Hibbs wrote:SJU is an extremely important piece of this league's success due to both the NYC market and because SJU is an historical basketball power. So historical Hoyas-Johnnies rivalry aside, and for the little that's it's worth, I am rooting for you guys to get things going (I will probably regret it, but whatever).
This is a team that I have seen have 1 good season in my 24 years on earth. I really didn't start paying attention until maybe 2004 ish and the 2011 squad had zero expectations and came out of nowhere. So basically I have never witnessed a SJ team that was supposed to be good and actually live up to expectations. I have seen 1 NCAA appearance in 2011 and of course there was an injury to Kennedy a key player right when we couldn't afford one. So we lose in the 1st round to Gonzaga. That is the best season I've seen…that would be a failure for Nova, G'Town, Marquette, Butler, and probably Xavier too. And that was our best year in a decade. Just think about that. People need to stop asking why we have so many students and alumni, yet get low attendance numbers. Who in their right mind would pay $100 for basic seats at MSG, a round trip train ride/city parking or $400 for a family of 4 to see this mess of a program? I would hesitate to see a Knicks game for $100 including transportation even in a good year let alone the most underachieving team in the Big East for the past decade plus.
This game basically confirmed for me that I will not be attending another SJ game this year and likely next year if nothing changes. Looks like we will have to go through another cycle of recruits to try and light a match again for this program. If Lavin pulls in another great class in 2015 (he's expected to) and this team still stinks so badly you can smell it from the Hamptons, then it's time to yank the chain and watch Lavin get flushed. It's very rare when it honestly seems like a fan base knows more about their team and how to put them in the best position to win than the head coach. This is one of those times. This game was an example of the worst coach in the Big East mixed with more ice cold shooting. Who starts a walk on against G'Town? And I didn't see this but I heard he smiled after the game. Let me tell you something coach, this is New York. Not LA. We don't drink weed grass, or get botox while lounging around. This is a go-go-go, gritty, win or die city. This is the big stage. This is not acceptable here. This team has put forth such negativity for so long that I honestly don't even know if we will ever be ranked in my lifetime…and remember I'm still only 24. Some fan bases are angry when their team is #20. All we want is a tournament berth with 6 top 100 players. Is that really so much to ask? This was likely a game we were losing either way, but Lavin literally took a giant white flag and waived it when he started a walk on and a bench player bum. Starting Pointer, Balamou, and Ndiyae (not even sure how to spell his name) guarantees that 3/5 of our starters won't be threats on offense. I wish other teams did us this courtesy. But then again, other teams don't have Lavin as their coach. It really looks like he lost this team and he has zero faith in his top recruits. It really sucks because once he gets fired, we have no better options. This program went from looking like it was about ready to return to the top 25 consistently before the season started to looking like it's about to be same old SJ playing like a mid major again. Not sure I can take much more of this.