There has been five years of disappointment, and the sixth year is not complete. No need to to go crazy here making Willard anything more than a coach who has gotten talented players to buy in for part of one season. Love to see it continue and will compliment him accordingly when the season is over. I have seen too many midyear collapses from this team.
Lavin Comments
- Thread starter ShuBall
- Start date
I am in the same row of the bus with Source.
My only point lost (and misinterpreted) above was this - last evening, today, hey, things are fun right now, let's just roll joyfully along and save the reality discussions for the long post-season death march. That was my only point.
He got his extension a couple years ago, and as I believe it was a significant length, now he has to go out and recruit past this sophomore class, which he had the help of hiring HS coaches to accomplish!
Hey, I'm a fan of Willard, but prove it over time!
I hope there's room on the bus. You guys summed it up. Only reason it became a thread was because of Lavin's comments. Enjoy the ride right now (we all know, they don't happen often!!!) and these kind of threads can wait for after the season.
Yep - I knew you were in that space.
I think we absolutely all of us hope for a wonderful ride this season. It's so much fun.
Best be an epicurean today, given how many years we have been forced to be stoics.
I'm with you. Things may be very different a year from now with the loss of Gordon and potentially Whitehead, but Willard's coaching has undoubtedly improved this season. On court coaching is only part of what it takes to be successful at this level and without improved recruiting it will be very difficult to sustain the success we've had this year.
Not allowed to do that on this board any more or so I've be chastised. Euphoria is short lived. So lets run with it. Sad.Who? The guy whose name you can't mention.
Ever see the tv show "Grimm"? That should answer your assumption. lolSo I can assume this guy
is no longer to be confused with this guy?
Ah, hard work and long hours. Welcome to the real world. Now if only they were compensated for their long hours.
Hard work does not necessarily equate to success either ... Am I happy about this season? Oh yes I am. And hopefully the success continues for many many many years... But in life if you're a hard-working failure you're still a failure.
Absolutely agree. The staff (Lyons included) and the team have worked tirelessly to get us where we are today. The current staff assembled one hell of a team and made us relevant again. Anybody that wants to dismiss that is deluuuuuusssional! I do hope the donations increase with the wins! I seem to remember people only wanting to donate when we were relevant.
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Willard and Lavin are friendly. So no surprise that Lavin is saying some nice things about him publicly.
SJU didn't play the negative recruiting card with Whitehead - other programs most certainly did, though it had more to do with the state of the program as opposed to Willard's stability. Remember that Lavin wasn't a lock for an extension at that point either, so playing that card would have been useless. SJU sold the NY thing plus Whitehead learning under some very good guards on what was expected to be (and was) a NCAA tourney team (Harrison, Greene, Jordan, Branch, etc) instead of having to be the "man" from the get go.
Either way, as it's been stated before on this board, Whitehead's recruitment to Seton Hall came down to one thing and one thing only - Tiny Morton's job as an assistant coach. That's the reason he came. And it will get Willard the extension he wants.
SJU didn't play the negative recruiting card with Whitehead - other programs most certainly did, though it had more to do with the state of the program as opposed to Willard's stability. Remember that Lavin wasn't a lock for an extension at that point either, so playing that card would have been useless. SJU sold the NY thing plus Whitehead learning under some very good guards on what was expected to be (and was) a NCAA tourney team (Harrison, Greene, Jordan, Branch, etc) instead of having to be the "man" from the get go.
Either way, as it's been stated before on this board, Whitehead's recruitment to Seton Hall came down to one thing and one thing only - Tiny Morton's job as an assistant coach. That's the reason he came. And it will get Willard the extension he wants.
What did / does IW get out of his coach getting hired and then leaving after one season? I genuinely don't understand it. I know us hiring Tiny is why IW chose us, and I understand why it benefits Tiny, but why is that what cinches it for the player?
Their relationship. Tiny wasn't close enough with a guy like Lance to make that a package deal. Isiah wanted to take care of him, plus it guaranteed that Desi would be in the mix too, who wasn't nearly as highly recruited (and, by the way, thank god for that - he could be Ladonte Henton by the time he is a senior). Tiny got a taste of the college environment and decided it wasn't for him. Plus I think he saw that if Willard was gone, and the Hall promoted internally, Sha was the most logical choice to get the nod.
Had Willard not agreed to add Tiny, Whitehead would have went to St. John's, with Desi likely along for the ride. Tiny would have tried to parlay that into some type of arrangement with Under Armour, which a lot of the top HS and AAU coaches do (SJU has a strong rel'ship with UA).
Had Willard not agreed to add Tiny, Whitehead would have went to St. John's, with Desi likely along for the ride. Tiny would have tried to parlay that into some type of arrangement with Under Armour, which a lot of the top HS and AAU coaches do (SJU has a strong rel'ship with UA).
By the way, on the issue of coaching stability, I know we are using a similar tactic with Thompson and Syracuse. Jimmy B will be gone during Thompson's tenure, and Hopkins, was widely respect as an assistant, is an unknown. We are selling - the ability to stay home, play with a ready-made NCAA team (everyone returns), and the ability to play with an established big like Delgado while not having the same high-level competition at the spot that you'll see at Kansas, Cuse or even Gtown. Providence is selling their development of a kid like Bentil, and Cooley seems to develop a great rapport with kids he targets.
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