NEW YORK – Perhaps more than anyone else on the St. John’s staff, Rico Hines feels a special bond with head coach Steve Lavin.
Lavin recruited Hines to UCLA, coached him to four Sweet 16s and later hired him as a player development coach when Lavin took over the St. John’s program in 2010.
“More than basketball, more than anything else I care about him as a person because he took a chance on me when I was 17 years old from North Carolina by way of Maryland and helped me come to UCLA and look at me now,” Hines said Oct. 14 during St. John’s Midnight Madness.
http://www.zagsblog.com/2011/10/24/special-bond-ties-st-johns-hines-to-lavin/
And no Coach/Player combo has EVER taken anymore grief than Steve/Rico from their own supposed "FANS" over a player getting court time - possibly at any time, at any school. On the UCLA boards, the name "rico" is STILL just a joke.
When Rico was playing, a long time poster was literally run off the Bruin boards - "Fans" made his life miserable. His crime? He was a retired scorekeeper - he and his wife liked to chart the Bruin games as they watched. He had the audacity to report that the STATS showed Rico had the 2nd highest +/- on the Bruins over a 2 year period - 2nd to all american Jason Kapono - and posited that perhaps that was why he got minutes even tho he IS possibly the worst shooter in Pac 10 history....
It's not apples to apples but plus minus the most useless sat in hockey. Interesting? Yes! But it's a questionable stat. I do wish normal college box scores included it though and you didn't have to dig for it. Good debate.
I agree as a single game stat it has questionable value (kind of thing you glance at and say, oh- he had a nice game - but don't draw any real conclusions). Guy has a hot or cold game, or is on the floor with a poor performing or great performing other 4 guys - tough to pull any value from that. But over a two year 60+ game sampling? I think there's tremendous value in that circumstance. The team outscored its opponent more often when Rico was on the floor over 2 full years than with any other player on the roster except Jason Kapono. And there were 5 future NBA guys on those rosters...Some guys are "glue" guys who's stats DON'T indicate team success - they make the pass that SETUS UP the assist pass. They're in the right position on offense, so the ball rotates thru the offense correctly. In Ricos case, he's so intense, the other players reflect his work ethic, and intelligence, when he was on the court. Eve if the ball WAS guaranteed to clank off the rim on those rare occasions he HAD to shoot it
