Why does this staff deserve an extension?

Its really lavins 2nd year coaching his new players.  I think we will consistently make the NCAA's going forward..give him the extension. This school has no other options at this point. At the very least he is an outstanding recruiter and has consistently proven that.  Talented recruits alone is enough to extend him...

No he is not an outstanding recruiter.  He had a great first year (which was largely based on Pelle and Sampson) both of whom he didn't get that year, and Sampson which bolstered his second year and then what?  One recruit in two years?  and what of the quality of recruits now?  Delarossa?  His brother (1 rebound 1 point per game at FIU?) How many 4, 5 or even three star recruits are we involved with in a CRUCIAL year for our front court players?  Very soon the "great recruiter" myth  will be realized.  And isn't part of GREAT RECRUITING , staggering the classes so not most of the players leave at once?  Didn't we all want to hang Norm for this? And isn't part of GREAT RECRUITING bringing in players of need, as in "where are the shooters and strong inside players"  No boys and girls, Lavin has failed miserably in that respect, whether you want to hear it or not.  His first recruited class, as was Frannies, Mahoneys etc.  was all due to the hype of his arrival to the program but what has he done since then?  As I have said before and will say again, SNAKE OIL ANYONE???

Linda and Baldi-   Simple question

Safe to assume you both are in favor of firing the entire staff, yes?

Who are your choices, if you had your pick?

Would be concerned about the talent currently on team leaving?

I think he's done a good job rebuilding this program.  He's improved the talent level tremendously.

This is the first year that's been a slight disappointment.  But they were only a win or 2 away from what I thought they could be.  Hopefully we can put a run together in the NIT and everyone comes back.  If so we should have a real good year next year.

Linda and Baldi-   Simple question

Safe to assume you both are in favor of firing the entire staff, yes?

Who are your choices, if you had your pick?

Would be concerned about the talent currently on team leaving?

I would be willing to take the hit for a year or two as I believe we are not going anywhere in the long run anyway. Lavins future success is being predicated by him landing a big class in 2015.  What many people fail to realize is that the 2015 class is not a done deal.  Anything less then Diallo, and some other 4 or 5 star recuits and we will be cellar dwellers as his coaching will certainly not raise the talent level.  And what has this talent done for us anyway?  Any NCAA appearances??  How many top 50 wins???  etc.  Who are my choices?  I have no clue but I do believe that such a job is a big time draw (playing in the Garden with a MILLION PLUS salary) and there will be some excellent candidates. 

I think he's done a good job rebuilding this program.  He's improved the talent level tremendously.

This is the first year that's been a slight disappointment.  But they were only a win or 2 away from what I thought they could be.  Hopefully we can put a run together in the NIT and everyone comes back.  If so we should have a real good year next year.

 I'm on board with your analysis, JJ.. I think I predicted 23 wins this season and sweet sixteen.  Close on win total, at least...lol..  I think the biggest disappointment was clearly the slow start. Losing all three games against Penn St, Syr, and Wisco really set us back early on.

 0-5 to start BE play did the team in. Almost impossible to comeback with no room for error at that point.

I think this team can be very good if CO comes back next year.  Would be dumb if he declares, but what can you do?

I think he's done a good job rebuilding this program.  He's improved the talent level tremendously.

This is the first year that's been a slight disappointment.  But they were only a win or 2 away from what I thought they could be.  Hopefully we can put a run together in the NIT and everyone comes back.  If so we should have a real good year next year.

I take away as a bigger disappointment as once again if you compare last year to this year, last years Big East schedule was far superior to this years with the likes of the Cuse, Louisville, Cinci, Uconn, Etc. on the schedule.  SO a record of 10-8 in the Big East this year may not have even been as good as last years record.  SO WE HAVE HAD THE BENEFIT OF AN INFERIOR BIG EAST SCHEDULE AND ARE STILL ENDING UP IN THE SAME OLD NIT and thats improvement?

Quote from: boo3 on March 15, 2014, 03:32:38 PM

Linda and Baldi-   Simple question

Safe to assume you both are in favor of firing the entire staff, yes?

Who are your choices, if you had your pick?

Would be concerned about the talent currently on team leaving?

I would be willing to take the hit for a year or two as I believe we are not going anywhere in the long run anyway. Lavins future success is being predicated by him landing a big class in 2015.  What many people fail to realize is that the 2015 class is not a done deal.  Anything less then Diallo, and some other 4 or 5 star recuits and we will be cellar dwellers as his coaching will certainly not raise the talent level.  And what has this talent done for us anyway?  Any NCAA appearances??  How many top 50 wins???  etc.  Who are my choices?  I have no clue but I do believe that such a job is a big time draw (playing in the Garden with a MILLION PLUS salary) and there will be some excellent candidates. 

  Interesting.. So you are willing to go backwards for two seasons in order to start all over again with someone brand new, instead of building on what we already have?   What if the new guy only makes 1 tourney in his first 4 seasons, with Lavins players?  Start over again? 

Quote from: Johnny23 on March 15, 2014, 11:07:17 AM

Quote from: ras on March 15, 2014, 10:53:41 AM

The question I ask is how good of an xo guy is Whitesill? I don't think Lavin is that good. What is the opinion of this board.? Would we be better off replacing him ((Whitesill) w an expert like a Dunlap?

The play and results of this year's team tell you all you need to know about Whitesell. He is not a master in game tactician, hell noone even knows who he is. He was some no name D2 or D3 coach before he came here. He's easily replaceable. The real question is will Lavin and the SJU admin open the wallet to bring in a big name asst coach? Not sure Lavin's ego can deal with it and not sure this admin will spend any big $$ to bring in a proven top bench coach. 

Yes this team would be considerably better if they had a true bench coach who was great at making in game adjustments and had a true handle of offensive 5 man basketball. Lavin is clueless in these areas as well as all other aspects of coaching. Good recruiter who better get some 2014 guys as lots of the top guys are already off the board.

Actually he left a SUPERIOR program and coaching staff with  the St. Louis Bilikins to come here.

Actually he was an asst coach at SLU and was passed over for the HC job when Majerus died for a fellow asst coach so that tells you all you need to know. Further, in his only D1 head coaching stint at Loyola Chicago he was a .500 coach so try again. Whitesell is a no name scrub. They need a top bench coach who would cost money and challenge Lavin's ego. Let's see if the admin. and Lavin have the balls to do it.

What good is recruiting top 100 players if the coach cant win with them? What if we had a hired a good X's and O's coach instead of Lavin that brought in 3 star players instead of 4 and 5 star athletes and had the same season we had this year? Its great that Lavin can bring talent here but this core is far too talented to be an NIT team this year. I'd much rather have a coach that brings in solid 3 star recruits every year and gets us tournament appearances on a regular basis.

Everybody talks about how Lavin needs time to build this program. But his building is predicated on the idea that he can bring in a huge recruiting class once every 3 or 4 years. That doesnt really work for a program on our level. We need to be recruiting a few 3 and 4 star players every year that will stay and develop all 4 years. Not saying recruiting guys like Sheed/Diallo/Briscoe is bad but it doesnt make the difference people think if they arent surrounded by veteran players who know what their role and are good at it. For example: Sheed was great for us this year but could you imagine how good he could have been had the team had 1 or 2 legit shooters to keep defenses from sagging into the lane

Quote from: jumpinjohnny on March 15, 2014, 03:38:29 PM

I think he's done a good job rebuilding this program.  He's improved the talent level tremendously.

This is the first year that's been a slight disappointment.  But they were only a win or 2 away from what I thought they could be.  Hopefully we can put a run together in the NIT and everyone comes back.  If so we should have a real good year next year.

 I'm on board with your analysis, JJ.. I think I predicted 23 wins this season and sweet sixteen.  Close on win total, at least...lol..  I think the biggest disappointment was clearly the slow start. Losing all three games against Penn St, Syr, and Wisco really set us back early on.

 0-5 to start BE play did the team in. Almost impossible to comeback with no room for error at that point.

I think this team can be very good if CO comes back next year.  Would be dumb if he declares, but what can you do?

0-5 start and the to loss Depaul were big.  Even with that...if we could've gotten a win vs Nova or Xavier we might be on the right side of the bubble.  Every game counts.

Personally I think everyone overestimates the talent on this team.  I don't think we are in the top 16 talent wise in the country despite everyone complaining that we have sweet 16 talent.   I think we finished about where we should have.  Nova was more talented and Creighton has McDermott...I think we are close in talent to Xavier and Providence.  Biggest problem this year was one dimensional players and Sheed's adjustment period. 

But I'm more patient than other fans.  I did not expect any coach to come in here and have us in sweet 16 by year 3 (not counting first year because we had a full roster and Lavin came in late recruiting wise).  I think Lavin has us on track for sweet 16 next year though.

I'm hoping he can pull recruits out of his ass again this spring so we can sustain momentum going forward. 

God, this board is annoying.  The same crap is said over and over and over and over... 

Quote from: boo3 on March 15, 2014, 03:48:42 PM

Quote from: jumpinjohnny on March 15, 2014, 03:38:29 PM

I think he's done a good job rebuilding this program.  He's improved the talent level tremendously.

This is the first year that's been a slight disappointment.  But they were only a win or 2 away from what I thought they could be.  Hopefully we can put a run together in the NIT and everyone comes back.  If so we should have a real good year next year.

 I'm on board with your analysis, JJ.. I think I predicted 23 wins this season and sweet sixteen.  Close on win total, at least...lol..  I think the biggest disappointment was clearly the slow start. Losing all three games against Penn St, Syr, and Wisco really set us back early on.

 0-5 to start BE play did the team in. Almost impossible to comeback with no room for error at that point.

I think this team can be very good if CO comes back next year.  Would be dumb if he declares, but what can you do?

0-5 start and the to loss Depaul were big.  Even with that...if we could've gotten a win vs Nova or Xavier we might be on the right side of the bubble.  Every game counts.

Personally I think everyone overestimates the talent on this team.  I don't think we are in the top 16 talent wise in the country despite everyone complaining that we have sweet 16 talent.   I think we finished about where we should have.  Nova was more talented and Creighton has McDermott...I think we are close in talent to Xavier and Providence.  Biggest problem this year was one dimensional players and Sheed's adjustment period. 

But I'm more patient than other fans.  I did not expect any coach to come in here and have us in sweet 16 by year 3 (not counting first year because we had a full roster and Lavin came in late recruiting wise).  I think Lavin has us on track for sweet 16 next year though.

I'm hoping he can pull recruits out of his ass again this spring so we can sustain momentum going forward. 

It will be extremely hard for Lavin to ever have  a more talented roster than this one. If he cant win with these guys he will need Kentucky caliber talent and he wont be able to bring that St. John's

God, this board is annoying.  The same crap is said over and over and over and over... 

I would say its like a broken record but its much worse.  I think its more like scratches on a chalk board while trying to read this board sometimes.  But its on all message boards and really much worse elsewhere.  Team loses...fire everybody. 

It will be extremely hard for Lavin to ever have  a more talented roster than this one. If he cant win with these guys he will need Kentucky caliber talent and he wont be able to bring that St. John's

Really? out of coaching 7 years and his first couple recruiting classes is the  best he will do?

Talent wise where do you rank this team...in this league...and nationally?

Quote from: goredmen on March 15, 2014, 04:45:35 PM

It will be extremely hard for Lavin to ever have  a more talented roster than this one. If he cant win with these guys he will need Kentucky caliber talent and he wont be able to bring that St. John's

Really? out of coaching 7 years and his first couple recruiting classes is the  best he will do?

Talent wise where do you rank this team...in this league...and nationally?

Yes because he has been exposed as not a good x and o's coach nor game coach and top level talent with pro aspirations may stop coming here. I do realize some of our fans may see the Delarosa brothers as 2015 lottery picks.

Quote from: goredmen on March 15, 2014, 04:45:35 PM

It will be extremely hard for Lavin to ever have  a more talented roster than this one. If he cant win with these guys he will need Kentucky caliber talent and he wont be able to bring that St. John's

Really? out of coaching 7 years and his first couple recruiting classes is the  best he will do?

Talent wise where do you rank this team...in this league...and nationally?

I wouldn't say we are more talented than Nova or Creighton, but i wouldnt say they are more talented than we are either. We are WAY more talented than Xavier, Prov, Gtown etc. I'd say if the NCAA tournament field was selected before any games were played and only talent was taken into consideration we'd be a 7, 8 or 9 seed

Quote from: jumpinjohnny on March 15, 2014, 04:50:28 PM

Quote from: goredmen on March 15, 2014, 04:45:35 PM

It will be extremely hard for Lavin to ever have  a more talented roster than this one. If he cant win with these guys he will need Kentucky caliber talent and he wont be able to bring that St. John's

Really? out of coaching 7 years and his first couple recruiting classes is the  best he will do?

Talent wise where do you rank this team...in this league...and nationally?

Yes because he has been exposed as not a good x and o's coach nor game coach and top level talent with pro aspirations may stop coming here. I do realize some of our fans may see the Delarosa brothers as 2015 lottery picks.

I wouldn't go that far yet... If Boheim can recruit top level talent in the tundra of upstate NY year after year why can't Lavin do the same. It took Boheim to recruit Melo to win his one on only championship. Hope is not lost yet... Championship speaking Donovan has won 2 championships in a school that doesn't focus on BB.

Quote from: jumpinjohnny on March 15, 2014, 04:50:28 PM

Quote from: goredmen on March 15, 2014, 04:45:35 PM

It will be extremely hard for Lavin to ever have  a more talented roster than this one. If he cant win with these guys he will need Kentucky caliber talent and he wont be able to bring that St. John's

Really? out of coaching 7 years and his first couple recruiting classes is the  best he will do?

Talent wise where do you rank this team...in this league...and nationally?

Yes because he has been exposed as not a good x and o's coach nor game coach and top level talent with pro aspirations may stop coming here. I do realize some of our fans may see the Delarosa brothers as 2015 lottery picks.

I thought he was exposed at UCLA? Must be a miracle that he has landed so many good recruits here.

I wouldn't say we are more talented than Nova or Creighton, but i wouldnt say they are more talented than we are either. We are WAY more talented than Xavier, Prov, Gtown etc. I'd say if the NCAA tournament field was selected before any games were played and only talent was taken into consideration we'd be a 7, 8 or 9 seed

Then we'll have to agree to disagree.  I don't see how anyone can say we are WAY more talented than those teams.

9 seed puts us at top 36 talent.  That's close...I would put us at 35-45 range maybe.  Problem is most of our talent is one dimensional.  You need to be able to score in today's game and we don't have enough offensive talent to be elite. 

Quote from: jumpinjohnny on March 15, 2014, 04:50:28 PM

Quote from: goredmen on March 15, 2014, 04:45:35 PM

It will be extremely hard for Lavin to ever have  a more talented roster than this one. If he cant win with these guys he will need Kentucky caliber talent and he wont be able to bring that St. John's

Really? out of coaching 7 years and his first couple recruiting classes is the  best he will do?

Talent wise where do you rank this team...in this league...and nationally?

Yes because he has been exposed as not a good x and o's coach nor game coach and top level talent with pro aspirations may stop coming here. I do realize some of our fans may see the Delarosa brothers as 2015 lottery picks.

He already has one guy in the league and likely another in Jordan.