School suffering another lost season
UTOPIA PARKWAY – Only schools in freefall reach these times where they need to make a serious evaluation of their program and wonder what the future holds.
“Crisis” is the term you would deem the St. John’s basketball program finds itself at this precise moment.
This was not supposed to be the year to undergo a crisis. That was nearly six years ago when the school was in needing a serious cleaning after Mike Jarvis took the program and littered its good name with scandals and shattered relationships with local high school coaches throughout the Tri-State area.
Six years is more than enough time to clean up a program.
Other schools have been able to make it work, choosing from a lesser talent pool than St. John’s and did not take as long.
The Red Storm administration gave the task of rebuilding to Norm Roberts, a local from Queens, to bring the program not only back to respectability, but also to win and return the team to the NCAA tournament, a place that have not been to since 2002.
Roberts received plenty of patience from the fans and alum that follow the team when he began to rebuild it, but even that has an expiration date. You can only say you are building the program back up for so long before it becomes time for you to put a few victories, meaningful victories on the board.
When the Big East expanded to 16 teams for basketball several years ago, designed with the ability for nearly half of the conference to make the NCAA tournament. Even if you finish with an average record, just the strength of the schedule along would be good enough for you gain entry to the “Big Dance”.
Unfortunately, for the Johnnies, even the expansion has got them not anywhere to close.
Therein lies the problem.
Roberts has not been able to put a dent in the conference. Since going 7-9 in the league and finishing with a mediocre 16-15 record at the end of 2007, they have gone 39-45 and a horrendous 13-32 in the Big East.
You would figure that these numbers trend up as these players, recruited by Roberts and his staff and subsequently coached by them would improve. Instead, not only have these players not improved the overall record of the team, but also an argument can be made that outside of swingman DJ Kennedy, there has been a regression among a majority of these players, ultimately culminating in Tuesday night’s 84-72 disgraceful performance against Rutgers, a team 1-8 in conference going into the game.
The game itself was a microcosm of Roberts’ entire tenure as a coach. His team, compiled fully of players he recruited and has coached for nearly three seasons, looked to lack athleticism, talent and common basketball instinct and intelligence.
At 2-7 in the league, the freefall has already begun.
As a famous player once said, “The ship be sinking.”
Before this season, Athletic Director Chris Monasch eliminated all speculation about Roberts’ job by letting everyone who would listen know that the embattled coach was going to return for his sixth season. He did this knowing the fan base had already cast their votes on ridding themselves of this coach who appears in over his head, incapable of being able to match up with the “big boys” in conference, while they continue to come into his “turf” and continuously take the best players, leaving him with what amounts to scraps.
Monasch did not care and continued to ask his base to be patient, going so far as to say that he believed that making the NCAA tournament was a legitimate goal for this season.
After starting the non-conference schedule 10-2, losing to only Duke and Cornell (both currently ranked teams), they have collapsed. A home loss to Providence was a red flag, and Tuesday’s loss to Rutgers, their fourth loss in a row, was more than just a loss. It was a signal that this program now needs change and Roberts is no longer fit for this job.
The votes are in, all the precincts have reported and the jury has reached their verdict.
Now the question becomes, can it get worse?
The answer is yes.
The main reason behind keeping Roberts was that last season the Big East boasted arguably five of the 15 best teams in the country. Two of them (Villanova and Connecticut) made the Final Four. Two others (Pittsburgh and Louisville) lost in the Elite Eight, and another (Syracuse) lost in the Sweet 16.
Logic held that the conference would not be as strong this season, and with a team comprised mostly of juniors going into their third year, they would have made significant progress and at least be competitive this season.
Instead, with seven losses in nine games, morale is once again down, as another lost season appears to be in the making. However, this time suffering a bad year has serious ramifications.
Carrying nine juniors turning seniors before the 2010-2011 season, assuming the school does not retain Roberts, the next coach will have the envious task of finding players to give scholarships too. Without a good base in which to procure talent as we have seen from schools like Pittsburgh, Villanova, Syracuse, Connecticut and even West Virginia, the mediocre cycle will only continue.
The plan should have been to fire Roberts after last season, and allow the new coach two years to establish his style and be able to use the quantity of available scholarships to bring in his own class.
Instead, by keeping him, the administration locked them into two more season of him and put the future coach in a disadvantageous position. By allowing Roberts to pick the players before his inevitable firing, the incoming coach will be inheriting Roberts’ players, and based on the recent track record of mediocre recruiting classes, will set up a no-win situation for whoever takes over.
Every school can withstand one subpar recruiting class. The problem becomes magnified when this happens with multiple classes and the insistence on putting most of their faith in one or two recruits in the hopes of having them “saving the program”, while allowing lesser recruited players walk away and having them flourish elsewhere while the Red Storm continues to struggle.
As the gap widens between St. John’s and the other power schools, the question ultimately becomes whether their basketball program can survive the way they are and how the conference currently stands.
Bottom teams such as St. John’s, DePaul, South Florida, Providence, Seton Hall, Rutgers and even Notre Dame all are fighting the same uphill battle. The problem is that all of these teams slowly find themselves coming to the realization (whether they want to admit it or not) that competing with the “big boys” has become too difficult.
Years of recruiting young men while there in high school and establishing relationships all go for nothing when Rick Pitino, Jim Boeheim, Jim Calhoun and Jay Wright show up at the door. Their success puts them on national television weekly appeals to the recruit so much before they even have to make their pitch selling them on their program. In the end, kids at the last moment heavily recruited end up signing with these schools, allowing the rich to get richer, leaving a school like St. John’s in a bind as other recruits sign letters of intent, forcing them to bring in lesser quality players.
Roberts’ pitch has not worked over six years.
Malik Boothe as your point guard is never going to amount to a sustained level of success in the Big East. . This will not win when you are going up against quality players such as Scottie Reynolds and Kemba Walker. How no one handling the recruiting could have seen this clearly must have those responsibilities stripped.
Having Sean Evans and Justin Burrell as your interior players will never be good enough against other elite level conference competition.
Not having a consistent shooter on your team will always amount to team failure as defenses, knowing you can’t consistently shoot, continue to congest the lane, lowering your chance to win.
While Roberts has been a failure, he has not been the only culprit. It has been an administration failure that begins at the top.
Now you are asking this same group to pick the next coach.
Will they pay top dollar for a coach? History says no.
If that is the case, then the question becomes what does St. John’s want to be?
Do they want to be a serious contender in the Big East every year?
Do they want to be on the national map and be in a position to win a championship?
Or, do they resign themselves to simply being mediocre at best? Occasionally sneaking into the tournament and hope to get lucky and win a game, yet never being a legitimate factor.
The response from the people who run things on Utopia Parkway have shown nothing to indicate that winning is even a priority.
Just add another one to the loss column.
UTOPIA PARKWAY – Only schools in freefall reach these times where they need to make a serious evaluation of their program and wonder what the future holds.
“Crisis” is the term you would deem the St. John’s basketball program finds itself at this precise moment.
This was not supposed to be the year to undergo a crisis. That was nearly six years ago when the school was in needing a serious cleaning after Mike Jarvis took the program and littered its good name with scandals and shattered relationships with local high school coaches throughout the Tri-State area.
Six years is more than enough time to clean up a program.
Other schools have been able to make it work, choosing from a lesser talent pool than St. John’s and did not take as long.
The Red Storm administration gave the task of rebuilding to Norm Roberts, a local from Queens, to bring the program not only back to respectability, but also to win and return the team to the NCAA tournament, a place that have not been to since 2002.
Roberts received plenty of patience from the fans and alum that follow the team when he began to rebuild it, but even that has an expiration date. You can only say you are building the program back up for so long before it becomes time for you to put a few victories, meaningful victories on the board.
When the Big East expanded to 16 teams for basketball several years ago, designed with the ability for nearly half of the conference to make the NCAA tournament. Even if you finish with an average record, just the strength of the schedule along would be good enough for you gain entry to the “Big Dance”.
Unfortunately, for the Johnnies, even the expansion has got them not anywhere to close.
Therein lies the problem.
Roberts has not been able to put a dent in the conference. Since going 7-9 in the league and finishing with a mediocre 16-15 record at the end of 2007, they have gone 39-45 and a horrendous 13-32 in the Big East.
You would figure that these numbers trend up as these players, recruited by Roberts and his staff and subsequently coached by them would improve. Instead, not only have these players not improved the overall record of the team, but also an argument can be made that outside of swingman DJ Kennedy, there has been a regression among a majority of these players, ultimately culminating in Tuesday night’s 84-72 disgraceful performance against Rutgers, a team 1-8 in conference going into the game.
The game itself was a microcosm of Roberts’ entire tenure as a coach. His team, compiled fully of players he recruited and has coached for nearly three seasons, looked to lack athleticism, talent and common basketball instinct and intelligence.
At 2-7 in the league, the freefall has already begun.
As a famous player once said, “The ship be sinking.”
Before this season, Athletic Director Chris Monasch eliminated all speculation about Roberts’ job by letting everyone who would listen know that the embattled coach was going to return for his sixth season. He did this knowing the fan base had already cast their votes on ridding themselves of this coach who appears in over his head, incapable of being able to match up with the “big boys” in conference, while they continue to come into his “turf” and continuously take the best players, leaving him with what amounts to scraps.
Monasch did not care and continued to ask his base to be patient, going so far as to say that he believed that making the NCAA tournament was a legitimate goal for this season.
After starting the non-conference schedule 10-2, losing to only Duke and Cornell (both currently ranked teams), they have collapsed. A home loss to Providence was a red flag, and Tuesday’s loss to Rutgers, their fourth loss in a row, was more than just a loss. It was a signal that this program now needs change and Roberts is no longer fit for this job.
The votes are in, all the precincts have reported and the jury has reached their verdict.
Now the question becomes, can it get worse?
The answer is yes.
The main reason behind keeping Roberts was that last season the Big East boasted arguably five of the 15 best teams in the country. Two of them (Villanova and Connecticut) made the Final Four. Two others (Pittsburgh and Louisville) lost in the Elite Eight, and another (Syracuse) lost in the Sweet 16.
Logic held that the conference would not be as strong this season, and with a team comprised mostly of juniors going into their third year, they would have made significant progress and at least be competitive this season.
Instead, with seven losses in nine games, morale is once again down, as another lost season appears to be in the making. However, this time suffering a bad year has serious ramifications.
Carrying nine juniors turning seniors before the 2010-2011 season, assuming the school does not retain Roberts, the next coach will have the envious task of finding players to give scholarships too. Without a good base in which to procure talent as we have seen from schools like Pittsburgh, Villanova, Syracuse, Connecticut and even West Virginia, the mediocre cycle will only continue.
The plan should have been to fire Roberts after last season, and allow the new coach two years to establish his style and be able to use the quantity of available scholarships to bring in his own class.
Instead, by keeping him, the administration locked them into two more season of him and put the future coach in a disadvantageous position. By allowing Roberts to pick the players before his inevitable firing, the incoming coach will be inheriting Roberts’ players, and based on the recent track record of mediocre recruiting classes, will set up a no-win situation for whoever takes over.
Every school can withstand one subpar recruiting class. The problem becomes magnified when this happens with multiple classes and the insistence on putting most of their faith in one or two recruits in the hopes of having them “saving the program”, while allowing lesser recruited players walk away and having them flourish elsewhere while the Red Storm continues to struggle.
As the gap widens between St. John’s and the other power schools, the question ultimately becomes whether their basketball program can survive the way they are and how the conference currently stands.
Bottom teams such as St. John’s, DePaul, South Florida, Providence, Seton Hall, Rutgers and even Notre Dame all are fighting the same uphill battle. The problem is that all of these teams slowly find themselves coming to the realization (whether they want to admit it or not) that competing with the “big boys” has become too difficult.
Years of recruiting young men while there in high school and establishing relationships all go for nothing when Rick Pitino, Jim Boeheim, Jim Calhoun and Jay Wright show up at the door. Their success puts them on national television weekly appeals to the recruit so much before they even have to make their pitch selling them on their program. In the end, kids at the last moment heavily recruited end up signing with these schools, allowing the rich to get richer, leaving a school like St. John’s in a bind as other recruits sign letters of intent, forcing them to bring in lesser quality players.
Roberts’ pitch has not worked over six years.
Malik Boothe as your point guard is never going to amount to a sustained level of success in the Big East. . This will not win when you are going up against quality players such as Scottie Reynolds and Kemba Walker. How no one handling the recruiting could have seen this clearly must have those responsibilities stripped.
Having Sean Evans and Justin Burrell as your interior players will never be good enough against other elite level conference competition.
Not having a consistent shooter on your team will always amount to team failure as defenses, knowing you can’t consistently shoot, continue to congest the lane, lowering your chance to win.
While Roberts has been a failure, he has not been the only culprit. It has been an administration failure that begins at the top.
Now you are asking this same group to pick the next coach.
Will they pay top dollar for a coach? History says no.
If that is the case, then the question becomes what does St. John’s want to be?
Do they want to be a serious contender in the Big East every year?
Do they want to be on the national map and be in a position to win a championship?
Or, do they resign themselves to simply being mediocre at best? Occasionally sneaking into the tournament and hope to get lucky and win a game, yet never being a legitimate factor.
The response from the people who run things on Utopia Parkway have shown nothing to indicate that winning is even a priority.
Just add another one to the loss column.
1 comment:
This article is right on point. As a st johns fan for more than 40 years, I can only hope Roberts is removed at the end of this season. The one point I would add, however, is that in the world of college basketball one or two players can make a huge difference, So it is not impossible for a new coach to catch a couple of players who want to play in NY City with all the notoriety that can bring who could bring st johns back to prominence very quickly
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