Another SJU commit

[Halldan1]

Win for Mullin and St. John's recruiting ace: JUCO sharpshooter

St. John's coach Chris Mullin and lead recruiter Matt Abdelmassih (right) watch the Knicks-Pacers game from the Garden's front row on Wednesday night. Photo: Charles Wenzelberg

Another day, another commitment for Chris Mullin and St. John's.

Less than 24 hours after landing Tennessee transfer Tariq Owens, the Red Storm's new coach scored junior college wing Darien Williams, a source told The Post.

Unlike Owens, who will have to sit out next season, the 6-foot-8, 220-pound Williams will be a key piece to Mullin's first team, an explosive athlete who can fill it up from beyond the arc.

Williams signed with Iowa State, but was let out of his National Letter of Intent last week, and now follows his lead recruiter, St. John's assistant coach Matt Abdelmassih, to Queens. When Williams committed to Iowa State, he reportedly was being recruited by Louisville, USC, Nebraska and Kansas State.

Williams averaged 16.1 points and 6.1 rebounds while shooting 41 percent from 3-point range as a freshman for Iowa Western Community College, but the California native sat out last year at City College of San Francisco as he recovered from surgery on both shoulders. He still has three years of eligibility and could start up front next season with shot-blocking force Chris Obekpa, depending on how Mullin rounds out the roster.

 

[shupat08]

a 6'8 220 pound sharpshooter?? Wow.

I don't know this kid... Does he play like Mobley (a floater?) or does he have a legit inside game and rebounding presence?

 

[Flnj86]

In 2013 According to Scout, Williams had a 68 rating, two stars and was ranked # 79 at his position ( not overall). There will be a lot of SJU hype by the media in all the articles. Let's be realistic, the 1 st game that Mullins wins will be his 1st win as a coach at any level.

 

[hallgrad80]

86
And which program has a better chance at success , SJU under Mullin or SH under Willard ?

 

[Flnj86]

According to Verbal Commits, there is no mention of a Louisville offer for Williams. More media hype. LOL

 

[shupat08]

The article says he was "being recruited by"... It didn't say "offered by".... Seems like you are putting words into the writers article. LOL.

 

[Flnj86]

Verbal commits - Williams was offered by Nebraska, USC, Kansas State, Fresno State. Three of these teams were mentioned in the article but no Louisville.

 

[hallgrad80]

86
Do you understand that positive media hype is an asset in building your program and attracting talent to that program. I understand your loyalty to our program but don't look at our program with blinders on but honestly appraise the state of our program under its current leadership . You can, like many of us do support the program, root for the players but recognize the reality that the last three years of this regime have been horrific.

 

[lwyrup]

Is that the dude from Game of Thrones sitting next to Mullin in that picture?

 

[Woah Bundy]

Originally posted by lwyrup:
Is that the dude from Game of Thrones sitting next to Mullin in that picture?

Yes, Jon Snow is the assistant he hired to appeal to the younger kids who have never heard of him.

 

[seton1996]

Originally posted by Flnj86:
Verbal commits - Williams was offered by Nebraska, USC, Kansas State, Fresno State. Three of these teams were mentioned in the article but no Louisville.

Who cares, even if the LU is totally made up, he had committed to Iowa St, a pretty good team in recent years, not like he only had offer from lower majors and someone threw some bigger names in to make his recruitment seem bigger.

 

[SPK145]

Good get, just worried about the year off.

 

[AFRPIRATE]

2 shoulder surgeries. We've been there.

 

[SJUBall]

Williams a solid player. Good shooter and good size. Hard to land blue chip high schoolers in April. This is to be able to field a team next year.

 

[Hall91]

pretty productive week for Mullin.

 

[Blue Buccaneer]

Williams...yawn, no big deal. With 2 bad shoulders he'll never hold up in the Big East. Should have went to the Big 10. According to Bo Ryan, there apparently isn't any contact in that league which would have been ideal foWilliam's.

 

[LFBall]

Amazing that the coverage even for this recent recruit has many kids sitting up and taking notice. Some Teams are really going all out and making moves to get it done. Others are YAWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Cannot sit and allow SJU to gain all the news exposure. This is where the SIDs at places like RU, SHU, and even Fordham need to earn their salary. By the way if I remember correctly Kenneth Faried, a Newark Kid, was not highly rated getting offers from Marist, Iona and Moorhead State where he attended. Sometime its not the name its the game and potential. Imagine if he attended SHU!!!

 

[hallgrad80]

St.John's doesn't need a SID ,they have the NY Post to promote their program. Since Mullin was named as SJU's coach there's been ink everyday about the program, recruiting, etc.

 

[Seton75]

The Post. Fox Sports. Something in common. The Post gave us more ink since the Fox deal was announced. Now they think they can see SJU going back to the glory days and they are jumping on board. Good for all.

 

[Halldan1]

Originally posted by LFBall:
By the way if I remember correctly Kenneth Faried, a Newark Kid, was not highly rated getting offers from Marist, Iona and Moorhead State where he attended. Sometime its not the name its the game and potential. Imagine if he attended SHU!!!

I had just retired and because I was working in NY didn't have any time to watch or follow HS player.

Went to NY and met up with SPK to watch some tournament games. I saw Faried and had no idea who he was. I went to Clark Francis and asked him who this player was. He told me a young man from Newark who was a MM at best. I thought he was nuts.

The kid was all over the court dominating against far more highly ranked players. Faried had big time written all over him. What he did in college and now in the NBA is not shocking at all. What's shocking is how the gurus couldn't see it.

Had a good friend back then at SHU. Told him to use his connections to get the Hall involved.

Didn't happen.

 

[SPK145]

Faried was fantastic in that tournament. We were told he had major grade issues though.

 

[pmulcahy96]

One thing I learned in the 90's, never give your credit card to Clark Francis!

 

[NewJerseyHawk]

This recruits hype sounds like the other local JUCO swingman recruit that was supposed to be this game changing wing player 2 to 3 years ago, who barely played his first year after getting flagged academically and missed half the season and then had a very so-so senior campaign at around 5-6 PPG if I'm not mistaken.

There is only so much gamemanship and hype are going to get a program before it feels and sounds like all the other offseasons.....The locals need to play well and compete for 3 to 4 straight months and show something consistently to generate real results, not just a month or two at a time. St. John's has been woefully underacheiving for years prior to Lavin and it was supposed to change dramatically once Lavin arrived, with a lot of the same hype coming off his great success as an ESPN game announcer. Nothing different happened with Lavin than what happened with Norm Roberts at the end of his campaign.

At the end of the day, Chris Mullin has the cache and name recognition because he's a SJU hero and lifer and showed all the alumni that the Johnnies can be great again because he was an elite talent and player. This JUCO will help, but press on the brakes folks, they are a lot way from relevancy on the CBB landscape, winning media press battles in NYC will only go so far.

The Big East as a league is falling behind in the landscape of the caliber of players being brought in and then Power 5 schools like Arizona State land legitimate coaching risers like Bobby Hurley Jr.....no one really knows whether Mullin or Hurley are going to succeed but if pressed to choose one of the two as most likeliest to succeed based on conference, location, support financially and ability to recruit talent, Hurley has a far better job and chance to succeed over Mullin.

 

[Halldan1]

Originally posted by SPK145:
Faried was fantastic in that tournament. We were told he had major grade issues though.

Correct. That's what Clark Francis said.

A year later when I started to connect with sources for the board I asked how he got eligible. I was told he got the 'proper' help he needed.

 

[Seton75]

Originally posted by NewJerseyHawk:

This recruits hype sounds like the other local JUCO swingman recruit that was supposed to be this game changing wing player 2 to 3 years ago, who barely played his first year after getting flagged academically and missed half the season and then had a very so-so senior campaign at around 5-6 PPG if I'm not mistaken.

There is only so much gamemanship and hype are going to get a program before it feels and sounds like all the other offseasons.....The locals need to play well and compete for 3 to 4 straight months and show something consistently to generate real results, not just a month or two at a time. St. John's has been woefully underacheiving for years prior to Lavin and it was supposed to change dramatically once Lavin arrived, with a lot of the same hype coming off his great success as an ESPN game announcer. Nothing different happened with Lavin than what happened with Norm Roberts at the end of his campaign.

At the end of the day, Chris Mullin has the cache and name recognition because he's a SJU hero and lifer and showed all the alumni that the Johnnies can be great again because he was an elite talent and player. This JUCO will help, but press on the brakes folks, they are a lot way from relevancy on the CBB landscape, winning media press battles in NYC will only go so far.

The Big East as a league is falling behind in the landscape of the caliber of players being brought in and then Power 5 schools like Arizona State land legitimate coaching risers like Bobby Hurley Jr.....no one really knows whether Mullin or Hurley are going to succeed but if pressed to choose one of the two as most likeliest to succeed based on conference, location, support financially and ability to recruit talent, Hurley has a far better job and chance to succeed over Mullin.

To say Hurley has a FAR better chance to succeed is nuts. Hurley is just as likely to fall on his face in the big time as Mullin or anyone else.

SJU needs bodies. This is a good one to get. But this is not the level of player Mullin wants. If he gets a kid like Rawle Akins, Mullin could be on his way. Having SJU a top team, hosting another top 15 team in MSG like the old days would bode well for the BE. Don't you think?

The BE out performed the other five conferences for the whole year, and we fell on our face in the NCAAs. What does that mean? Two years...too early to tell. Our recruiting doesn't keep up with the ACC, but I think is in the same ballpark as the BT.

Six out of ten in the NCAAs doesn't suck. We do have to prove something in the tourney.

 

[hallgrad80]

I can understand the many posts that advocate a return to prominence by St. John's is good for the BE and I can accept that. SJU doing well , however, is far down my wish list and while I want the BE to succeed I want it to do so with Seton Hall being part of the solution to the BE succeeding not part of the problem why it doesn't .

 

[Seton75]

I don't see why any school doing well should have an adverse effect on us doing well. As I see it, regardless of how we perform, it is better to be performing in a better league getting great press from the NY media. SH being 12-6 in a mediocre league is not good at all.