Norm and Mahoney had no business being head coaches at SJU in the first place. They had failed years prior as head coaches at jobs that were way lower level and they were good assistants. To me, they didn't have the resume to coach at SJU. Both are very likable people, especially Mahoney but bad coaches.
Norm is worse than Mahoney because Mahoney did recruit some good players. Mahoney also had an NCAA appearance but they were with Louie's players. Mahoney was doomed since the Big erase expanded and got better during his time as coach, SJU had no choice but to fire him. UConn and GTown became top 10 teams again and the Cuse went to the Final 4. The league had signed the deal with ESPN for the BE tourney and SJU knew Mahoney had to go but he was better than Norm.
Jarvis Lavin and Fran were all good hires at the time.
As PMG said I think that the admin completely mismanaged the Jarvis last season firing him six games into the season. He could've been died at the end of the year or brought back with a good incoming class. I know we would've chartered home after the Pitt game since Jarvis was adamant about the players going to class but the administration went cheap, both by flying commercial and not having an athletic department representative on the trip. They counted on the managers (me and two other students) to make sure they were in their rooms. There was no chanceof a good ending that night in Pittsburgh but it all could've been avoided as well as the sanctions we got by not firing Jarvis six games into the season.
Jarvis coached the two best teams since Louie retired but Fran recruited the players. Jarvis also has an NIT and another NCAA Tourney with his own players.
Fran's body of work is too smal to be judged but the program was obviously on the right track with him here but he was a maniac. The kids were always tight and his outburst at the United Center before the Detroit NCAA Tournament game completely screwed up the players heads. They played tight and lost a two-point game to a Detroit team they were better than. I don't know if Fran coaches Jarvis' first two teams as deep as Jarvis did because the players loved Jarvis and he did do a good job coaching those teams. It's also no secret Fran was looking to leave for Arizona State. The admin was really pissed at that.
Jarvis also won a big east tournament and he is still the last coach to win a non ACC game at Duke. As good as a recruiter as Lavin is, name me one player Lavin has brought in who was a better player at SJU than Marcus Hatten. Please don't name Harrison, because Harrison is not in Hatten's class.
So that brings us to Lavin who, out of the Jarvis, Fran and Lavin group has by far underachieved the most, just making one NCAA tourney and that was with the players being coached by Mike Dunlap. Last year and this year have been complete disappointments, considering the talent we have had on the team, and if this class doesn't appear in an NCAA Tournemnt, it would make Lavin the worst in game coach maybe in the history of the Big East. This roster is loaded with Trent and the lack of direction and consistency goes directly to him.
Next year, although not completely set yet, looks like it can be an unmitigated disaster since Lavin was desperately counting on a commitment from Briscoe to solidify his recruiting class and get some heat off of him. It's great that he got Sampson and I know we are in the mix for DiAlo, but with Kansas and UK there I realistically don't think he will be here. So if our top 6 players leave,next years team will be worse than Norms first team, which in Year 6 for Lavin is unacceptable.
That's why I put him as the worst of the three then Fran and Jarvis first.