My Open Letter to St. John's and DePaul fans
Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2016 12:46 amI understand this has become a bit of a trend with the letter to Creighton fans as posted on BECB and Ball's letter to Xavier fans and I apologize if it annoys any of you. Anyways:
Dear fans of the St. John's Red Storm and the DePaul Blue Demons,
Losing sucks. I'm sure both of you are very sick of it. Both of you are under new leaderships and the previous regimes were complete disasters. (OK maybe St. John's was lesser of a disaster under Lavin than DePaul under Purnell but you get the idea). Anyways, as painful as it is to do, I ask that both of you fanbases just stay the course and trust the process. It certainly won't be easy but I believe both programs have good looking futures ahead.
St. Johns: You guys brought in a very splashy (but also risky) hire in your golden boy in Chris Mullin. I say risky because obviously he has no previous coaching experience but that obviously doesn't mean the guy can't succeed. He's done a pretty darn good job recruiting. He and his staff had to work just about 24/7 just to field a full roster for this year. Lavin only left him with 3 rarely used reserves so it's obviously not too surprising to see the results we've seen so far. They've got some very talented players. But their undoing has been their youth and inexperience. In the future, I could see players that have played well this year such as Sima, Mussini, Ellison, Yakwe, and hopefully talented players like LoVett, Ponds, Ahmed, and Owens (transfer from Tennessee) form a dangerous squad. The Johnnies, despite losing, have been fighting their asses off despite the adversity they've faced. The effort is there and that's a reflection on Mullin. Now, we all new this year would be rough for them but we didn't know how they'd respond when handed real adversity and even though they still can't get over the hump. All they need to do right now is keep fighting and they'll be rewarded with wins in the near future.
DePaul: You guys had an unusual and also not so splashy hire. A coach that came to DePaul a second time after a decade away. He had some solid success his last time with 2 NITs and 1 NCAA (which includes a win). DePaul, like St. John's, has been playing almost everyone (except vs Xavier) tough but they're not winning. Like what I said with Mullin, if they're playing everyone tough most of the time despite the adversity they've faced, that's a reflection on the coaching staff. They do have experience and some decent talent but not good enough to compete night in-night out. In the OWH article before the Jays-DePaul game, some of the players and Coach Mac talked about how they're going through what CU went through last season. "They're kind of going through what we went through last year. They've lost a lot of close games. That's how we were last year, right there until something would happen at the end. You look at them and you see the 0-5 right away but when you dig in, you see this is a very good basketball team. We can't take them lightly'"-Isaiah Zierden. "They have a new coaching staff that's trying to put in a new culture and that's going to take time. They're going to win games before the season ends. I just hope it doesn't start Sunday."-Coach Mac. Guys like Billy Garrett Jr., Tommy Hamilton, and Myke Henry are some decent pieces but they aren't "studs". A stud doesn't need to be a Doug McDermott or a Kris Dunn, it just needs to be someone who's reliable whom you can count on to get the job done night in-night out. I'm talking guys like Mo Watson, Josh Hart, Daniel Ochefu, Ryan Arcidiacono, DSR, Ben Bentil, Luke Fischer, Trevon Blueitt, or Edmond Sumner. Looking at Creighton last year, that team had some decent talent like Chatman, Brooks, and Kreklow but it wasn't good enough to get over the hump. Creighton last year, like DePaul this year, shows the effort and fight but just doesn't have the studs or the horses to get over the hump. Also, DePaul, under Purnell, played without much of a real basketball IQ in making some boneheaded plays and turnovers and that has carried onto this year. Well, all I can say is, those guys are what they are and I by no means am attempting to rip on them, I'm just trying to be real and give you guys my honest perspective. I really do like Eli Cain though. That kid can play. All that kid needs is a little seasoning and he'll be an excellent player. Hopefully DL and his staff can recruit and develop the players they recruit. The new arena should also really help as well. No recruit wants to play in a dumpy, old arena far away from campus that lacks asses in seats. Obviously a new arena doesn't always mean a better product, but it sure will be a helluva lot better to play in the new arena than at Allstate Arena.
Bottom line, both of you fanbases just need to hang in there and stay the course. It's gonna be a rough rest of the year although hopefully both can squeeze out a couple of upset wins (just not in Omaha haha). Just remember that Rome was not built overnight, trust the process, don't judge a cook by cooking with another mans groceries judge him by seeing what he cooks with his own groceries, and things will get worse before they get better, you can believe that! Hang in there!
Sincerely,
OmahaGuy
Dear fans of the St. John's Red Storm and the DePaul Blue Demons,
Losing sucks. I'm sure both of you are very sick of it. Both of you are under new leaderships and the previous regimes were complete disasters. (OK maybe St. John's was lesser of a disaster under Lavin than DePaul under Purnell but you get the idea). Anyways, as painful as it is to do, I ask that both of you fanbases just stay the course and trust the process. It certainly won't be easy but I believe both programs have good looking futures ahead.
St. Johns: You guys brought in a very splashy (but also risky) hire in your golden boy in Chris Mullin. I say risky because obviously he has no previous coaching experience but that obviously doesn't mean the guy can't succeed. He's done a pretty darn good job recruiting. He and his staff had to work just about 24/7 just to field a full roster for this year. Lavin only left him with 3 rarely used reserves so it's obviously not too surprising to see the results we've seen so far. They've got some very talented players. But their undoing has been their youth and inexperience. In the future, I could see players that have played well this year such as Sima, Mussini, Ellison, Yakwe, and hopefully talented players like LoVett, Ponds, Ahmed, and Owens (transfer from Tennessee) form a dangerous squad. The Johnnies, despite losing, have been fighting their asses off despite the adversity they've faced. The effort is there and that's a reflection on Mullin. Now, we all new this year would be rough for them but we didn't know how they'd respond when handed real adversity and even though they still can't get over the hump. All they need to do right now is keep fighting and they'll be rewarded with wins in the near future.
DePaul: You guys had an unusual and also not so splashy hire. A coach that came to DePaul a second time after a decade away. He had some solid success his last time with 2 NITs and 1 NCAA (which includes a win). DePaul, like St. John's, has been playing almost everyone (except vs Xavier) tough but they're not winning. Like what I said with Mullin, if they're playing everyone tough most of the time despite the adversity they've faced, that's a reflection on the coaching staff. They do have experience and some decent talent but not good enough to compete night in-night out. In the OWH article before the Jays-DePaul game, some of the players and Coach Mac talked about how they're going through what CU went through last season. "They're kind of going through what we went through last year. They've lost a lot of close games. That's how we were last year, right there until something would happen at the end. You look at them and you see the 0-5 right away but when you dig in, you see this is a very good basketball team. We can't take them lightly'"-Isaiah Zierden. "They have a new coaching staff that's trying to put in a new culture and that's going to take time. They're going to win games before the season ends. I just hope it doesn't start Sunday."-Coach Mac. Guys like Billy Garrett Jr., Tommy Hamilton, and Myke Henry are some decent pieces but they aren't "studs". A stud doesn't need to be a Doug McDermott or a Kris Dunn, it just needs to be someone who's reliable whom you can count on to get the job done night in-night out. I'm talking guys like Mo Watson, Josh Hart, Daniel Ochefu, Ryan Arcidiacono, DSR, Ben Bentil, Luke Fischer, Trevon Blueitt, or Edmond Sumner. Looking at Creighton last year, that team had some decent talent like Chatman, Brooks, and Kreklow but it wasn't good enough to get over the hump. Creighton last year, like DePaul this year, shows the effort and fight but just doesn't have the studs or the horses to get over the hump. Also, DePaul, under Purnell, played without much of a real basketball IQ in making some boneheaded plays and turnovers and that has carried onto this year. Well, all I can say is, those guys are what they are and I by no means am attempting to rip on them, I'm just trying to be real and give you guys my honest perspective. I really do like Eli Cain though. That kid can play. All that kid needs is a little seasoning and he'll be an excellent player. Hopefully DL and his staff can recruit and develop the players they recruit. The new arena should also really help as well. No recruit wants to play in a dumpy, old arena far away from campus that lacks asses in seats. Obviously a new arena doesn't always mean a better product, but it sure will be a helluva lot better to play in the new arena than at Allstate Arena.
Bottom line, both of you fanbases just need to hang in there and stay the course. It's gonna be a rough rest of the year although hopefully both can squeeze out a couple of upset wins (just not in Omaha haha). Just remember that Rome was not built overnight, trust the process, don't judge a cook by cooking with another mans groceries judge him by seeing what he cooks with his own groceries, and things will get worse before they get better, you can believe that! Hang in there!
Sincerely,
OmahaGuy