Chris Mullin for COY?

[Bill Marsh]

Mullin took a lot of abuse in his first year & a half at St John's for his coaching and lack of experience. Maybe it's time to look at the rest of the story.

Simple question. What team in the Big East has shown the most improvement from the beginning of the season until now?

Just to refresh everyone's memory. Back if November St John's went through a 5 game losing streak, which included losses to Delaware State and Old Dominion. They went into Finals week with a loss to LIU.

However, they showed what they could be 10 days later with a 33 point blowout of Syracuse in the Carrier Dome. During the Big East season, they've put up wins over Butler, Marquette, @Providence, and Seton Hall. They're currently tied with Marquette for 5th place in the conference, something which no one anticipated when picking them for 9th and 10th.

I'm saying it's time to retire the #FireMullin twitter accounts and start promoting him as a guy who should get some Coach of the Year votes

[Dave]

COY does not equal most improved basketball team.

I am rooting for Chris and I think he is building. It's cool to have maybe the best SJU player come home and resurrect the program. He needs a year or 2 more.

That said, I think you probably need to make the NCAA tournament to be a COY. For that Chris needs to win the BET. That would be a remarkable turn around.

More likely the COY is someone that keeps the team at a high level over adversity of player losses. Jay Wright being a #1 seed with losses of Spellman, Booth, Reynolds, and Delaney. Or Chris Mack depending on how they finish.

[Bill Marsh]

COY does not equal most improved basketball team.

I am rooting for Chris and I think he is building. It's cool to have maybe the best SJU player come home and resurrect the program. He needs a year or 2 more.

That said, I think you probably need to make the NCAA tournament to be a COY. For that Chris needs to win the BET. That would be a remarkable turn around.

More likely the COY is someone that keeps the team at a high level over adversity of player losses. Jay Wright being a #1 seed with losses of Spellman, Booth, Reynolds, and Delaney. Or Chris Mack depending on how they finish.

Good points. Thanks for your reply.

With all due respect, I have to object to your last point about Villanova's personnel losses. Booth is the only one who's a legit loss. Reynolds has missed one game and is day-to-day. Not exactly a season killer, and nothing that any team doesn't experience over the course of a long season. They never had Spellman, so he can't be considered a loss. Jay knew what he was getting when he recruited him, a marginal academic qualifier who probably doesn't even belong at a school with Villanova's academics. There was some hope he'd be deemed eligible, but hope is all it was before reality intruded. Delaney was a 3-star red shirt recruit, who only figured as depth this year. He is a minor loss. I love Jay Wright as a coach, but let's put the pity party for him on hold.

[RedStorm]

Not unless St. John’s wins the BET and makes the tourney. Or at least wins 4 of the last 5 reg season games, makes it to the conference final game and makes a run in the NIT.
Not gonna happen this year. But will be among my preseason candidates for the award for next season.

[Dave]

With all due respect, I have to object to your last point about Villanova's personnel losses. Booth is the only one who's a legit loss. Reynolds has missed one game and is day-to-day. Not exactly a season killer, and nothing that any team doesn't experience over the course of a long season. They never had Spellman, so he can't be considered a loss. Jay knew what he was getting when he recruited him, a marginal academic qualifier who probably doesn't even belong at a school with Villanova's academics. There was some hope he'd be deemed eligible, but hope is all it was before reality intruded. Delaney was a 3-star red shirt recruit, who only figured as depth this year. He is a minor loss. I love Jay Wright as a coach, but let's put the pity party for him on hold.

A few comments. Booth scored 20 against UNC in the title and is a huge loss. I'm just emphasizing it's a huge loss. Reynolds missed some preseason with the same issue which was critical for development, and now it's a recurring injury. If it is a game or two, I agree. The inside word is 3 weeks. Delaney was developmental depth, but with Spellman and Reynolds down we need post position depth.

The real reason for my response is the poor understanding of Spellman. There is not a lot of reporting on this, but here is my understanding. While in his 2nd month of 9th grade, he received a scholarship opportunity at a private school and he took it. As he was 2 months into the semester and the academic rigors in the new school were higher level,so they suggested he finish the year in 8th grade and then start the following year so he would have a full year of 9th grade at the school. It was a decision based on academic development. He was a good student with good grades and qualified academically for college. Nova landed him and expected him to play right away as the key replacement for Ochefu. Nova noted the technicality on the transcripts and self reported it. It was a surprise to Nova when the NCAA was heavy handed with making him sit out a year.

So in 8th / 9th grade the kid gets an opportunity to improve his path and he makes a decision based on academics and the NCAA rules he "takes too long to graduate". The punishment? Sit out a year and then play for 4 years, as an even older student. It's stupid. The NCAA is very inconsistent in this ruling. Maybe a pre-conference 7 or 8 games might be expected if anything.

Here are the comments of Jay Bilas:

More NCAA nonsense. Spellman, a GREAT kid, is a fully eligible student. Who cares when he "started" high school?! A good student! Lame

.

Wrap your head around this...Spellman starts HS "too early," NCAA holds him out a year, gives him 4 more years to stay in college LONGER?!

I emhasize this because the stigma is "academically ineligible". It leads to perceptions like "a marginal academic qualifier who probably doesn't even belong at a school with Villanova's academics". I do not think that perception is correct.

#FreeOmari

[Bill Marsh]

With all due respect, I have to object to your last point about Villanova's personnel losses. Booth is the only one who's a legit loss. Reynolds has missed one game and is day-to-day. Not exactly a season killer, and nothing that any team doesn't experience over the course of a long season. They never had Spellman, so he can't be considered a loss. Jay knew what he was getting when he recruited him, a marginal academic qualifier who probably doesn't even belong at a school with Villanova's academics. There was some hope he'd be deemed eligible, but hope is all it was before reality intruded. Delaney was a 3-star red shirt recruit, who only figured as depth this year. He is a minor loss. I love Jay Wright as a coach, but let's put the pity party for him on hold.

A few comments. Booth scored 20 against UNC in the title and is a huge loss. I'm just emphasizing it's a huge loss. Reynolds missed some preseason with the same issue which was critical for development, and now it's a recurring injury. If it is a game or two, I agree. The inside word is 3 weeks. Delaney was developmental depth, but with Spellman and Reynolds down we need post position depth.

The real reason for my response is the poor understanding of Spellman. There is not a lot of reporting on this, but here is my understanding. While in his 2nd month of 9th grade, he received a scholarship opportunity at a private school and he took it. As he was 2 months into the semester and the academic rigors in the new school were higher level,so they suggested he finish the year in 8th grade and then start the following year so he would have a full year of 9th grade at the school. It was a decision based on academic development. He was a good student with good grades and qualified academically for college. Nova landed him and expected him to play right away as the key replacement for Ochefu. Nova noted the technicality on the transcripts and self reported it. It was a surprise to Nova when the NCAA was heavy handed with making him sit out a year.

So in 8th / 9th grade the kid gets an opportunity to improve his path and he makes a decision based on academics and the NCAA rules he "takes too long to graduate". The punishment? Sit out a year and then play for 4 years, as an even older student. It's stupid. The NCAA is very inconsistent in this ruling. Maybe a pre-conference 7 or 8 games might be expected if anything.

Here are the comments of Jay Bilas:

More NCAA nonsense. Spellman, a GREAT kid, is a fully eligible student. Who cares when he "started" high school?! A good student! Lame

.

Wrap your head around this...Spellman starts HS "too early," NCAA holds him out a year, gives him 4 more years to stay in college LONGER?!

I emhasize this because the stigma is "academically ineligible". It leads to perceptions like "a marginal academic qualifier who probably doesn't even belong at a school with Villanova's academics". I do not think that perception is correct.

#FreeOmari

I stand corrected. Thanks for the info. The NCAA does suck on how it handles this stuff.

[anXUfan]

I think Holtman has coach of the year nailed down. Don't forget the preseason expectations for Butler.

[Dave]

I stand corrected. Thanks for the info. The NCAA does suck on how it handles this stuff.

At the same time the NCAA ruled on Omari Spellman's case, before this season, they also ruled on Omer Yurtseven of NC State.

Yurtseven played 3 years of pro ball in Turkey before coming to NC State. He made the claim that he did not touch the pro money he earned. The NCAA suspends Yurstseven for 9 pre-conference games and fined him $1,000.

Omari Spellman had an extra 2 months of 9th grade, qualified academically as a good student, and they make him sit for a year and tag him with the "academically ineligible" stigma.

espn.com news services.
NC State center Omer Yurtseven has been suspended for nine games by the NCAA, the school announced Monday.

The 7-foot freshman earned money playing overseas in Turkey before arriving at NC State and will be required to pay $1,000 to a charity of his choice.

"The NCAA conducted a thoughtful analysis of Omer's situation," NC State athletic director Debbie Yow said in a news release. "Their staff exhibited considerable concern for fairness and for the welfare of this conscientious young man in their decision."

Yurtseven will be eligible to participate in all practices and exhibition games.

"It's been a long process, almost four months," Yurtseven said after the NCAA announced the suspension. "I'm happy that we have an idea of what we're going to do so that we can move on. It was a relief, for real. Everybody was asking, 'Are they going to decide today?' It just kept on going."

"I'm disappointed for Omer," NC State men's basketball coach Mark Gottfried said via news release. "He has been patient and 100 percent forthright. We will adapt and integrate him in as soon as possible."

Yurtseven heaved a sigh of relief after he learned that spending the previous three years playing for the Turkish pro club Fenerbahce didn't undermine his eligibility. In 2011, former Kentucky player Enes Kanter was ruled permanently ineligible by the NCAA after playing for the same team.

"I only heard that he [Kanter] got ineligible after the same conditions, the difference is the club tried to make him ineligible so they had pushback in it. That may be the biggest difference," Yurtseven said. "And I didn't touch the money, I heard he did. That probably had an impact too."

Yurtseven, who compares his game to Tim Duncan, made headlines in May after finishing with 91 points, 28 rebounds and 5 assists in a Turkey under-18 game.

Previously at the European Championships, Yurtseven averaged 9.8 points and 8.7 rebounds in 2015 and 15.1 points and 8.1 rebounds at the U16s in 2014.

[Outlaw_Wales]

You can't completely leave McDermott out of the COY discussions if Creighton continues to play well and remains top 2 in the league. Before losing a potential National Player of the Year and consensus top PG in the league it looked like Creighton was most likely going to finish up right behind 'Nova in conference, with an outside shot at challenging the Wildcats. Take that player out and some national people started questioning whether Creighton would even make the NCAA tourney. McDermott has managed to use a freaking walk-on as the primary point guard since that point and lo and behold Creighton right now is 2nd in the conference and looks like they could legitimately finish there. And they still have a shot at being a 3 or 4 seed in the NCAA tourney.

You can make a case for others for sure -- but you can't leave McDermott out of the conversation entirely with what he's done since losing Watson.

[Bill Marsh]

You can't completely leave McDermott out of the COY discussions if Creighton continues to play well and remains top 2 in the league. Before losing a potential National Player of the Year and consensus top PG in the league it looked like Creighton was most likely going to finish up right behind 'Nova in conference, with an outside shot at challenging the Wildcats. Take that player out and some national people started questioning whether Creighton would even make the NCAA tourney. McDermott has managed to use a freaking walk-on as the primary point guard since that point and lo and behold Creighton right now is 2nd in the conference and looks like they could legitimately finish there. And they still have a shot at being a 3 or 4 seed in the NCAA tourney.

You can make a case for others for sure -- but you can't leave McDermott out of the conversation entirely with what he's done since losing Watson.

I think you're absolutely right. McDermott has done an incredible job. I was one of those anticipating dire consequences for Creighton, thinking Watson was that important to them. Coach is making me eat my words.

Looking at the remaining schedule, I think they will still finish right behind Nova and will face them in the championship game in The Garden. If they get that far, who knows?