Mullin Coping With Terrible Season

This.  He is no doubt a great talent, but had Lavin recruited competently after the first 2 years, he could have avoided kids like Jordan and Artis.  I understand a program like St. John's has to take risks, but after Year 1 and the class that followed, Lavin should have been positioned to NOT take nearly as many risks as he seemingly did.  And, by the way, I'm not talking about academic risks - those are unavoidable to an extent, and the key is to make sure that when things don't go your way with a freshman/transfer on that score, you have enough depth to make up for it.  I'm talking about staying away from kids who have the baggage that Jordan had.

It's worth mentioning again and again..
We should have seen the writing on the wall.

Jordan grew up in Jay Wright's backyard,  and the kid wants nothing more than to spend every waking moment of his life in the city of Philadelphia ....   and despite all that Villanova didn't recruit him.

Quote from: desco80 on February 17, 2016, 04:06:23 PM

It's worth mentioning again and again..
We should have seen the writing on the wall.

Jordan grew up in Jay Wright's backyard,  and the kid wants nothing more than to spend every waking moment of his life in the city of Philadelphia ....   and despite all that Villanova didn't recruit him.

Villanova did initially recruit Jordan.  But they backed out of his recruitment.  Wright also backed out of the recruitment of Alkins (in his backyard or not, but they pulled out when at one point they were considered one of the frontrunners, nonetheless).

This is true.  They did sniff around initially.   But I think by his Junior year in HS they were out.   
Just goes to show you, not everyone feels compelled to recruit a kid just because he is good and lives close.
I think we're seeing that now with Rawle and our staff.    Some players are more headaches than they are worth.

Quote from: mjdinkins on February 17, 2016, 04:13:52 PM

Quote from: desco80 on February 17, 2016, 04:06:23 PM

It's worth mentioning again and again..
We should have seen the writing on the wall.

Jordan grew up in Jay Wright's backyard,  and the kid wants nothing more than to spend every waking moment of his life in the city of Philadelphia ....   and despite all that Villanova didn't recruit him.

Villanova did initially recruit Jordan.  But they backed out of his recruitment.  Wright also backed out of the recruitment of Alkins (in his backyard or not, but they pulled out when at one point they were considered one of the frontrunners, nonetheless).

This is true.  They did sniff around initially.   But I think by his Junior year in HS they were out.   
Just goes to show you, not everyone feels compelled to recruit a kid just because he is good and lives close.
I think we're seeing that now with Rawle and our staff.    Some players are more headaches than they are worth.

The staff is still targeting Alkins.  How vigorously?  I'm not sure.   

Quote from: we are sju on February 17, 2016, 03:34:39 PM

I am no Lavin apologist, but from what I have been told of the situation, there is nothing anyone could have done with Jordan. If you want to say he should have been suspended or thrown off the team then fine but none of us would have agreed with that.

I don't think anyone is arguing that Jordan was not incorrigible. Any 17 year old who calls himself "Jesus" is likely to be. And what happened to him is ultimately his own fault. But if he was that incorrigible then it is unlikely that the guy who enabled his incorrigibility for 2 years would have somehow kept him reigned him, except he unfortunately got fired, as the poster above imagines. Many of Lavin's players (Pointer, Harrison, Obekpa, Lindsey off the top of my head) had a history of incorrigibility and the only time he disciplined them is when it was to his own benefit, as it was when he suspended Harrison for much less an egregious  infraction. Blaming Lavin's absence for Jordan's downfall is a tad nuts, considering what occurred the two years Lavin was there.

Oh I agree with all that, especially the Harrison part. My only issue is people saying he should have cut ties or not recruited him at all. Jay Wright and Nova can afford to do that we can't.

Quote from: mjdinkins on February 17, 2016, 04:13:52 PM

Quote from: desco80 on February 17, 2016, 04:06:23 PM

It's worth mentioning again and again..
We should have seen the writing on the wall.

Jordan grew up in Jay Wright's backyard,  and the kid wants nothing more than to spend every waking moment of his life in the city of Philadelphia ....   and despite all that Villanova didn't recruit him.

Villanova did initially recruit Jordan.  But they backed out of his recruitment.  Wright also backed out of the recruitment of Alkins (in his backyard or not, but they pulled out when at one point they were considered one of the frontrunners, nonetheless).

This is true.  They did sniff around initially.   But I think by his Junior year in HS they were out.   
Just goes to show you, not everyone feels compelled to recruit a kid just because he is good and lives close.
I think we're seeing that now with Rawle and our staff.    Some players are more headaches than they are worth.

We are not Villanova. Needed his talent. And once he was here you had to play the game with him. Lavin took a shot and it sort of kinda worked out. We don't make tourney w/o him. I am down with most of Lavin criticism but not this.

Gotta say I really really like that last line of his, "We're coming."

Not to pile on the anti-lavin sentiment because I actually kinda liked the guy, but every quote I've read of Mullin's it's clear how confident he is in his process and of future successes, while it sorta seemed like Lavin was hoping things would work out. Can't wait for next year and beyond.

Quote from: desco80 on February 17, 2016, 04:20:29 PM

Quote from: mjdinkins on February 17, 2016, 04:13:52 PM

Quote from: desco80 on February 17, 2016, 04:06:23 PM

It's worth mentioning again and again..
We should have seen the writing on the wall.

Jordan grew up in Jay Wright's backyard,  and the kid wants nothing more than to spend every waking moment of his life in the city of Philadelphia ....   and despite all that Villanova didn't recruit him.

Villanova did initially recruit Jordan.  But they backed out of his recruitment.  Wright also backed out of the recruitment of Alkins (in his backyard or not, but they pulled out when at one point they were considered one of the frontrunners, nonetheless).

This is true.  They did sniff around initially.   But I think by his Junior year in HS they were out.   
Just goes to show you, not everyone feels compelled to recruit a kid just because he is good and lives close.
I think we're seeing that now with Rawle and our staff.    Some players are more headaches than they are worth.

We are not Villanova. Needed his talent. And once he was here you had to play the game with him. Lavin took a shot and it sort of kinda worked out. We don't make tourney w/o him. I am down with most of Lavin criticism but not this.

Gotta have a backup plan.  That's the critique I have.   Not going after Jordan in the first part (although one could second guess that).
But if you are going after Jordan, and signing Obekpa, and Keith Thomas ... you need to expect that it might not work out.
And Lavin didn't recruit enough after he signed Jordan.  Which was 4 years ago.

Lavin stopped recruiting after he came back from prostate cancer. For whatever reason, that's pretty much a fact. If Lavin was still here, what would our roster look like?

Brandon Sampson, Jay Henderson, Myles Stewart, Felix Balamou in the back court. Marcus LoVett would still be ineligible, Rysheed would have been academically ineligible.

Front court of Ali, CJ, Adonis and Joey De La Rosa. Do we really think Diallo would be here? After getting the Sandusky treatment in the locker room by the De La Rosas, do we think Prince Obekpa would still be here?

Not much better than what we have now, only thing is, we have a different philosophy and energy about recruiting.

Hey, who cares if we are 0er in the BE. At least we don't have any drama this year . . .

Hey, who cares if we are 0er in the BE. At least we don't have any drama this year . . .

Great post.