6 hours ago, nikeman49 said:

Tremendous hire for StJohn’s, Rick is the best in the business!!

Pitino is great, but I still don’t know how he couldn’t find away to stop a guard from scoring 30 points against UK in the 97 finals. His great coaching alone should have easily prevented a single player from scoring 30 points in a game that decided the championship. 

10 hours ago, Breds82 said:

Dude can flat out coach, we can all agree on that. He also said he wasn’t interested in the Celtics job and then he left. I hope he gets St John’s back to the early 80’s level they had. I was 9 when Laetner hit the shot and I got to see them in Cincy in practice when they used to play up here. He’s the real deal. I’ve never understood the hate towards him when he went to Louisville. Congrats and good luck.

If you have the audacity to EVER beat UK they are going to hate you. If you leave them.....Oh my!!!!

5 hours ago, futurecoach said:

Pitino is great, but I still don’t know how he couldn’t find away to stop a guard from scoring 30 points against UK in the 97 finals. His great coaching alone should have easily prevented a single player from scoring 30 points in a game that decided the championship. 

See, this post backs up what I said lol. 26 years ago!!!

58 minutes ago, 9068 said:

See, this post backs up what I said lol. 26 years ago!!!

I'm pretty sure that was a tongue-in-cheek statement. 

7 hours ago, futurecoach said:

Pitino is great, but I still don’t know how he couldn’t find away to stop a guard from scoring 30 points against UK in the 97 finals. His great coaching alone should have easily prevented a single player from scoring 30 points in a game that decided the championship. 

Should have hedged.

13 hours ago, gchs_uk9 said:

It is. Mike Jarvis was the coach, I believe. 

 

13 hours ago, 16thBBall Fan said:

I agree Deuce if anyone can turn them around it would be Pitino. He will have his work cut out I think I saw that the last time they won an NCAA Tournament game was in 2000.

That is insane. A precipitous slide from the Johnnies since Felipe Lopez graced the cover of SI.

2 minutes ago, bugatti said:

 

That is insane. A precipitous slide from the Johnnies since Felipe Lopez graced the cover of SI.

If Rick Pitino, in NYC, in the NIL era can't get SJU back to playing relevant basketball, they probably won't ever do it. 

2 minutes ago, TheDeuce said:

If Rick Pitino, in NYC, in the NIL era can't get SJU back to playing relevant basketball, they probably won't ever do it. 

I think he is the guy for the job. The landscape of the game allowing you to nab transfers and build instant credibility should have St. John's back on the map. I know I'm going waaay out there, but Rick has the chance to lead a team to a Final Four in five different decades.

32 minutes ago, bugatti said:

I think he is the guy for the job. The landscape of the game allowing you to nab transfers and build instant credibility should have St. John's back on the map. I know I'm going waaay out there, but Rick has the chance to lead a team to a Final Four in five different decades.

If he fully embraces NIL I see absolutely no reason he can't do that at SJU. 

36 minutes ago, TheDeuce said:

If Rick Pitino, in NYC, in the NIL era can't get SJU back to playing relevant basketball, they probably won't ever do it. 

An interesting thing about St. Johns: Prior to the 1990s, a scholarship athlete could be given the value of their college housing in cash if they chose to live at home instead of in a dorm. St. John's used this quite effectively to recruit kids in New York. Those kids could live at home and pocket a few thousand bucks (or give to their families) instead of staying in the dorm. When the NCAA rescinded that rule, St. John's lost a major recruiting advantage. Their coaching hires have been spotty at best since Lou Carnesecca left, but I think losing that housing rule probably hurt them just as much, if not more.

The fired coach isn't happy, here is a headline from CBSSports.com:

Ex- St. John's coach Mike Anderson planning to file lawsuit against school over firing for cause.

9 hours ago, futurecoach said:

Pitino is great, but I still don’t know how he couldn’t find away to stop a guard from scoring 30 points against UK in the 97 finals. His great coaching alone should have easily prevented a single player from scoring 30 points in a game that decided the championship. 

For the record though I do think this is a great hire and Pitino will have them back right away. With the transfer portal, NIL, I think he probably will have them back in the tournament as early as next year. 

13 minutes ago, theguru said:

The fired coach isn't happy, here is a headline from CBSSports.com:

Ex- St. John's coach Mike Anderson planning to file lawsuit against school over firing for cause.

They will get that ironed out and I assume will end up paying Anderson.

3 minutes ago, bugatti said:

They will get that ironed out and I assume will end up paying Anderson.

I'm sure, I thought it was slightly relevant to the thread.

1 hour ago, gchs_uk9 said:

An interesting thing about St. Johns: Prior to the 1990s, a scholarship athlete could be given the value of their college housing in cash if they chose to live at home instead of in a dorm. St. John's used this quite effectively to recruit kids in New York. Those kids could live at home and pocket a few thousand bucks (or give to their families) instead of staying in the dorm. When the NCAA rescinded that rule, St. John's lost a major recruiting advantage. Their coaching hires have been spotty at best since Lou Carnesecca left, but I think losing that housing rule probably hurt them just as much, if not more.

Did not know this and yes this is a distinct advantage that they used legally.