Who remembers after nuri transfered i had posted that, based on the locker room rumblings i heard, nuri would not be the last to leave and stith would probably be next. yes i used the word "transfer" because i underestimated stiths dislike of dunlap and i didnt consider he would rather give up college bball alltogether this season rather than play for dunlap. everyone (except for Marco Baldi and a couple others) refused to believe me and said things like "no player would up and leave in the middle of the season" and "you have no idea what your talking about, you should be banned from posting on JJ" and "when you get cancer i hope everyone writes you off" among other comments and name calling. Well for everyone that doubted what i had said, unfortunately for Stjbb, we have lost another player.
Everyone who is trying to discredit Stiths ability or accomplishments can do that all they want to, but there is no possible way to deny that stith leaving is a huge blow to this program, especially in its current state. They are struggling to put a half decent product on the floor, have no bench, and have not brought in any top recruits as of yet. every recruit lav is targeting is understandably highly reluctant to sign on because of what they are seeing on the court this year, along with all the uncertainties around Lav. When known/recognizable players like nuridean leave, or even less known players like stith, that hampers all recruiting efforts greatly. Not to mention that this current season we have no bench and need all the bodies we can get, so Stiths leave not only hurts us in recruiting but tangibly effects our court play this season. however, most fans probably wrote off this season, but this departure will have an undeniable effect in terms of recruiting.
While there are many causes of concern for st johns basketball right now (our bench, transfers/departures, recruiting, status of HC, wins-losses, etc.), the one issue where we are solid, for now, is the staff. even though some of them will be leaving after the season, the world class staff is the one component currently holding everything together and keeping it from falling to shreds. For all the dunlap bashers, I credit Dunlap for the 10-14 record, and if it werent for him the record would be somewhere in the 5-19 range, or possibly even 20 losses. Yes, Stith left due to issues with dunlap. even though stith is my friend, i think hes wrong in this particular case, i even told him he should tough it out. Dunlaps practices, by all accounts, are much tougher, more intense, and disciplined than Norms were. Dunlap has been coaching all the practices since lavin hired him, even when lav was fully healthy. I dont agree with stith's decision, but i understand it. his conflict with dunlap is between him and dunlap, and I dont blame dunlap for pushing stith out, im upset stith chose to leave but like i siad i understand it. dunlap and stith had two completely different visions and opinions as to how stith should be playing. It had nothing to do with PT, it was all about playing style. having said that however, i do hold lav accountable for pushing out omari, quincy, and even ron roberts, any of who we could def use right now. I dont blame lav for polee leaving, this incident was different and polee was not forced or pressured to leave, he left on his own accord based on what he was hearing from his father and others in his fam. this is not the case with omari, quincy or ron. I dont fully blame lav for nuri's departure but he did contribute to it, no doubt about it.