Chris Mullin for COY?

[Dave]

1980s Big East vs. current Big East

Coaches make the strength of the conference. The current conference is blessed with good coaching as was the golden era of the Big East. Holtmann, McDermott, and Mack are solid. I'm betting on Mullin (and he is a big name). JT3 is a big brand but he has to deliver and rebuild the Hoyas. Cooley is solid. Willard's teams are tough. Wojo is a big name and an up and comer.

There are some similarities to the 80s Big East.

[GumbyDamnit!]

I think the answer is we just need to wait and see how the league ends up. 3 losses ago it looked like Holtman's to lose. Then Wojo...now apparently Mullin. The middle of the BE is so jumbled, I think a lot of that will depend upon final standings.

Every fan base is going to make their case so I might as well make mine for JW.

JW: lost 2 All-BE starters to graduation. Lost 2 penciled in starters and plays with a 7 man rotation. His team is currently pegged as the overall #1 seed in the tourney and has been ranked in the Top 4 the entire season. They have a chance at 16-2. If that happens again and 2nd place is somewhere around 12-6 /11-7, I think JW deserves it. People talk about the great players he has. With the exception of maybe Brunson, no one on this squad was a can't miss recruit. All were developed in a system. Who is responsible for that development and how these kids play?

This kind of reminds me of how Phil Martelli from St Joe's won the Philly BIG5 COY last year. His response at the banquet was like: "Who are we all kidding? JW deserves this award." But writers I guess felt weird voting him in so many times they just did everything they could to justify anyone else. I guess that's OK--I get it.

[REDMEN1415]

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.

For us to even think of winning the B.E Tourny, we'll need to finish in the top 6, and avoid playing Wednesday.

[Bill Marsh]

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.

For us to even think of winning the B.E Tourny, we'll need to finish in the top 6, and avoid playing Wednesday.

I'm guessing that you will finish in the top 6 and match up with Xavier. I like St John's in that game. Anyone who wants to win the tournament, though, has to go through Villanova and that's a tall order, given the level at which they're playing.

[REDMEN1415]

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.

For us to even think of winning the B.E Tourny, we'll need to finish in the top 6, and avoid playing Wednesday.

I'm guessing that you will finish in the top 6 and match up with Xavier. I like St John's in that game. Anyone who wants to win the tournament, though, has to go through Villanova and that's a tall order, given the lwevel at which they're playing.

Hope we'd get Nova on Saturday night. I'd take my chances with them knowing that a win over Nova puts us in.
Gotta think they'd really be up for that one.

[misterbob]

Sorry, but IMO Mullin is just not a very good coach in my view. He often looks lost in the huddle and on the sidelines, and seems to lack the kind of energy/enthusiasm that is needed to inspire and motivate his players. And lot of the heavy lifting re coaching and game strategy is done by his assistants, and I think thats pretty obvious. I'm honestly not sure that CM really enjoys the coaching/recruiting aspect of the game and might prefer to be an AD if and when that job might open. They certainly are an improved team in some respects and winning games, and I think thats a great thing for our conference, but I honestly think they're sometimes doing all that despite Mullin, not necessarily because of him!
I really dont have anything personal against Chris, he might very well be a great guy, but thats just the way I personally see it right now as someone with an outside view of the team/program.

[Irishdawg]

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

If they didn't give it to him after his first year when he took the team that was picked 9th in the league into a tie for 2nd place (gave it to Jay Wright), I'd be shocked it they got it this year when they're picked 6th and will finish 4th or so. IMO, deserves to go to Jay Wright for Nova performing as well as they are with the injuries and Spellman situation, but I could see someone like Mack or McDermott getting it depending on how well they finish down the stretch.

[SJHooper]

The beginning portion of the year, we were performing even lower than our already low expectations. Two of our losses were totally inexcusable...DelSt and LIU. The ODU game was still a game that we should have won. I don't care how closely they played some other big name school. So the beginning was very rough, but since then the team has gotten better. I think right now we are where we should have been earlier in the season. We started awful and have been decent since then. IMO we just balanced out the bad with the good recently. So, I wouldn't say we are overachieving, we are simply where we should be now. Yes we are tied for 5th, but I think record matters more than place in conference. We were in huge debt early and we just paid that debt off recently. You can't forget the first half of the season you must see it as a whole. It will also be interesting to see if we can get past the 1st round of the BET where we routinely bow out immediately. Hopefully Mullin has instilled a killer instinct in this team that Lavin's lacked. Lavin teams were done before the tournament games started. NCAA or BET, you knew they didn't have a real chance. Hope that changes. Proud of where we are now, but we have dug out of a big hole early on. We are now a team that no one wants to face. Our success next year will depend heavily on whether or not we can bring legit big men here and whether or not the Ponds/LoVett duo continues.

For Mullin to win COY, we would have had to make the NIT at least if not the tourney. Right now we are playing at our expected level. Our guards are insanely talented, we must have real expectations.

[NJRedman]

Sorry, but IMO Mullin is just not a very good coach in my view. He often looks lost in the huddle and on the sidelines, and seems to lack the kind of energy/enthusiasm that is needed to inspire and motivate his players. And lot of the heavy lifting re coaching and game strategy is done by his assistants, and I think thats pretty obvious. I'm honestly not sure that CM really enjoys the coaching/recruiting aspect of the game and might prefer to be an AD if and when that job might open. They certainly are an improved team in some respects and winning games, and I think thats a great thing for our conference, but I honestly think they're sometimes doing all that despite Mullin, not necessarily because of him!
I really dont have anything personal against Chris, he might very well be a great guy, but thats just the way I personally see it right now as someone with an outside view of the team/program.

Oh yeah, he rather be an AD? I guess he didn't think to ask for the job for the almost 2 years we were without an AD. Most of that time he was on staff as the head coach. We fired our AD when he wanted to extend Lav a few more years. You must not watch any SJU games if you think he doesn't care.

[Dave]

The beginning portion of the year, we were performing even lower than our already low expectations. Two of our losses were totally inexcusable...DelSt and LIU. The ODU game was still a game that we should have won. I don't care how closely they played some other big name school. So the beginning was very rough, but since then the team has gotten better. I think right now we are where we should have been earlier in the season. We started awful and have been decent since then. IMO we just balanced out the bad with the good recently. So, I wouldn't say we are overachieving, we are simply where we should be now. Yes we are tied for 5th, but I think record matters more than place in conference. We were in huge debt early and we just paid that debt off recently. You can't forget the first half of the season you must see it as a whole. It will also be interesting to see if we can get past the 1st round of the BET where we routinely bow out immediately. Hopefully Mullin has instilled a killer instinct in this team that Lavin's lacked. Lavin teams were done before the tournament games started. NCAA or BET, you knew they didn't have a real chance. Hope that changes. Proud of where we are now, but we have dug out of a big hole early on. We are now a team that no one wants to face. Our success next year will depend heavily on whether or not we can bring legit big men here and whether or not the Ponds/LoVett duo continues.

Mullin should get more slack as he is still a new coach building a program. A JT3 team doesn't have as much leeway with early season losses. But for this Johnnies team the early season losses are in the context of a new coach building a program, with lots of moving pieces (transfres, etc).

For COY, imo, he needs to make the NCAAs which probably means winning the BET (at MSG in NYC). That would be a huge story.