Do you think we deserve these good recruits

We are always talking as of late that we all deserve these good recruits but I was thinking, do we actually deserve them? I say No. I say that because we are not a good university academic wise. STJ (SJU is meant for St Joes, they came in 1851, we came in 1863) is a tier 3 university that takes in not the academically elite but the average student. In addtion, St John's only had 3 non-athletic graduates (Mike Francesca, Mario Cuomo, Cardinal Bevoloquia of Philadelphia). Like we are not raising our standards academic wise and I thought my high school, St Josephs Preparatory School, was harder than STJ. STJ does not offer any academic challenge. During my stay at the university, many people told me you will never find a job with an STJ diploma, a good one I mean. Like the reason University of Florida has exploded onto the college basketball scene the past several years is because they are in the Top 50 in rankings and they offer a dual package of if you fail to make it as a pro, you have a great diploma to back you up so you can succed. I remember one day a STJ player wanted to help him with a shootaround so I walked around the basketball locker room in Carnesca and I saw the contract Jarvis wrote for his players and it said "ONLY .33% OF COLLEGE PLAYERS MAKE IT TO THE NBA SO ACADEMICS IS YOUR FIRST OPTION". I don't think a STJ diploma prepares you for a good job. In fact, Rutgers and Fordham are better schools for recurits since their diploma is more respected. Also, when I lived in the dorms, there was too much athlete worshipping where all the atletes thought they were the best but now, they have no good job. At least UF people have the "Gator Nation" where they can tie in the two to be successful. If I was a parent and even if my child was not a top recruit, I would rather send him to Rutgers where they can get a better education than send him to STJ where they major in Sports Managment and end up jobless when its over. Overall, if we improve our academic standing and make classes harder, we can get better recruits instead of losing them to Virginia and Kansas (In face I think it was our academic inferiority that we lost Sylvan to one of the top schools in the south being UVA). So my message is stop worshiping the basketball and start worshiping the textbook and that will caryover to the basketball part, Villanova focuses on academics and they land good recruits and have a successful program plus they stole a recruit from us in part of their academics and also Jay Wright does not get into sparring matches with people

There have been plenty of good bball schools that aren't better than us academically. To paraphrase slick willie: "it's the coaching staff, stupid!"

Quality of school isn't really that big with the recruits, is it?  Florida didn't build their b-ball program just because they're academically decent.  St. John's should improve the academic product, for sure, but kids aren't putting Notre Dame on their must-attend lists because they're a good school (and considered better than some other schools, like Villanova). 

I mean, if I was advising a kid?  Hells yeah, I'd be talking about the schools' academics.  And even then, some schools have disciplines that they're better at than other schools.  St. John's has some, and the added proximity to Manhattan.  That there is attractive to the students and to academically minded recruits, even if the school's not Tier 1. 

I see what you're saying, just responding that it's not the end-all factor of why the recruits don't come here.  And hardly anyone thinks we deserve those players.  You gotta get players, you don't deserve 'em. 

i remember syl saying something about "people at UVA are going to be governors and in d.c." or something like that.  but i really don't think it matters with top recruits.  does anyone seriously think john wall, lance stephenson, or demarcus cousins cared about academics? i doubt it

and the mission of st johns was to serve the poor. and they are doing a fine job at that.  sure it can improve, but i doubt it's holding us back in any way.

13, your right with St Johns mission statement with serving the poor but why does it still charge $30,000/yr, I think with a school that helps the poor it should lower its price. Recurits want to win but at the same time, recurits are now looking for both academics and winning. To turn this into Johnny Jungles 316,729th post on why Harrington is bad, I dont know what this school is now. We started off as a school meant for the poor with a great basketball program but now the poor part does not matter anymore and we have a coaching staff that cannot sell chocolate cake to a fat kid. Fordham has a worse athletic program than us yet they are beginning to emphasizie academics. Look at us, we only have three famous non-athletic alumni. I say overall we need to fire Harrington as a president because he has done nothing to improve the school's image. We need to tell Louie that his consulting days are over and put him into pasture and only use him in fundraising events because he costed us some great coaches plus he was never that good of a coach anyway (Rollie Massimino has more National Championships than him). And we should reform our school with putting a cap on admission acceptances because we are getting record number of online appications and become a 3.3-3.7 GPA school coming from high school. Right now, morale is low all around campus and before I go, do a MEGADRIVE fundraiser to recurit a better atletic department and I think as alumni, we should chip-in to this fundraiser to get a big time coach because "IF THE MONEY IS BIG, HE WILL COME" otherwise, Dave, you should try to invent "Message Board Lithium" while we rot away in the A-10

i remember syl saying something about "people at UVA are going to be governors and in d.c." or something like that.  but i really don't think it matters with top recruits.  does anyone seriously think john wall, lance stephenson, or demarcus cousins cared about academics? i doubt it

and the mission of st johns was to serve the poor. and they are doing a fine job at that.  sure it can improve, but i doubt it's holding us back in any way.

If you knew Syl and you knew his family, you would know he's telling the truth.  His dad has made him sit out AAU tournaments because he didn't have his academics in order.

However, for most of the elite of elite recruits, what matters is basketball and THE COACHING STAFF'S RECORD OF GETTING KIDS TO THE NBA. 

if had a better coach, syl would have overlooked the academics thing.  i have no doubt in my mind about that.

13, your right with St Johns mission statement with serving the poor but why does it still charge $30,000/yr, I think with a school that helps the poor it should lower its price. Recurits want to win but at the same time, recurits are now looking for both academics and winning. To turn this into Johnny Jungles 316,729th post on why Harrington is bad, I dont know what this school is now. We started off as a school meant for the poor with a great basketball program but now the poor part does not matter anymore and we have a coaching staff that cannot sell chocolate cake to a fat kid. Fordham has a worse athletic program than us yet they are beginning to emphasizie academics. Look at us, we only have three famous non-athletic alumni. I say overall we need to fire Harrington as a president because he has done nothing to improve the school's image. We need to tell Louie that his consulting days are over and put him into pasture and only use him in fundraising events because he costed us some great coaches plus he was never that good of a coach anyway (Rollie Massimino has more National Championships than him). And we should reform our school with putting a cap on admission acceptances because we are getting record number of online appications and become a 3.3-3.7 GPA school coming from high school. Right now, morale is low all around campus and before I go, do a MEGADRIVE fundraiser to recurit a better atletic department and I think as alumni, we should chip-in to this fundraiser to get a big time coach because "IF THE MONEY IS BIG, HE WILL COME" otherwise, Dave, you should try to invent "Message Board Lithium" while we rot away in the A-10

Great post, backinny!  My issue with the whole "St. John's is a Vincentian school" argument is if SJU cared so much about its students, why is its tuition still above the national average?  Honestly (speaking aside from basketball for a minute), if I was a prospective student again and wasn't going to receive some big scholarship money, under no circumstances would I consider going to this school.  There is no doubt that Fordham and Hofstra have far surpassed this school in academic reputation and you can go to them for similar price ranges.

One of the big problems with SJU continues to be its identity.  This accepting of students left and right (simply to get their tuition) is bringing the school down in a major way.  I understand you want to give kids an opportunity to succeed, but someone who is struggling to get a 700 or 800 on an SAT doesn't belong in a four year undergrad program.  I know this sounds extremely condescending and it probably is, but community colleges exist for a specific reason.  I'm sure most of the people on this board worked extremely hard in HS and in college.  And I never thought it fair that someone who really busted their tail would be put on the same level as someone who didn't really belong there in the first place.

The mission of SJU is the poor, except at basketball games.

Let's not make Hofstra into Dartmouth.
It's still a third-tier university with a very comparable acceptance rate (54% to 55%) and SAT scores (low to mid 1100s) to St. John's. As for the cost issue, it does seem like the university does want to play it halfway. They're not charging the rates of GW or Tufts (who charge Ivy prices for a non-Ivy caliber degree), but, due to the lack of subsidies and the COLA in Queens, they're unable to charge state school prices. It would be interesting to hear what Harrington's mission is for the university.

This is straight up babble, yo.

now i've read everything.

elite players want to go to the next level.

most don't care that much about jean paul sartre or aristotle.

get real!!