys are a step above.

I thought Mullin was finding his coaching groove at many points last yr. Heron hurt his knee and Ponds broke down end of the season. He won 21 games, should've been 9-9 in conference and 3rd place. I think we all expected more though. We deserved it. Dixon leaving and Keita hurting his knee which he never recovered from also put a dent into things. The fact they didn't add a piece or two in the offseason was confusing.

Mullin really deserved a real AD. The guy bleeds St. John's. His whole family went here. Even his kids. He wasn't devoid of blame. He could've and should've done a few things differently. Would like to have seen him and Cragg elevating the brand together. Oh well.

If, if, if. All hypothetical nonsense that you have no way of proving. What we do know is that Mullin had arguably the most talented team in the BE last year and couldn't even finish .500 in conference. Pretty sad and that's a fact. It wasn't confusing that they didn't add a piece. It was lazy garbage on behalf of Mullin for not being able to find one serviceable big. Just one.

You're right I did. My statement now just now doesn't eradicate nor contradict that either.

No it doesn’t but I don’t remember it being complimentary either.