Top 10 Underachieving Programs

[wrestlemania]

sfhoya99 said:

I can't believe St. John's isn't #1. Fifth in all-time wins, biggest basketball school in NY City.

Normally, I'm for patience with a new coach, and I know the school/facilities aren't impressive, but I have to think some coaches would kill from day one there.

I'm from SJU country, and I don't get it either. There's some feeling around the program that the AD is the problem -- can't tolerate a coach with a mind of his own.

I'm no expert (though I play one on the Internet), but I think the turning point was the way they blew it with Felipe Lopez. He was the number #1 high school player in the country -- unfortunately, the coach at the time was CYO Coach of the Year Brian Mahoney (and I am convinced he was fired as a panic move because they were afraid of losing Lopez). I believe they made a couple of NCAA tournaments with him, but they should have done a lot better.

The other problem is that all the coaching turnover disrupted the ties they had to the NYC high school pipeline and the coaches that control it. That's apparently a big deal when recruiting in New York -- Mike Jarvis learned this the hard way.

[SFHoya99]

Yeah, my understanding is that Jarvis burned all the NY HS and AAU bridges and they froze him out. But that doesn't really explain why Norm hasn't rebuilt those in three years. Granted, Thompson had strong ties already formed, and we had Broadus on our staff, but it seemed like all the negative attitudes towards Gtown disappeared with Esherick. SJU needs a New York coaching staff, and one that can win games as well.