St. John's coach Chris Mullin has a long rebuilding road ahead, George Willis writes. Photo: Anthony J. Causi
There’s nothing in Chris Mullin’s DNA that suggests losing is acceptable. Not when you’re one of the most decorated college and NBA players in the history of basketball.
So you know somewhere deep in his soul there’s a battle raging between the competitive player he once was and this coaching thing in which so much is beyond his control.
St. John’s lost its 11th straight game on Wednesday night, blown out by Seton Hall, 79-60, before a sparse crowd of 6,767 at the Prudential Center.
A humbling 7-14 on the season, the Red Storm are winless in eight Big East games after shooting just 29.2 percent from the field against the Pirates (14-6, 4-4). Seton Hall broke open a relatively close game with a 15-3 run to start the second half that ruined any chance of the Red Storm being competitive.
“I guess it was a bad halftime speech,” Mullin said. “The start of the second half cost us the game. There was no resistance. They were doing whatever they wanted to do. It was disappointing.”
It’s difficult to constantly manufacture positive energy in the midst of such a long losing streak. St John’s hasn’t won since a Dec. 13 upset of Syracuse, yet hoped a spirited second half in a 78-73 loss to Marquette on Sunday would carry over into Wednesday’s game. But the visitors made just 10 of 37 shots in the first half and were dominated under the glass throughout the game as Seton Hall outrebounded the Red Storm, 56-40.
It was a beat-down in the second half as the overmatched and undersized Red Storm seemed helpless to stop the onslaught.
“The start of the second half didn’t even give us a chance to see if we could hang in,” Mullin said. “If we came out and put a little pressure on them it could have been interesting. We’ve done that before. We didn’t do that tonight.”
Of course, not much is expected of St. John’s this season, especially after starting center Yankuba Sima was sidelined with a broken bone in his left hand. The Red Storm will face No. 4 Villanova on Sunday at the Garden followed by a road game at No. 5 Xavier on Feb. 3.
Perhaps it won’t be long before the won-loss record carries more meaning and promise. For now, the positives are measured in attitude, approach and effort. Those are the things Mullin is emphasizing during this barren run.
“A game like tonight when you shoot 29 percent, you can play as hard as you want, but it’s going to drain you,” he said. “The good thing is we’ve got two or three days before we play again. It’s important how we handle the next two days. Tomorrow we’ll take the day off and the guys that need to get treatment can get treatment and guys that need to take some shots can take shots. Then we’ll have two good days of practice and then come out and play Villanova.”
Great players don’t always make great coaches because it’s difficult to lower expectations and be patient. So often throughout their lives, they took matters into their own hands and willed their team to victory. But there’s really little Mullin can do other than recruit, keep players accountable, and recruit.
“I always emphasize to them that I don’t want to see any blaming, no hanging heads and feeling sorry for themselves,” Mullin said. “What happened out there we did; we take ownership if it. Now we take these next few days and try to change things.”
Taking over the head coaching job at his alma mater was never going to be an easy task.
But Mullin is staying optimistic even amid the losing.
“We’ve got three good days to get cleaned up and have some positive energy and play a good game on Sunday,” he said. “It’s only basketball. It’s all good.”
http://nypost.com/2016/01/28/how-chris-mullin-is-handling-st-johns-chronic-losing/
