Serious Question: Do You think Mullin Likes Coaching?

[billyjack]

Guys,
St John's is a better job than what some of you guys think. Starts and ends wifh MSG. I feel like i going to have to have to write up a long post about it.

Also, Butler fans are great guys, love them, love Hinkle, college hoops traditions in the state... but... you're as a group the most cynical, sourpuss, wet-blankets in the conference. The top 3 sourpusses on this site are Butler fans...

You know the movie "Hoosiers" of course... Butler fans are like the Barbara Hershey character.

[GumbyDamnit!]

Before Mullin got the job, insiders said that Hurley was definitely interested in going to SJ. Of course that could have changed now...especially given the quote recently where Hurley said he wants to make Final Four's wherever he goes next. That makes me think he'd immediately take SJ out of the running obviously. Who knows?

1. Danny Hurley
2. Billy Donovan
3. Will Brown
4. Tim Cluess

That's my wishlist in order. Donovan is interesting, but is he really going to leave a good Thunder team to come and coach at SJ? Wouldn't that be a big pay cut for him? The good thing is that he's from Long Island right near St. John's so if he wants to come back home that would be huge. I feel like it's a pipe dream though and way too good to be true. He makes something like $4 million a year now and we're paying Mullin only $2 million in comparison. Also read reports that he's very very happy in the NBA. It would take a huge push from boosters to throw any and all money at him as a hail mary to land him. I feel like the most realistic option would be Will Brown. He consistently wins with Albany and does very well in conference tournaments.

MM, with all due respect...I know that this is wish list, fantasy-speak at this point but... if you are going to make a list like this where you value Danny Hurley over Billy "The Kid' Donovan, then I question your integrity as a college hoops fan. All things being equal you want Donovan. He's got 2 NC rings as a coach.

[Fieldhouse Flyer]

Before Mullin got the job, insiders said that Hurley was definitely interested in going to SJ. Of course that could have changed now...especially given the quote recently where Hurley said he wants to make Final Four's wherever he goes next. That makes me think he'd immediately take SJ out of the running obviously. Who knows?

1. Danny Hurley
2. Billy Donovan
3. Will Brown
4. Tim Cluess

That's my wishlist in order ... we're paying Chris Mullin only $2 million per year.

Yeah it sounds like Hurley has his sights set on a school with a recent history of being a national power for his next job. Final Fours and regular 4-5 star recruits. He's aiming high, as he should be. With Louisville opening up and now the possibility of Michigan State following, it's smart got him to state his desire of wanting to go to bank school like that. Whether or not schools like that would be interested in him remains to be seen.

It is a near-certainty that Dan Hurley will be interviewing for a new job in April, and St. John’s could be a front-runner.

Dan Hurley – Wikipedia . . . Rhode Island Rams men's basketball – Wikipedia

URI, Dan Hurley agree on contract extension through 2023-24 season – Providence Journal - May 16, 2017

Hurley’s base salary of $300,000 remains intact, and his annual compensation by the end of the deal will be nearly $1.1 million.

In 2017, Dan Hurley led Rhode Island to their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1999 ... on the strength of his outstanding junior-class guards. This season, they’re all seniors, and the RPI # 9 Rams are tearing through the A10 unchecked.

Rhode Island Rams 2017-18 Stats . . . Rhode Island Rams 2017-18 Roster

Senior guard 6’-3”, 215-lb. Jared Terrell • 32.4 MPG • 17.9 PPG
Senior guard 6’-5”, 200-lb. E.C. Matthews • 26.9 MPG • 14.0 PPG
Senior guard 6’-4”, 200-lb. Stanford Robinson • 28.2 MPG • 10.2 PPG
Senior forward 6’-8”, 275-lb. Andre Berry • 18.8 MPG • 9.8 PPG
Senior guard 6’-0”, 175-lb. Jarvis Garrett • 23.1 MPG • 6.3 PPG

Next season, Rhode Island will not be returning any players who are averaging more than 16 minutes per game or more than 9 points per game, and will be the least-experienced team in the A10.

There’s not much chance that Dan Hurley will want to stick around for that trainwreck, so he’ll be off to greener pastures next season.

Yeah it sounds like Hurley has his sights set on a school with a recent history of being a national power for his next job. Final Fours and regular 4-5 star recruits.

It will be interesting to see what level of schools are seriously interested in a coach who has one NCAA Tournament win in his first 7 seasons.

The national powers looking for a new head coach in the spring will be focussing on Chris Mack, who will be losing 4 key seniors in April.

[BigmanU]

Those names kicked around are a pipe dream. St. John's will be grovelling at the feet of some lower level hotshot or retread coach.

They haven't won a tourney game since the turn of the century. Nothing tells me an established coach would be beating the door down. Norm Roberts & Steve Lavin were the previous 2 coaches hired. If they could have done better, they would have already. If Mullin doesn't pull it together with the players coming in next year (18-19), the program will be left in ashes.

[EMT]

Guys,
St John's is a better job than what some of you guys think. Starts and ends wifh MSG. I feel like i going to have to have to write up a long post about it.

Also, Butler fans are great guys, love them, love Hinkle, college hoops traditions in the state... but... you're as a group the most cynical, sourpuss, wet-blankets in the conference. The top 3 sourpusses on this site are Butler fans...

You know the movie "Hoosiers" of course... Butler fans are like the Barbara Hershey character.

billyjack,

With all due respect, we don't need a history lesson about the history of St Johns and how they used to be a blue blood.

There coaches since Louie retired are:

Brian Mahoney 1992–96 56–58 .491 29–43 .403
Fran Fraschilla 1996–98 35–24 .593 21–15 .583
Mike Jarvis 1998–03 66–60 .524 57–36 .613
Kevin Clark 2003–04 2–17 .105 1–15 .064
Norm Roberts 2004–10 81–101 .445 32–70 .313
Steve Lavin 2010–15 81–53 .604 40–30 .571
Mike Dunlap 2011–12 11–17 .392 6–12 .400
Chris Mullin 2015– 22–43 .338 8–28 .222

If SJU was a destination job, these would not be the list of coaches since 1992.

It'll be terrific if SJU can turn it around. But it's going to take a total home run mid-major hire like Cooley. Billy the Kid is NEVER going to SJU. Shit, if he shows his intentions to go back to college, schools like UCLA will boot Alford to the curb immediately.

[BigEast1]

I would be surprised if St. John's gave Mullin less time than they did Roberts. I'm pretty sure Mullin is back next year, no matter how bad this season goes. I know that many SJU folks were not a fan of Lavin, and I totally get some of it. His teams always seemed to start 0-3 or something like that in Big East play, and his record in the post season wasn't great either, but in his four full seasons there (I say 4 b/c one year he only coached 4 games b/c of cancer) he had 2 NIT appearances & 2 NCAA appearances. In other words, the only coach since Carnesecca to get to the post season every year, granted with an asterisk, but something tells me most folks at St. John's would sign up for that with Mullin, who barring divine intervention, will be 0 for 3 in his first 3 years. As to the question, yes, I think he likes coaching, just not sure how much he likes losing.

[billyjack]

Guys,
St John's is a better job than what some of you guys think. Starts and ends wifh MSG. I feel like i going to have to have to write up a long post about it.

Also, Butler fans are great guys, love them, love Hinkle, college hoops traditions in the state... but... you're as a group the most cynical, sourpuss, wet-blankets in the conference. The top 3 sourpusses on this site are Butler fans...

You know the movie "Hoosiers" of course... Butler fans are like the Barbara Hershey character.

billyjack,

With all due respect, we don't need a history lesson about the history of St Johns and how they used to be a blue blood.

There coaches since Louie retired are:

Brian Mahoney 1992–96 56–58 .491 29–43 .403
Fran Fraschilla 1996–98 35–24 .593 21–15 .583
Mike Jarvis 1998–03 66–60 .524 57–36 .613
Kevin Clark 2003–04 2–17 .105 1–15 .064
Norm Roberts 2004–10 81–101 .445 32–70 .313
Steve Lavin 2010–15 81–53 .604 40–30 .571
Mike Dunlap 2011–12 11–17 .392 6–12 .400
Chris Mullin 2015– 22–43 .338 8–28 .222

If SJU was a destination job, these would not be the list of coaches since 1992.

It'll be terrific if SJU can turn it around. But it's going to take a total home run mid-major hire like Cooley. Billy the Kid is NEVER going to SJU. Shit, if he shows his intentions to go back to college, schools like UCLA will boot Alford to the curb immediately.

The quick answers to the St John's coaching question, which you know, are:
- Mahoney was Carnessca assistant.
- Fraschilla was a hot hire from Manhattan.
- Jarvis was a hot hire, Ewing's HS coach, did great at GW.
- Clark was a fill-in due to Jarvis scandal.
- Roberts was a safe hire after scandal, like Seton Hall did with Willard after Gonzo.
- Lavin was considered a good hire, a guy many thought was unfairly canned at UCLA.
- Mullin was a gamble but was an exciting pick to re-ignite and reconnect to Johnnie history.

These were all logical hires, as good as any others back during those times.

Different dynamic in the 10 team Big East too. More open northeast recruiting grounds with Pitt gone, Syracuse attention waning on NYC, West Virginia playing out west, etc. And doesn't St John's have a new non-basketcase non-incompetent admin or am i thinking of somewhere else?

What blue bloods would match with Donovan anyway? Duke no. UNC no. UCLA sure, though he's not a west coast guy. Kansas maybe. Kentucky doesn't seem like a good fit, but i guess. Louisville, not a blue blood, but whatever, is off the table due to Pitino. Syracuse, no human willingly moves up there. No other college team makes sense. St John's offers MSG, NYC, a city that loves hoops (no other Big East team would make sense for him, not even his alma mater).

We discussed this back before Mullin was hired. I don't know Billy D at all. I'm not saying it's likely, and not saying he'd come running, but get him in the conversation. Sweeten the pot. The timing makes sense. Does he really want to spend another 5 years out in remote Oklahoma? Maybe. He should be part of the discussion if Mullin isn't the answer.

[hoops22]

How do you know where Donovan would go? Larry Brown had won a championship at Kansas, coached at UCLA and 30 years in the NBA, yet took a job at SMU which had been dead for years. I'm not saying Donovan would go, but the chance to take your hometown team to the summit, do it in New York, and cement your coaching legacy might have appeal to some. As bad as St. John's has been, they will likely have as many 4 star players on next years roster as anyone in the BE with the possible exception of Nova. The coaching has been a nightmare, but with a couple of decent new assistants who knows what next year could bring. Look what Holtmann has done in his one year at Ohio St. Everyone expected them to stink.

[EMT]

How do you know where Donovan would go? Larry Brown had won a championship at Kansas, coached at UCLA and 30 years in the NBA, yet took a job at SMU which had been dead for years. I'm not saying Donovan would go, but the chance to take your hometown team to the summit, do it in New York, and cement your coaching legacy might have appeal to some. As bad as St. John's has been, they will likely have as many 4 star players on next years roster as anyone in the BE with the possible exception of Nova. The coaching has been a nightmare, but with a couple of decent new assistants who knows what next year could bring. Look what Holtmann has done in his one year at Ohio St. Everyone expected them to stink.

Larry Brown.....hahaha. He was 72 when he took that job. What were his options at that point? He's from Brooklyn too and he's available!

And billyjack - If SJU was such a strong destination, they wouldn't have needed to hire the "hot" mid-major coach and they wouldn't have had to reach for a Lavin or a Mullin.

[MullinMayhem]

The St. John's job is definitely better than many are implying. It's not the sexy choice it once was, but it's certainly intriguing. It's about the potential. You have the biggest city in the country in the #1 TV market in the country on the biggest stage in the country at MSG (even if we start only playing 4-5 games a year there, it's still significant). The NYC area is basketball-starved. The Knicks are never good, the Nets are a joke, and to be honest even with some very good Seton Hall teams, they don't move the needle like we do in the media. I still feel we are a sleeping giant.

The one big problem we've been making is going for the sexy hires instead of the smart hires at coach. The smart hire instead of Mullin would've been Hurley (probably won't come now) or Will Brown. Look at Brown's coaching record at Albany. Another Long Island local guy close to SJ, has tons of 20+ win seasons, and lots of America East Tourney Championships. Going back to 2012 he has been probably the most underrated coach in the NCAA. It seems every year they are very good. I know he can coach...my concern would be recruiting. He'd have to have a very good recruiter with him...you'd hope Matt A stays but you know he won't once Mullin's gone.

Not sure why so many people seem to think it's Mullin or bust permanently. Once Mullin is gone, make the RIGHT hire and everything else will fall into place. And I know Donovan is 99% not happening, but how could you fault us if we asked him? Hell, I'd take Kermit Davis from Middle Tennessee. They always seem to be a very solid team and make tourneys.