Mike & The Mad Dog

Apparently Francessa finally opened up about the SJU situation today on the show.  From what I've been told (I didn't hear it myself), he ripped into the team's lack of talent and blamed Roberts for the lack of "Big East-Quality" recruits.  He admitted that he had been relatively silent for 7-8 years regarding his alma mater, but today he told it like it is.  I wish I could have heard it.

I wish he would talk more about St. John's instead of being up Hofstra's ass. However I don't think he watches the games or really knows much about St. John's basketball. I don't mind him ripping us because we deserve it but like I said I wish he'd have more interest and if I was St. John's why don't we invite him to do a live show at CA once a year? Why don't we give him courtside seats? Why don't we ask him to speak to students? We need to kiss his ass and maybe he'll do the same back.

I heard it ...

- Mike basically said he has no clue whats going on right now with the program and hasnt talked to anyone.

- Said that he doesn't like hearing how we cant competete with football schools and thinks that all it takes is the right coach to bring this program back.  Also said that there are big time coaches out there who would take this job because making it in new york would be worth it to them.  Continued with saying that SJU appears to have no interested in big time coaches which makes him feel the program is satisfied with not being great.  Russo was asking if thats due to Louie not wanting someone to make more of a name them him or if it was up top. 

- Said how there are people inside the program who bad mouthed cal, majerus, other big time coaches last time with all untrue things.  Although he isnt biggest Cal guy, and doesnt think he was right guy at that time because of the sanctions and the risk said that if he was here, we would be # 1 and a powerhouse basketball team. 

- Overall seemed real pist off about everything (like the rest of us) and doesnt get it.  Loves Norm as a person but this is year 4, and these 8 freshmen should have been here earlier.  We can't afford to wait 2 more years to see if they are legit.  Also continued on with its 1 thing to be bad, but horrible to be bad and boring as we are with no scoring.  Dog said the Garden is bad but Mike said we NEED the Garden and how Tranghese hopes for us to be back on top so that it gets jammed for big reg season match ups.

- Bottomline is we need this type of talk from these guys whether you like them or not, a lot of people listen.  Mike has a huge impact on what we do with our coaching and if hes finally getting fed up with things and how this program is run he might start to keep airing it out publicly.  He was very angry today thinking back to the past and how this program has been run.  I dont know enough about Rutledge and others but it sounded like things that we hear maven say are very true if that is the guy Mike is also referring to.

Norm will be on the show in a few minutes.

Caught about 3 minutes today.  They're "setting up" a tourney of locals:  NJIT, Canisius, St. Francis and...St. John's.  They said we'd be the 2 seed.  You have to laugh at this point...it was pretty funny

no mention of paris horne or larry wright during any of his answers

this is no easy interview

We play a good non conference schedule? Come on

The "young" kids could be playing better if they were put in better situations. If we ran and offense and played in a more cohesive system.

Lumps = getting blown out all the time?

no mention of paris horne or larry wright during any of his answers

I noticed this too and that scares the hell out of me as they both show me so much, and completely different.  Unfortunately I think 1 or both of these 2 are gone and that really sucks.

I like Paris more than DJ...they are different players but I like Paris more. DJ is going to be a valuable player though too. Either way every player on the team got mention besides Larry, Paris, Tomas, and Dele.

i heard the full interview. more politically correct answers and no new information. a waste of time.

i heard the full interview. more politically correct answers and no new information. a waste of time.

what can you expect though? they asked some good questions and if I was in Norm's shoes I'd probably say the same answers because what else could he say? We all know the truth but it was good that they put him on the spot a few times

I wanted to see after Russo asked about the offense and Norm responded when we have it we play well and he made mention of USF,RU, PC games...I wish they had the wherewithal to say well they are the 3 worst team's in the conference. Or the fact why can they hang with everyone in games and not get embarrassingly blown out. We are the only team who loses the way we do.

i'm happy M&MD atleast gave him challenging questions.  norm gave a buncha BS. 

i'm happy M&MD atleast gave him challenging questions.  norm gave a buncha BS. 

My point is what do you expect? Norm had to say what he had to say. Put yourself in his shoes, I'm not defending him but he had to be very PC and optimistic.

http://www.wfan.com/episode_download.php?contentType=36&contentId=1495596

link to interview

      Mike is pissed at the SJU administration because years ago [before Jarvis] he brokered a deal to have Majarus coach and the admin. pulled the rug out from under him at the last minute. This caused Francessa [and Majarus] a lot of public embarassment [within media and b ball circles]. Basically, Fr. Harrington blew Mike off and told him to butt out. Since that time, Mike has not attended a game [ I used to see him at every Garden game] and has told the school to screw off.  That's why he will not give the team any positive PR and couldn't care less about the program now.
      As I posted before, the admin. no longer wants to make the necessary investment into a big time program. As long as you suckers continue to support the team by attending games, there will never be improvement. Take it from an oldtimer[class of 68], if the Garden and CA were empty and there was no media/TV coverage ,major changes would be made. The adm. is still living in the 80's when a coach would sign a one year contract for peanuts. Notice how fewer and fewer games are being played at the Garden. This is because more of a profit is made when games are at CA. As long as the program breaks even or makes some profit [most of the $ coming from being a member of the Big East], the adm. is happy. This strategy was planned years ago after Lou retired and is similar to how some of the other Catholic schools in the Big East now run their programs [ie. Seton Hall, Prov., Depaul].

Quote from: Randomhero423 on February 19, 2008, 05:07:06 PM

i'm happy M&MD atleast gave him challenging questions.  norm gave a buncha BS. 

My point is what do you expect? Norm had to say what he had to say. Put yourself in his shoes, I'm not defending him but he had to be very PC and optimistic.

well yeah obviously.  i was a bit disappointed he was even on.  coaches and players (some guys don't but only a selected few) will actually say what's on their mind.  i much would have rather had monasch on then norm.  espiecally since he's been a bit silent about it, and i'm wondering where his head is at with this season so far.  

the 1 thing i did not like about norm was that he blamed injuries for his failures.  and then said we played a tough OOC schedule with facing only 3 good teams.  if mike watched/followed the team closely, norm could have been embarrassed on air with the way he was talking...

guys that say whats on their mind are either a: winning or b: have serious job security neither of which Norm has. Is he not supposed to say he thinks his players will be good players? He had 1 card to play and he played it.

i don't think he had to constantly talk about the injuries to daryll hill and lamont hamilton (although that was only effecting the marq game in BET).