New Coach Options

Spend money to make money-what a concept-one that has eluded the brain trust running St. John's for decades.

This is the only question. I ultimately think he doesn’t come here, but he and his wife are from the NYC area, they have an apartment in Manhattan and family all over the area, he’s apparently close with Repole, and he loves the ponies. You could also flip the fact that nobody succeeds here as the ultimate challenge and the cherry on top of a stellar resume.

Assuming he signed, how long would he be on the back page of the dailies - his narcissism being the only thing that I can see that might draw him here. A week of fawning prodigal son returns articles by hacks like Brazziler and Hoops Weiss (who evidently is not dead) and then what? NY'ers have notoriously short attention spans. Winning here would obviously be a different story.

As for his wife, he hasn't shown much regard for her in the past, and as for his alleged love for NY swaying him, he's coached in NY for a total of about seven years since 1974. Is that love or lip service?

Personally, I don't see them having any interest in moving to the Washington DC area at this stage of their lives.

Two years ago he was living in Greece. Did you see him doing that Nostradamus?

There is plenty of coaches that can take St. Johns to another level, it dont take a big name,  research an find one capable. Too keep Anderson is to remain the same in my opinion, he has done nothing to show he can  compete for any sort of championships.

Two years ago he was living in Greece. Did you see him doing that Nostradamus?

Well Dr. Fun Ricky has owned homes in Arizona, Florida, Kentucky, New York etc.  His vacation in Greece was very rewardi$g and part of the comeback plan. He has unloaded all those sunshine state properties and according to those that know Joanne she is tired of moving. 
Then again, St. John's has never had the stones to make bold moves, aside from stupid ones, to revive the program.
It is quite possible he will be happy to live on the back nine in Mamaroneck and drive 15 minutes to the easiest job he has ever had.

This?

So the priority for St John's fan base - which for 30 years has been treated to a conga line of coaching incompetents by a parade of buffoonish administrators, in the midst of a season that's by early January spiraling down the toilet towards complete rebuild number six - should be to apologize one by one to Chris Mullin, himself four years removed from coaching incompetence.

I understand why Carmine would think this, he's any imbecile. What's your excuse?

Who said that this was a priority or that my post speaks for the St. Johns fan base? This is merely a figment of your foggy, gin soaked yet still remarkably vivid imagination. It's no secret that i felt the way Mullin was treated during his coaching tenure was an embarrassing disgrace. There should have been a self imposed fanbase moratorium on criticism of him considering what he did for and meant to the program.  For the youngins, we were ranked #1 in the nation with Chris as our superstar. Hard to imagine...isn't it? So, i wrote about something that irked me using a linguistics tool known as a rhetorical quesion. Put the bottle down occasionally Doc as this somehow sailed clear over your head. Many things bother me that i pontificate on in other forums: inverted yield curves, the John Birch society, stagflation, liquor store closing times and the disappearance of pubic hair to name a few. I would hardly characterize them as priorities.

Who said that this was a priority or that my post speaks for the St. Johns fan base?

You did, stupid.

"Will the public apology to Mullin ... come in the form of a formal press release ... or consist of individual admissions of guilt from our disloyal fan base."

This is merely a figment of your foggy, gin soaked yet still remarkably vivid imagination.

I don't drink gin, not being a barbarian.

<remainder hosed>

Newsflash to everyone. Don't buy the Butler mirage, they are just as bad as us. We still suck and Anderson needs to be fired after this season if we are ever going to take a step forward in this program.

Newsflash to everyone. Don't buy the Butler mirage, they are just as bad as us. We still suck and Anderson needs to be fired after this season if we are ever going to take a step forward in this program.

I suspect none of this is a newsflash to any posters here, much less all of them.

You did, stupid.

"Will the public apology to Mullin ... come in the form of a formal press release ... or consist of individual admissions of guilt from our disloyal fan base."

I don't drink gin, not being a barbarian.

<remainder hosed>

You're farther gone than i thought Doc. You see the word priority in there? And this rhetorical question, a commom linguistic tool you're unfamiliar with, mentions the fanbase but almost any idiot could sense that I'm expressing my opinion and not that of all St. Johns fans. And being a barbarian i prefer gin as juniper berries rock.

Anyone think it will be easier to force out Anderson once he hits his first losing season this year? The team is an embarrassment.

Anyone think it will be easier to force out Anderson once he hits his first losing season this year? The team is an embarrassment.

Again, it's going to be hard for Cragg to fire the coach he hired and then extended no matter how bad Third Choice  is, and he's awful. And by awful I mean worse than Norm: Anderson makes Lavin look like Bobby Knight. Cragg'd have to admit that he bolloxed the first real decision he's made in his career - which up till then had comprised deciding whether to pick up Schgrewshrenski's laundry before or after fetching his lunch - which decision has cost the university millions of dollars, which loss of millions of dollars he's going to have to explain to the board of trustees before asking them for millions of more dollars to first buy out Anderson and then second to incompetently hire another nitwit who's going to stink it up. That's a tough sell.

Anyway, you can't change coaches every five years. Even if Pitino were to choose St John's over Georgetown (and I can assure you he's going to Georgetown because I saw that hack Mike Vaccaro repeat in the Post the rumor I started a month ago on twitter, so it must be true) he's 70 and in five years he'll either retire to Epstein Island or move on somewhere else, because he stays no where too long.

Here's some advice I which someone gave me when I was young and earnest: root against St John's. Root for them to lose every game. Hate them. It's much more rewarding. I haven't had this satisfying college basketball season since 1986.

Again, it's going to be hard for Cragg to fire the coach he hired and then extended no matter how bad Third Choice  is, and he's awful. And by awful I mean worse than Norm: Anderson makes Lavin look like Bobby Knight. Cragg'd have to admit that he bolloxed the first real decision he's made in his career - which up till then had comprised deciding whether to pick up Schgrewshrenski's laundry before or after fetching his lunch - which decision has cost the university millions of dollars, which loss of millions of dollars he's going to have to explain to the board of trustees before asking them for millions of more dollars to first buy out Anderson and then second to incompetently hire another nitwit who's going to stink it up. That's a tough sell.

Anyway, you can't change coaches every five years. Even if Pitino were to choose St John's over Georgetown (and I can assure you he's going to Georgetown because I saw that hack Mike Vaccaro repeat in the Post the rumor I started a month ago on twitter, so it must be true) he's 70 and in five years he'll either retire to Epstein Island or move on somewhere else, because he stays no where too long.

Here's some advice I which someone gave me when I was young and earnest: root against St John's. Root for them to lose every game. Hate them. It's much more rewarding. I haven't had this satisfying college basketball season since 1986.

He’s not worse than Norm. That’s f’n crazy. No one is worse than that loser.

You did, stupid.

"Will the public apology to Mullin ... come in the form of a formal press release ... or consist of individual admissions of guilt from our disloyal fan base."

I don't drink gin, not being a barbarian.

<remainder hosed>

I’m sorry that Mullin was such an arrogant and entitled jerk that he assumed coaching experience wasn’t even necessary for him.

He’s not worse than Norm. That’s f’n crazy. No one is worse than that loser.

I was being hyperbolic to amuse my many fans. That said, it's nearly a wash:

Norm was 32–70 (.31) in the BE coaching against inter alia Pitino, Calhoun, Boeheim, and Huggins and made two post seasons in six years. Third Choice is 26–39 (.40) in the BE coaching against Wojo, Ewing and Lavall Jordan and has never made the post season.

Will the public apology to Mullin about the way he was treated during his return here come in the form of a formal press release from the university or consist of individual admissions of guilt from our disloyal fan base?

Mullin took a crap here is what he did. No apology should ever be provided to him. We should never have gotten rid of Lavin. Mullin never wanted to be here. His last season he was already looking to spend more time in California than here. He had no business as a head coach. None. It's ridiculous that Gempesaw hired him.

I think Mullin was dealt a shitty hand here. Some of it his doing of course. I also feel that alot of the vitriol was because of a certain newspaper squire that was constantly leaking one-sided information. Fans attacked his wife and kids constantly. Maybe fans realize now that winning in Jamiaca, Queens isn't as easy as they think.

Mullin had one person on his staff do any recruiting, and one person do any coaching. He gave half-hearted effort. He also had zero in recruits coming in.

Again, it's going to be hard for Cragg to fire the coach he hired and then extended no matter how bad Third Choice  is, and he's awful. And by awful I mean worse than Norm: Anderson makes Lavin look like Bobby Knight. Cragg'd have to admit that he bolloxed the first real decision he's made in his career - which up till then had comprised deciding whether to pick up Schgrewshrenski's laundry before or after fetching his lunch - which decision has cost the university millions of dollars, which loss of millions of dollars he's going to have to explain to the board of trustees before asking them for millions of more dollars to first buy out Anderson and then second to incompetently hire another nitwit who's going to stink it up. That's a tough sell.

Anyway, you can't change coaches every five years. Even if Pitino were to choose St John's over Georgetown (and I can assure you he's going to Georgetown because I saw that hack Mike Vaccaro repeat in the Post the rumor I started a month ago on twitter, so it must be true) he's 70 and in five years he'll either retire to Epstein Island or move on somewhere else, because he stays no where too long.

I understand your points on Cragg's humbling, the buy-out and then another pay-out. The pride thing is hard to get past that. But with finances, it would require a wealthy alum like Repole etc. to put some money in here for SJU to feasibly cover both these expenses. Then another part to consider- our facilities are terrible - not going to be the easiest sell but I do think a Mack could be attainable if not Pitino if we had a big donor fork something over for a nice salary. But then again- they may not even have the passion to donate and frankly you can't blame them with how much of a dumpster fire our program has  become.

Mullin took a crap here is what he did. No apology should ever be provided to him. We should never have gotten rid of Lavin. Mullin never wanted to be here. His last season he was already looking to spend more time in California than here. He had no business as a head coach. None. It's ridiculous that Gempesaw hired him.

We all saw it coming, Mullin not a good hire. No coaching experience, split time and the risk of dampening the legacy of the greatest player in St. John's history. Desperate move to make a splash and generate revenue. The Slice thing still confuses me though. How did that get messed up. You get an ace recruiter from Kentucky and force him out. Unreal.

Lav was better- when he had that staff and if he was given more of recruiting/facilities budget we could have been alot better.  Yes there would be bad losses, but you thought you always had a shot with the blue bloods. We have the occasional good win, but now we just look over-matched when any decent team comes to town. They should have extended him.

I understand your points on Cragg's humbling, the buy-out and then another pay-out. The pride thing is hard to get past that. But with finances, it would require a wealthy alum like Repole etc. to put some money in here for SJU to feasibly cover both these expenses. Then another part to consider- our facilities are terrible - not going to be the easiest sell but I do think a Mack could be attainable if not Pitino if we had a big donor fork something over for a nice salary. But then again- they may not even have the passion to donate and frankly you can't blame them with how much of a dumpster fire our program has  become.

I don't know how you can believe both that (1) without help from a billionaire St John's doesn't have the money to hire a coach; that the facilities stink; that SJU is a coaching graveyard and (2) that if not Pitino then Mack or Wright. These guys (and other current or future HOF coaches like them) will have their choice of gigs. Let me channel the late almost great poster WeAreSJU and posit a fat girl analogy: if a fat girl like St John's walks into a bar at 2:30 she doesn't get to choose between Warren Beatty and Gregory Peckery - she doesn't even get to choose between Ned Beatty and Gregory Samsa: she get's to choose between Artie Lange and Chastity Bono and which ever choice she makes will be the wrong one. I'd be stunned if SJU were to sign any of the top ten eligible coaches, even if Cragg had the will to fire Third Choice and I just don't see that happening. Maybe Anderson resigns in disgrace having been proven to be a hack and a fraud - that'd be the classy thing to do and all I hear is how classy this guy is - but that's a lot of money to give up.

Which anyway if Third Choice were to do the honorable thing that leaves to choose from never was(s) like Archie Miller; could be maybes like Dusty May and Matt Langal; and over the hill moonshots like Billy Gillespie and Ben Howland. Maybe Jim Calhoun's interested, who knows. That would truly be a home run.