We took a bunch of steps back starting over with Mullin. I seem to be the only one who wished we didn't do it. I hope am I wrong. I believe we would be further along this year and next if Lavin stayed. i believe he would have gotten similar talent that Mullin has. Of course the nonsense would have most likely continued. I really enjoyed the last 5 years, however disappointing.
This awful season makes sense to me if Mullin is better. Instead of a dis pointing 5/6 place regular season we finish in to top 3/4. Especially when we have talent. Harrison and pointer were amazing talents . For this big east they should have done more. Hopefully ponds, Ahmed, and Lovett are similar. Just more successful.
The big east semis are an awesome event I expect that we are there year 3 of the Mullin era and most years after that. I expect to win NCAA games. My hope is tha Mullin is much better then Lavin. I am not sold that he is, YET
Lavin wasn't Norm Roberts. I think that is in large part why some of us liked him, and why some of us are upset now. But being better than Norm shouldn't be the bar that St.John's sets its standard to. It's one thing to accept a first NCAA tournament exit. It's another to clearly establish that as your only goal.
The biggest problem with Lavin is that his teams, and the program never had an identity. If you were a top recruit, you bought into his speeches. You had no idea what kind of offense he would run, or what kind of defense they would play, because he didn't know.
Mullin is learning how to coach. And he may become a great coach one day. I was against hiring someone without coaching experience, at first, but he's our coach now, much like in 2004 Norm was our coach, whether we liked it or not. We can get on board and support him, or we can be miserable while he learns when to call a TO during a 12-0 run by Incarnate Word, and when not to.
We've been through lot of coaches since Lou Carnesecca retired. No one has had consistent success. Mullin is a different story for many reasons. Some good, and some bad. To his credit, and his staff's credit, there are two local talents committed to play for St.John's next season. Mullin was brought here to bring the NY back to St.John's. That's a good start, because it seems like Mullin, but recruiting locally, is trying to establish what kind of team he's trying to build. Now, recruits can see what they're signing up with recruits like Ponds and Ahmed already committed. I would like to see the players get after it more, but we should all see that we're seeing more of an effort now than we did in November.
It's impossible to judge a coach that doesn't have a BE, or even D1 player for every position. The thing is, the same was true for Norm Roberts when he was forced to start Hill, Lawrence, Jackson, Gray and Hamilton, and in fairness, Norm had a much bigger uphill climb than Mullin does now.