First, I don't think b_ball fan is a troll. There are different ways of looking at St. John's problem, and he's looking at it a different way, even if most of the posters here don't agree.
Personally, I don't know that running a clean program and, like Norm, working for years to make those AAU connects has to be divested from a game coach and player developer. He's done a job of improving the St. John's name, but it took years and new hires of Oz and Kimani. I think someone else can take the same number of years to hit the NY pipeline and be a better game coach. I don't think Norm is such a closer that another person with some connections to high school/ AAU ball can't do what he's done, while doubling as someone who can actually win games and coach the team up.
I also don't think that Pecora is a step sideways. Or even an "available" coach like Tim Welsh (that right there is probably hyperbole, I admit, but I don't think Welsh is that bad, just a horrendous recruiter of top talent). McCaffery might be a good choice, but we know the administration wants a guy to see this as a destination job. He's in his 50s... maybe it would be a destination job for him.
The current problem with Norm isn't that he's not working hard, or that he's not getting in the door with the right people, it's that he's been losing games for so long it continues to be hard for players to consider the school. Therefore, if you build on some of Norm's work and goodwill, and couple that with a new start, a "it's a new day" kind of coaching staff, why can't St. John's win?
Norm is not a scapegoat for the losses; he's a major part of them. We watch a team that is fundamentally questionable, has turned the ball over A LOT every single year he's been at the helm, can never score, routinely gets blown out, and has one point guard whose performance this year really did not inspire any confidence.
To sum: the things Norm has done well are generally replaceable. And given a mandate, I think another coach can find guys who don't get into trouble, attend class occasionally, and play hard. The one issue might be salary, but I think if Providence could find a million to give a coach, St. John's can find that money as well. Maybe that's not true; endowments are getting hit real hard, and who knows what will happen in the next year.
But saying Norm is the only guy to do the job he's done in fits and starts, I think, is just not true. The negativity hurts the program, I believe that. But just because people are negative doesn't mean the coach is good. I'd make a political analogy, but I'm not starting that brouhaha on the board today.