Roberts Looks to Take Back NYC

i was with norm for a while.  unfortunately my recording of him was not very clear so i didn't include it in my article.  i will say though, it seemed like he made many excuses....

he talked about how rock bottom we were and how long it was going to take to come back. and how we needed better faculties and how we can't compete with other big east schools because they have a lot more $ and a football program. 

i found it BS.  if we had a better coach, we'd have better players. plain and simple...

An article written about how Norm is getting into the NY recruiting scene again with additions onto the staff and Omari commitment.

Quote from: Randomhero423 on October 26, 2008, 08:26:13 AM

i was with norm for a while.  unfortunately my recording of him was not very clear so i didn't include it in my article.  i will say though, it seemed like he made many excuses....

he talked about how rock bottom we were and how long it was going to take to come back. and how we needed better faculties and how we can't compete with other big east schools because they have a lot more $ and a football program. 

i found it BS.  if we had a better coach, we'd have better players. plain and simple...

Its not as blunt or simple as you make it out to be. Facilities on campus do help out a lot. Its a recruits initial impression of the school when he visits. When other schools facilities are a lot more impressive then ours its much harder to sell and when you don't have the recruits you don't win. Its a vicious circle.

I do think we're starting to turn the corner in the arms race with facilities, campus looks great and when everything is finished its going to be a really nice campus. I hate to play the youth card on you but I don't think you fully grasp everything due to the fact you're not in college yet.

Quote from: JJ on October 26, 2008, 01:06:31 AM

An article written about how Norm is getting into the NY recruiting scene again with additions onto the staff and Omari commitment.

"AGAIN". . that might make one believe he was ever in to begin with..   FAILURE is the only word to describe Norm's efforts to recruit NYC until he got a verbal from Omari Lawrence... 

if we had a john calipari, sean miller, or bob mckillop, from the start we would be MUCH better.  norm has failed as a recruiter, and a lot of coaches would have done a lot better.

There are plenty of things we could have done better over the Robert's tenure but I'm more concerned about the future(this season and next) then I am about last season and the season before.

Quote from: JJ on October 26, 2008, 10:53:57 AM

There are plenty of things we could have done better over the Robert's tenure but I'm more concerned about the future(this season and next) then I am about last season and the season before.

if you don't pay attention to the past you are bound to repeat it in the future..

Is that because Norm isn't going after them or because they don't want to come here?  I once asked Bob Cimino, at one of the Garden games last year, to send us some players.  His response was, "Come and get 'em."  I took that to mean that Norm might not be aggressively recruiting Mount Vernon players.  It seems, though, that the top tier kids don't want to commit to us.

Kids are being convinced to go to programs where they have to compete with the talent already there, the guys coming in with them, as well as being recruited over the next year.  It's been said over and over but both Curtis Kelly and Doug Wiggins should have been able to foresee what happened to them at Uconn.  There are other kids from this area that I think will regret the choices they made (as far as playing time) but I will keep my speculations to myself.

norm is a cheap street hustler.  every word out of his mouth is self serving.

we won with lesser facilities.  we attracted studs with an old alumni hall as our "showcase".  

sure, he's a first time coach.  the questions are, what is he doing here in the first place...and why is he on a lifetime ticket??

Roberts continued,“St. John’s, for a long time, did not get everybody. Ed Pinckney went to Villanova, Rod Strickland went to DePaul, Kenny Smith went to North Carolina but what happened here is they got Mark Jackson. You didn’t worry about other guys going (out of New York). So we’ve got to deal with the guys we’ve got.”

That just sounds like such an excuse. 

Quote from: Randomhero423 on October 26, 2008, 09:25:58 AM

if we had a john calipari, sean miller, or bob mckillop, from the start we would be MUCH better.  norm has failed as a recruiter, and a lot of coaches would have done a lot better.

If we had roy williams, dean smith, bob knight we would be much better too. We don't though and facilities are important aspect of recruiting. St. John's was behind the 8 ball and this does not help a first time head coach in the deepest conference in America. Its not an excuse its more fact.

There are plenty of things we could have done better over the Robert's tenure but I'm more concerned about the future(this season and next) then I am about last season and the season before.

Quote from: Marillac on October 26, 2008, 02:21:28 AM

Roberts continued,“St. John’s, for a long time, did not get everybody. Ed Pinckney went to Villanova, Rod Strickland went to DePaul, Kenny Smith went to North Carolina but what happened here is they got Mark Jackson. You didn’t worry about other guys going (out of New York). So we’ve got to deal with the guys we’ve got.”

That just sounds like such an excuse. 

You are a little off on how we got Mark Jackson. .  it certainly wasn't "settling"

Coach Carnesecca offered all three scholarships and made it clear to all three guys that the the first person to say YES was going to get the slot. .  Mark said yes first...


It does sound like an excuse and it is also fact.
1982-1983 there were 2 great pgs in NYC.
We were the runner-up for Pearl Washington which if we had gotten him we clearly would have won it all in 1985, were barely in the running for Kenny Smith and settled in the end for Mark Jackson.
Forget that MJ had a great NBA career, both Pearl and Kenny were MCAAs while Mark was barely top 100.
We have been settling for ages.