This season has only proven to me that St. John's will not have any type of sustained success any time soon.
Going back to the big recruiting class of a few years ago, would you have ever thought that we'd (maybe) have 1 NCAA Tournament to show for it? It just goes to show you what a poor coach Lavin is.
I thought we would be an NCAA team by year 3 with this class. And the reason that we (probobly) are not one is that we lack that one player. The one player that can knock dowm three's consistantly. With all the talk of how our interior defense was it was the back to back 3's in the first half that cut our lead from 7-1 and Fourtune's back to back in the 2nd half that gave them a double diget lead.
In this day and age in CB you need to be able to hit three's on a consistant basis. And for what ever reason Lavin still hasn't found that player. I really think if we had that tuype of shooter we would have 24 wins at least and would be an ncaa team. Really think Lavin is going to have to find someone (JC-transfer) who can fill that roll. As hard as this season ihas been we are really only a couple of jump shots away from those 24 wins.
Am I an optomist, probobly but @DePaul, Providence, Penn St and today
I get it but I am more upset about the defensive breakdowns and poor defensive rebounding in some of these games that really cost them. 1 NCAA Tourney appearance in 4 years is not good enough by Lavin's own standards. This was the year they needed to breakthrough. They should be really good next year but again this should have been an NCAA springboard to next year.
NCAA springboard this year for greater success next season was precisely the target. Couple that with continued solid recruiting and we would be on our way to annual relevance, respectability and competitiveness. Too bad phase one did not come to fruition.
I think we will be relevant every year. This is the most press I have seen for a st johns team since maybe 1999. I think we all wanted it to be right away, well maybe it will take 5 years to start, but I rememeber what this city was like in the 80's for st john's and we are very close to getting it back again.
First off, did you see the attendance figures for St. John's this year? The program is not getting back to relevancy.
Second, think about this logically. Sure, next year will probably be an NCAA Tournament team assuming Obekpa comes back and they add more bigs to the equation. But then what? Harrison, Branch, Greene, Pointer will all be gone. After how he looked in the 2nd half of this season, my guess is Jordan doesn't last to his junior year either. Sampson is up in the air.
So we are back to square one. Relying on another recruiting class to save our collective asses. Here's the problem ... the coach hasn't shown an ability to bring kid's games along. So I ask again? Are things really so great?
Being relevent starts from a certain point and we got a lot of good press this year. This is the first time I heard anyone mention st john's on talk radio. And that has a lot to do with Lavin putting himself and the program outthere. Success doesn't happen overnight, we were a dormant programfor over 10 years and we are just starting to build to a point of becoming a permanent fixture on the college basketball scene.
I'm not trying to be a Lavin spokesperson but he was given a tough situation having to build a team from the ground up. Getting into the NCAA's this year would have been great, but if we have to wait one more year then so be it. Players will come and we will continue to get better, we have been there before and we will be there again.
Apparently you care alot more about being mentioned on Francessa's radio show than I do.
We were "relevant" in the 80s and early 90s because the team won. That's why they were the talk of the town, and on the back page of the papers. You are misplacing your priorities if you think you should get relevant and that will lead to winning. The natural course is the other way around, otherwise it's just artificial buzz that fans and recruits won't buy after awhile.
Also, fwiw, Lavin was hired to coach and recruit. I get that a coach is the face of the program, and all of that. But a lot of what you guys are giving him credit for what is really the job of a PR Director or a person in Media Relations.
Now obviously it helps when your coach isn't as boring as a cardboard box when he's interviewed; but getting the team mentioned on sports programs or in the paper really isn't his job.