This whole problem would have been avoided if they extended Lavin. Yes, Lavin was coming off a tough recruiting season BUT if he had an extension it may have been easier for him to recruit back to his usual levels after the Briscoe mess (Briscoe busted anyway).
Former President Bobby was a nice guy but was not good with understanding of sports and athletics. All he wanted was to sell tickets ala Mullin. Instead he forced a fit that was not meant to be and now has left the program in an awkward and even worse position because it did not work out. Now we are stuck with Anderson, prob one of the worst coaches we have had in years because we are cheap and we half ass this program.
It is a disservice to students, alum and fans. Its sadly fitting that we have become our sister school, DePaul. And also no longer even have a viable local pull with Seton Hall better than us and Providence and UConn better places to play.
We should have kept Jarvis. Our fans are absolutely insane. Jarvis was recruiting top kids, his teams played tough defense and rebounded with anyone. We were top 3 in the country in rebounding twice in his short stint.
His offense was elementary and he pissed people off. In the bigger picture, who cares? We lost the stipend when he was fired and we got 5 years of Norm Roberts. Was that worth it?
Jarvis landed Showtime, Hamilton, Epperson, and a McDonald’s All-American, Elijah Ingram, at the end in spite of our delusional fans chanting for him to be fired and sh-tting in his face on the message boards.
If Lenny Cooke qualified, Darius Miles played a year of college, and/or Omar or Barkley stayed, he could have built a dynasty here — at least as much as a Big East would allow.