Outsider Perspectives on Mike Anderson

[Xuperman]

We need someone who can run a half court offense, find shooters, and recruit at least 1 or 2 four star top 100 kids each cycle. 1 four star recruit every 3-4 years ain't cutting it at this level.

Can you list a small group of guys that can fulfill this criteria? Especially with the daunting task of righting this Big Apple ship.

IMO, ol' slippery Rick Pitino is in a one man group. AND, he will reel in 5 STARS for sure.

PLUS, NYC would eagerly exchange success for any past embarrassment.

[adoraz]

I really like MA, and love his wife behind the bench. From everybody I know who has met him, they say he is a really good guy. I think he deserves a couple of more years before any "hot seat" talk, but he needs to pick up on the recruiting. He can't fall into the SJU pattern of relying on JUCOs and transfers. He needs to focus on really high 3 star recruits, and lower 4 star recruits, so lets say Top 90 to 175 type players. Don't go for the homerun. I remember when SJU was going for Rawle Alkins a few years back, I think Nova was as well, and it seemed like all the focus was on him. SJU should have been more focused on the Top 90 to 175 guys I mentioned, and probably let a few slip through their fingers by putting all their eggs into the Alkins basket. Anyway, get 2 or 3 of those 3 star/low 4 star kids a year. Kids who are going to buy in, and stick around for 3 or 4 years while developing. A transfer here and there to fill the gaps is obviously fine, but you are never going to build a program using that strategy. It just doesn't work. Rooting for MA though. Would really like to see him succeed at SJU.

I generally agree that St. John's shouldn't aim for the 5 stars, but regardless both Lavin and Mullin recruited at a far, far higher level than CMA. if you look at the 247 class rankings CMA has had ZERO top 60 classes in 4 cycles. Lavin and Mullin both had multiple top 25 classes (for Lavin even top 10) and nearly every year was at least top 50.

Thus far in 4 cycles CMA has recruited exactly ONE 4 star recruit. For context, Lavin had multiple 4 stars (including a top 30 player) coming in the year after he was let go. We were spoiled by him and things have only gone downhill since then.

[Novachap]

I like MA, but after seeing St. John's closely again this year with the Nova game and then against PC (Honestly, was pulling for them ) there is reason to be concerned.

The havoc created by the style imposed can be incredibly disruptive, but it impacts all aspects of SJU's execution as well. Posh was ridiculous last night, JC is still MIA and some others stepped up, but here is the deal IMO. The mental errors cost them a very winnable game.

Forced passes in traffic, looking for the "wow" plays, losing Horchlar repeatedly in the half court and secondary break and the end of the half bonehead reach by Posh reflect on the team culture and coach IMO.

I get we are talking about kids and mistakes are made... Lord knows I pull what little hair I have left out during Nova games at the mistakes, but some of the things last night were really BAD. SJU wasted spectacular efforts by Posh and Wheeler.... tough to repeat that.

Mike needs to have some level of discipline, particularly on the offense. I realize with the style that is hard, but that is what he is there for.

[hoops22]

We need someone who can run a half court offense, find shooters, and recruit at least 1 or 2 four star top 100 kids each cycle. 1 four star recruit every 3-4 years ain't cutting it at this level.

Can you list a small group of guys that can fulfill this criteria? Especially with the daunting task of righting this Big Apple ship.

IMO, ol' slippery Rick Pitino is in a one man group. AND, he will reel in 5 STARS for sure.

PLUS, NYC would eagerly exchange success for any past embarrassment.

It's Pitino or bust. MA's buyout is too big for St John's to gamble on anyone else. Plus you probably need someone like Repole back on board to make that a reality, and i doubt that happens. Reality is we're all just venting because it's another season down the toilet, one where we had hope coming in. Anderson will be here next season and we'll all be back next February posting the same kind of stuff as today. The pain never ends, it's our lot in life.

[Jet915]

We need someone who can run a half court offense, find shooters, and recruit at least 1 or 2 four star top 100 kids each cycle. 1 four star recruit every 3-4 years ain't cutting it at this level.

Can you list a small group of guys that can fulfill this criteria? Especially with the daunting task of righting this Big Apple ship.

IMO, ol' slippery Rick Pitino is in a one man group. AND, he will reel in 5 STARS for sure.

PLUS, NYC would eagerly exchange success for any past embarrassment.

It's Pitino or bust. MA's buyout is too big for St John's to gamble on anyone else. Plus you probably need someone like Repole back on board to make that a reality, and i doubt that happens. Reality is we're all just venting because it's another season down the toilet, one where we had hope coming in. Anderson will be here next season and we'll all be back next February posting the same kind of stuff as today. The pain never ends, it's our lot in life.

I agree. If they want Pitino they could probably get him, otherwise it would be too much money for SJU to get rid of Anderson and hire someone else of impact IMO. Anderson was Coach of the Year last year, it would be a bad look if they dumped him a year later and I doubt anyone other than Pitino would take it.

[kayako]

Anderson was Coach of the Year last year, it would be a bad look

New Yorkers, though. Jay Wright would have been canned at SJU.

[friarsully]

Not sure which way Shanley would lean on Pitino. He resurrected PC and embraces athletics, but is also a guy who won't compromise integrity.

He certainly knows all of Pitino's baggage, but also knows what hoops success can do for the bottom line. Given the current trend in higher-ed, he may see Pitino as a life-line worthy of the risk.

As far as Anderson goes, it's hard to can the guy and feel like you've given him a fair shot, but it's also hard to keep him on knowing it isn't going to get better. He won't be able to recruit top 50's there simply because top 50's don't want to (and don't have to) work as hard as Anderson's style demands.

The 40 minutes of hell just isn't appealing - and it really isn't effective in today's game where everybody can handle the ball. I know people will cite Marquette's resurgence under Shaka as evidence to the contrary, and they may be right - but my opinion is that it won't last.

[pc5151]

A lot of emotion/frustration in the comments here from the St John's fans and understandably so as this season has not gone as predicted for them. I also think some of the views are from the die hard fan perspective, I dont mean that as a negative its just that it taints reality a bit.

The first thing about St John's this year is that the core of the team are Sophomore's with Champagnie being a Jr. It is very tough to win with a young team in the Big East, especially this year. The key to success is to get old and stay old and that takes some time when building a roster.

I realize Marquette and Creighton are both young but they both have 2 SRs as part of their core group of guys and the young talent were highly ranked recruits...a big difference from St Johns. When you compare Marquette and Creighton with St John's as far as facilities go its night and day.

9-10 years ago when Lavin was pulling in 4 stars, with highly questionable character (which may be why he got them), the facilities at St Johns probably did not impact a recruiting decision either way. They were not impressive to the point of getting a commitment nor detrimental to their decision. Now they are a negative, they are bottom barrel and not even close to the top facilities in the Big East never mind the country.

This is why I dont think its realistic for St Johns, right now, to expect to pull in multiple 4 star kids a recruiting class like Creighton and Marquette and have to build their program differently.

They just dont have the appeal, MSG only gets you so far. Unless St Johns makes an investment in their program to appeal to 4 and 5 star recruits they need to keep a core group together that become SRs with 3 star and a couple 4 star talent they develop ready to pick up roles behind them. Seton Hall has done this very well.

I dont know if Anderson is the guy who gets it done but firing him now before his core group gets to be upper classmen seems like an over reaction. If this group stays together, not easy in todays transfer world, the mistakes/turnovers should decrease and they'll be a very tough team to play. Facilities matter, even a dumpster fire like Georgetown still pulled in a 5 star last year.

[ArmyVet]

Not sure which way Shanley would lean on Pitino. He resurrected PC and embraces athletics, but is also a guy who won't compromise integrity. He certainly knows all of Pitino's baggage, but also knows what hoops success can do for the bottom line. Given the current trend in higher-ed, he may see Pitino as a life-line worthy of the risk. As far as Anderson goes, it's hard to can the guy and feel like you've given him a fair shot, but it's also hard to keep him on knowing it isn't going to get better. He won't be able to recruit top 50's there simply because top 50's don't want to (and don't have to) work as hard as Anderson's style demands. The 40 minutes of hell just isn't appealing - and it really isn't effective in today's game where everybody can handle the ball. I know people will cite Marquette's resurgence under Shaka as evidence to the contrary, and they may be right - but my opinion is that it won't last.

Iona and Pitino working on a lifetime contract according to Twitter reports. It is interesting to me that Iona, a catholic school, doesn't have issues with employing Pitino, but many Big East fans believe that their school would.

[billyjack]

(...I broke a bunch of these good recent posts into many paragraphs, for easier reading.)