My Open Letter to St. John's and DePaul fans

[OmahaGuy]

I 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

[GoldenWarrior11]

Marquette went through a two-year transition (Buzz's last year, Wojo's first year) that was extremely frustrating (I'd still say we are undergoing a transition). The cool thing about "rebuilding" is that you get to see a ton of young, inexperienced kids play, learn to play together and play without high-expectations (which can be very good for the right team). The most important thing though is that there needs to be progress and improvement - in every half, every game, until the end of the season. Not getting better can set things back an entire year, if not more.

I agree - trust the process.

[NovaBall]

Solid post by a solid poster. I may not agree with it all, but a classy open letter nonetheless.

[OmahaGuy]

Solid post by a solid poster. I may not agree with it all, but a classy open letter nonetheless.

Thanks Ball!

[Masterofreality]

There is no question that almost all of us here are rooting for St. John's and DePaul to get really good...but not beat us!
The league needs big presence in New York and Chicago- need to have big games in Madison Square Garden and butts in the seats in Chicago. That would be the cherry on top of the sweet sundae that is now our league. You know that Fox is craving bigger ratings and these places would bump the numbers.

So good luck to both schools. Stability is key, so hopefully, the right guys are in place and progress continues.

[adoraz]

My not so bold prediction is SJU will have the best incoming class in the Big East next year.

Currently #36 on 247 and behind #23 X, #31 Butler, and #32 Marquette.

SJU's class includes:
#53 Ponds
#2 Ahmed (JUCO ranking)

However, that does not include LoVett (2015 and ineligible this year).

Also does not include #100 Freudenberg who is unanimously expected to go to SJU.

In addition, we're still very much in the mix for #17 Alkins who Jerry Meyer (247 site owner) predicted just yesterday to go to SJU. Also getting a visit from #10 Thon Maker.

LoVett, Ponds, Ahmed, and possibly Freudenberg all all good enough to be starters day 1 next year. Mussini, Sima, and Yakwe are all pretty good for freshmen and will be returning. Alkins and Maker are stretches but if either comes it'd be huge. So I don't just expect SJU to return, I expect SJU to become a dominant force in the Big East.

Yeah, things haven't been great over the past 5 years, but we still made 2 NCAAs and 2 NITs during that period, so things could be worse. We're awful this year, but our NCAA drought is not even a full year yet.

[Jet915]

Im not too worried about SJU. I think they will get back to the NCAAs in 2 years, maybe next year if they reel in Alkins or Maker. Depaul will not go anywhere until their AD is gone.

[NovaBall]

What Is the latest on Rawlie alkins? Nova was going after him a year ago but backed off him over the summer. Not sure why, seems like a skill set we could find a spot for. And I see he is ranked as high as 9 in some services. But he has some pretty high end suitors, are the johnnies a realistic option for him or is it a cheick diallo move where he keeps the hometown team in the picture to keep his recruiting drama on more people's minds during his sr yr?

[ChelseaFriar]

PC went through a decade of hell beginning in 2004.

[OmahaGuy]

FWIW, DePaul has outrebounded their opponent 13 times in their 18 games this year including a 35-23 win on the glass vs Creighton yesterday. They only won the battle of the glass 7 times last season. That my friends is effort. Now if they could just clean up their mental mistakes and limit their turnovers....