Serious Question: Do You think Mullin Likes Coaching?

[billyjack]

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.

Larry Brown:
He had the option to retire. He decided to go to SMU of all places. SMU at the time of his hiring was slated to join the Big East.

St John's Hirings Of "Hot" Mid-major Coaches:
Not sure why the word "hot" is in quotes? As you remember, at the time of SJU hiring Fraschilla and Jarvis at least, the blueprint for successful programs was to hire hot midmajor coaches... Every Big East program followed this formula... Evans from Navy, Carlesimo from Wagner, Barnes from Mason, Gillen from XU, Calhoun from Northeastern, Lappas from somewhere in the MAAC, O'Brien from i forgot where. The ACC followed pretty much the same formula and still do. The Hoyas hired from within like SJU with Mahoney. Boeheim still there.

Times change. Slightly different blueprint maybe. Chew on a couple of recurring thoughts that come up a lot on this board... if St John's is so weak, why does Coach K schedule them in non-conference? or UCLA in the past? etc? Because of NYC... ok, then why doesnt Duke play Fordham or Iona or Long Island or Saint Peter's or Seton Hall? It shows that despite SJU's struggles, the program still matters.

Anyway, again, i'm not saying Donovan would be anywhere near a lock. But he should be in the conversation and his pot should be sweetened if Mullin doesn't work out.

Think of Bill Walsh going to Stanford, which had a sh-t program back then. Walsh had nothing left to prove but wanted to take on a new, different type of project. He was so accomplished that he had no worries about his legacy. That describes Donovan's exact situation.

[EMT]

Hot is in quotes because SJU has either never gone after an established high major D1 coach or never landed one.

[Irishdawg]

Larry Brown:
He had the option to retire. He decided to go to SMU of all places. SMU at the time of his hiring was slated to join the Big East.

St John's Hirings Of "Hot" Mid-major Coaches:
Not sure why the word "hot" is in quotes? As you remember, at the time of SJU hiring Fraschilla and Jarvis at least, the blueprint for successful programs was to hire hot midmajor coaches... Every Big East program followed this formula... Evans from Navy, Carlesimo from Wagner, Barnes from Mason, Gillen from XU, Calhoun from Northeastern, Lappas from somewhere in the MAAC, O'Brien from i forgot where. The ACC followed pretty much the same formula and still do. The Hoyas hired from within like SJU with Mahoney. Boeheim still there.

Times change. Slightly different blueprint maybe. Chew on a couple of recurring thoughts that come up a lot on this board... if St John's is so weak, why does Coach K schedule them in non-conference? or UCLA in the past? etc? Because of NYC... ok, then why doesnt Duke play Fordham or Iona or Long Island or Saint Peter's or Seton Hall? It shows that despite SJU's struggles, the program still matters.

Anyway, again, i'm not saying Donovan would be anywhere near a lock. But he should be in the conversation and his pot should be sweetened if Mullin doesn't work out.

Think of Bill Walsh going to Stanford, which had a sh-t program back then. Walsh had nothing left to prove but wanted to take on a new, different type of project. He was so accomplished that he had no worries about his legacy. That describes Donovan's exact situation.

Billy Donovan is making $6M a year to coach in the NBA. Even if St. John's was willing to match that, he'd be taking a $450k haircut just on the state and city tax difference alone. Billy Donovan also isn't worried about his college legacy, but he still has plenty left to prove in the NBA. Billy Donovan went to Providence, so while I'm sure he knows St. John's, MSG and the like, I'm not sure realistically what makes him a legitimate candidate.

Bill Walsh had been out of coaching for 4 years when he took the Stanford job and was 61 years old at the time, and he also did well until he had to recruit which is why he left after 2 losing seasons (7-14-1 in those years) in his 3 seasons there during his second stint at the program.

I'm not saying that St. John's, in the event they do let Mullin go, can't get a good coach, but this seemed like a major reach when IU fans were clamoring for Donovan and Brad Stevens to come coach there after they let Crean go. Could be wrong, but I don't see him coming back to college unless he gets fired. The grind of college basketball is way worse than the NBA unless you're someone like Cal or Coach K. There really isn't an offseason in college basketball if you're a coach.

[MackNova]

There is a 0.0% chance Billy Donovan would ever consider St. John's. Absurd.

St. John's hasn't been a great job in a while. It's a decent job - since it's NYC and they do play in the Garden. But St. John's hasn't really been nationally relevant in decades. They haven't made the Sweet 16 since before Y2K. They've almost had as many losing seasons as winning seasons since then.

Sure, there is potential, but no coach has harnessed that potential in a long time.

As for Mullin, I have very little faith in him, but it might be unfair to say he doesn't like coaching.

[MullinMayhem]

It's the same as a kid like Mo Harkless getting drafted in the 1st round in the NBA a few years back. Was he polished? No. Was he amazing? No. He was drafted on his potential alone. That's what a prospective coach will have to see to take the job. The past few years even as St. John's and G'Town have been very bad, the Garden was still packed. That says a lot. The Knicks are always a dumpster fire and they pack the Garden still. The NYC area is basketball crazy with losers...just imagine a winner. Yes, it appears our glory years are behind us...certainly well before I was even born...but that doesn't mean we can't be an occasional top 25 team that makes regular tournaments like say a PC or Seton Hall. Again, the reason we've failed for so long is because we repeatedly made the wrong hires. Bring in Will Brown and you can't tell me he'd say no. Beg Matt A. to stay but realize he probably won't if Mullin's gone. Go after the best recruiter possible and get a solid experienced staff together. With the transfer rules about to change to be immediate, it will make it much easier for a team like us to get solid transfers if we can't recruit that well. Any realistic person knows Mullin won't work out. It's actually VERY hard to be as bad as we have been this season. The odds say that it's nearly impossible for us to be 0-10 right now. That's not chance, that's terrible and clueless coaching.