Come on Peter, you wouldn't take Norm over him.
How could anyone do worse than Norm over a 6 year period?
At least we know Jackson is respected, and we know he's a name.
True, not sure that anyone could do worse than Norm - and perhaps Mark could hire a fantastic staff to aid him.
But here's what I am thinking, why I say I'd take Norm over him (and I'll reduce that to "might":
But head coaching on the college level is a hard job, with a lot of facets. And the city recruiting and St. John's stature have both changed a LOT since Mark was in Queens.
But is Mark Jackson a name? He's a name in terms of being an NBA announcer, but he has no track record of training kids for the pros, he has no record of being real tight with trusted AAU guys... he's a name because he's on TV. It's not like Michael Jordan's name. Or even Clyde Drexler's or Patrick Ewing's or Isiah Thomas' names.
I suppose when I think about it, Sidney Lowe's ok - 16 and 14 seasons, true mediocrity. Wait, that's what we have now. Imagine one of the heroes of St. John's being reduced to a mediocrity, the message boards calling for his head? That's an ugly scene, and we don't need to go there.
Also: the problem with Norm isn't that his coaching record is running up to 100 wins. Everyone expected the team to lose for one, maybe 2 years. The problem is that it's hard to see how this isn't his ceiling. Which is like Sidney Lowe's regular season. Which I'm imagining as Mark Jackson's season - and his could possibly be worse!
I feel like Mark Jackson is change for change's sake.