Rick Pitino Headed for St.Johns (prediction)
Rick is from Newyork and in such a bad economy they needto feel the seats in madison square gardnes he is going to be the next head coach at st.johns he is a newyorker and is ready to head back home to the big apple! be prepared for an anouncemant in a couple weeks!
Pitino's name is always brought up with any open New York job. The guy makes $2.5 million per year and is due a "loyalty bonus" this year worth $3.6 million. If St. John's can come up with a better offer, I'm sure he'll listen. The guy cannot be branded as loyal, and he could probably pull a Calipari and bring his entire recruiting class with him to New York.
I could definitely see Pitino going to another Big East School (St. Johns) if they offered the right amount of money. Pitino can live on Long Island where he grew up and still get to coach in arguably the best conference in basketball as well. The guy has no problems getting players to the NBA, has NBA connections, is a winner on the college level so he won't have a problem getting top recruits to come to St. Johns even if the campus life is terrible there.
Doesn't have problems getting guys to the NBA??? He's been at Louisville for nine years now and you know how many guys he has playing in the league right now? TWO, that's it. Terrance Williams and Francisco Garcia. Earl Clark was another, but he apparently got shipped down to the D-League. Pitino's best days are behind him and now he's associated with a ton of off the court drama. Not sure why St. John's or anyone else would want him at this point. Just go look at the message boards at UofL right now. A good majority of their fans are now wanting him gone.
Yeah, Pitino's had one of the longest streaks of failures in producing NBA players. At the same time, that's completely irrelevant to St. John's.
He's a great college coach. One of the 10 best, for sure.
And that's why St. John's has no chance to steal him. That program has no where near the money or cache to pull a guy like Pitino from a program as storied and a job as lucrative as Louisville.
Making St. John's relevant again is an impossible task. The school sucks, the team sucks and it has zero buzz in the city. And the only way to change that would be Final Fours. New York isn't settling for Sweet 16s.
The same is true, for instance, at DePaul. In today's world, it's a struggle to rebuild a program in a major city that doesn't need you.
More than anything, though, the program just doesn't have the money to pull away a coach like Pitino. Louisville is loaded, St. John's won't pay enough.
I have to agree with Adi Joseph about St. Johns as well as DePaul being in Major cities when the city doesn't need you in order to be successful. On area talent alone St. Johns and DePaul would be beasts contending each year in the tournament. Though, many local kids want to get away, and not have to face the pressure of playing in front of friends and family. Also, the whole legacy thing doesn't matter to most of these kids they just want to find the quickest way to get to the NBA. I am from Long Island, a 30 minute train ride away from NYC, and how St. Johns does has no affect on me as a sports fan. St. Johns is also a commuter school where the life on campus is non-existent, I know basketball takes up most of there lives, but when they do have free time it would be nice for them to do something on campus, but there's nothing on campus. I heard DePaul is similar in the campus sense. I would like to see St. Johns be successful again, but the school will have to put in a lot of money into the program as well as the campus. St. Johns loses recruits to every major conference as well as some mid-majors such as Hofstra, not many recruits chose Hofstra over St. Johns, but some have don't kid yourself.
I think the best solution for St. John's is to get a coach who can get players to the NBA, the being local isn't working anymore being from NYC doesn't mean you go to St. Johns anymore you go to whoever wants you most. Of course you can't get all the best recruits, but if you tell a recruit we'll do everything in our power to get you to the NBA, that speaks volumes.
Being a private school does not help your chances to sign a big name coach, unless you have a particularly giving alumni base. Schools like Texas are loaded with donors giving millions of dollars to their program. St. John's has a much smaller and less wealthy alumni base.
And as knicksfan7 said, most people don't care at all about St. John's in New York City. And it's a crappy campus life, which is one of the biggest perks of being a star student-athlete. If D.J. Kennedy was walking around New York right now, no one would recognize him.
The bench warmers at Kentucky are celebrities. Same at Louisville. It's a different atmosphere. You want to be loved.
Adi Joseph, if I saw DJ Kennedy walking around NY I would be scared, he is the type of guy that scares you when you look at him. I agree with what you had to say overall, though while it is true that being private does hurt your chances of signing a big name coach that doesn't mean they don't have the money to do it, they just don't want to spend the money to get that big name coach and rather put the money towards academics. You look at Syracuse, they will never be a bad program even though private they will spend at lengths in order to make that team successful year in and year out. If they were to need a new weight room as a way to encourage better recruits to come, they will do it in a heartbeat. While being public is a huge advantage with most schools winning a national championship are public, Syracuse in 2003 being the last private school to win it all. I think the main problem is that University president's don't see the benefit in having a strong athletic program going hand in hand with a strong academic program. Athletics are a way to connect students that would otherwise not be connected. I am sure that Butler Basketball connects a lot of people that would otherwise not be connected, same goes for UNI. I know as a current college student I go to college for the academics offered, but I have met people through going to basketball games. It goes a long way.
Status and buzz comes with winning. When DePaul had Quentin Richardson, Paul McPherson, and Bobby Simmons nobody made the case that the stadium or status as a commuter school would prevent them from winning. They even played their big ticket games at the United Center. The Mike Jarvis era at St. John's had buzz. Marcus Hatten was not just another nobody.
Both St. John's and DePaul are claiming that they will spend this time around to win. We will see. Both teams are playing in arenas that are two-thirds empty on most nights, and that is with the benefit of New York and Chicago having large alumni bases for just about every school around which means even fewer of the people in the stands are cheering for the home team. The difference in attendance, donations, and merchandise sales could cover the difference if they get the right guy. If either school was to get a coach who is willing to do what big time programs do to win, then you can forget about all the excuses. It comes with risks. Dave Leitao had some success and used DePaul as a stepping stone. Mike Jarvis had some success, and got caught cheating. If they hire a mercenary, then they shouldn't be surprised if he leaves in a few years for greener pastures. Also, they need to know that it won't be a matter of whether the snake oil salesman is a cheater or not, just whether he gets caught.
Nothing wrong with getting McCaffery, but Steve Lavin will not go to St. Johns as an assistant coach because he can get a Head Coaching job of his choice if he decided to go back into coaching. I would hire McCaffery and let him bring his whole staff give him full control of everything and things should be okay.
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Idk much about Teague except his older brother Jeff. Though, if Pitino went to St. Johns, do you think Teague will follow him?? I don't think so. St. Johns isn't a favorable place to play college basketball as a player, more so for a coach.
You had me thinking he announced it..You could've at least put in parenthesis something like (bold prediction" or "Just watch"...LOL