Your point being what? That Lavin is a chowderhead and simpleton, focused only on his own future, hired the 3 stooges as asst. coaches, an old guy who is on the bench for show and is gliding by on personality only. Well you may be right, time will tel.l won't it. Others here have doubts too and more patience perhaps, but not you. Have not read from anyone about "Lavin being infallible". While MCNPA is a 30% on the anxiety meter, where would you place yourself? Anxious people love certainty.
I always thought I was a pretty good writer and yet people are continually asking me what my point is. A less confident person would perhaps re evaluate his self assessment. I am content to soldier on.
My point is: that the same people who read Harrison's tattoos like they're hieroglyphics and psychoanalyze him every time he blinks ignore or mock the idea that Lavin - a celebrity who suffered a very public humiliation at UCLA - might have some issues of his own and that those issues might manifest themselves in the way he behaves professionally. The very idea that he might suffer from the same emotions and neuroses as every other homo sapien is dismissed as the fantasy of a conspiracy theorist.
I don't suffer any anxiety about Saint John's. None. I don't even consider myself a "fan." I've had the fan beaten out of me over 30 years. Now I just follow the basketball team. It's kind of like bird watching. I don't root for the yellow bellied sapsuckers, I just like to look at them. The benefit of that POV is that when a see a grackle I don't mistake it for a bald eagle.
If you don't think Lavin is sliding by on his personality you're not paying attention. His personality is his strength: that's why he's a good recruiter and good with the media. If he wasn't telegenic and charming in his own vapid way the commentary would be quite different. People would be talking about his suits and parsing his post game comments. Lavin and Norm were both right when they played the "we're young" card. The same comments that were roundly mocked during the last administration are now greeted with knowing nods of the head. That's the cult of personality. It's not the speaker, it's the listener.
I don't understand how patience is relevant. I'm talking about what's happening in front of my eyes, today. Perhaps you mean that you're willing to categorize this season of atrocious basketball as something other than atrocious merely because next year the results might be different. I didn't expect this team to do much and wasn't surprised when it didn't. And I expect next year to be better. But I don't see what that has to do with why the walk ons are playing or why Dom Pointer is punching people or the wisdom of calling time outs while your team is on a run or any of the other questionable things that went on this season. Those things are troubling regardless.
I haven't called for Lavin's head - and in fact think the idea of calling for his head absurd. In the first place nobody cares what I think and in the second if Lavin were to leave now it would be catastrophic (relatively speaking obviously). No one except the lunatic fringe thinks Lavin should go anywhere. No one but the lunatic fringe thinks the program is not better off than it was 5 years ago. But on the other side of the lunatic fringe there are people who think everything is swell. Everything is not swell. It may be that the not swell bits are mere bumps in the road. But it may be also that they're sink holes. My point is: can Lavin tell the difference.