Pitino shuts down HS recruiting at St. John's

[AcAndAc]

Said that 6 months ago and got raked over the coals for it. SU hoops should abandon HS recruiting as well.

I disagree. I think the types of players are the issue. Portal for talent.

But we should try to recruit specialists, such as a local guy that, is maybe not a great athlete overall, but hits threes reliably off the bench... a tall center that can block shots (and little else)... and a few long athletes that can play solid defense. If our portal players start missing shots, we have someone to come in and hit some threes. If our portal players are lagging effort-wise, we put in the defensive crew. With 15 roster spots, 3-4 specialists would help a lot and give more strategic options.

 

[Red2003]

Many will as most of these kids come from difficult home environments. Money matters more than anything else that is a fact. SU has to realize that and recruit the kids that value a combination of things. Fran has it down. He wants kids that realize the SU family will be there for them if they don't make the league. Fran talks about excellent in life and in the classroom. DART is real. It isn't a slogan. He really wants to and will help these kids succeed in life beyond football. He preaches the value of an SU degree. Of our connections. Talks about setting them up for jobs. I don't know but I doubt Red is doing any of that. If he's not he better start because SU isn't going to win with dollars. It has to be the whole package, and he needs to target kids that value what we have to offer.

Autry has the ultimate resource available to him right now. That's a 10 win football team and staff.

It's not their job to help the basketball staff and team next year but you know they will because Fran does all the things you just said.

Literally Fran Brown was sitting in on Economics classes on campus to learn.

Autry should just be following Fran around like a shadow and copying DART.

 

[Red2003]

Ha, so true. Personally, it reminds me somewhat of when my father had worked at GM in its hey day, where GM once had approx. 60% of the market share. And, how poor/grossly negligent senior leadership along with their 'we are GM' type mentality was the crux of their fall. Same kind of holds true here relative to the ACC and its rapid fall from its not too long ago hey dey, etc. Their current marketing/commercials, etc. are pitching how the ACC is the best basketball conference in the land, etc. I mean, wake up and smell the friggin coffee.

Same with GE . Only took the company almost collapsing to realize.

 

[Red2003]

Bring in an entire roster from offshore.

If there was another Petar and they played the 1 and the 3 instead of JC and Bell as hard as he plays the 4 even with all the mistakes I think we would be a 20 win team. Maybe not tourney but alot more wins.

 

[Scooch]

If there was another Petar and they played the 1 and the 3 instead of JC and Bell as hard as he plays the 4 even with all the mistakes I think we would be a 20 win team. Maybe not tourney but alot more wins.

A team with three Petar's wouldn't win 10 games. Come on now. He works hard. So does a washing machine.

 

[Toga]

TikTok - Make Your Day

 

[DoctorBombay]

TikTok - Make Your Day

Love Pitino. Folks act like he can never be redeemed from the "restaurant table escapade", like every HC has to be as pious as Gandhi. Say what you will but there is no denying, the man is a great basketball coach. Even as a transitional hire, Pitino heading back to SU would've bagged numerous recruits and sold lotsa of tickets.
Oh well, at least we avoided the embarrassment and trauma of hiring the scallywag and now have a real gentleman at the helm. And other than repeated 20+ point blowouts every other game, at least we won't have to be embarrassed, amirite?

 

[DocFlanders]

Cuse hoops is dead. At least for now, but maybe forever like many other programs with what the current landscape of nil looks like.

 

[Toga]

Love Pitino. Folks act like he can never be redeemed from the "restaurant table escapade", like every HC has to be as pious as Gandhi. Say what you will but there is no denying, the man is a great basketball coach. Even as a transitional hire, Pitino heading back to SU would've bagged numerous recruits and sold lotsa of tickets.
Oh well, at least we avoided the embarrassment and trauma of hiring the scallywag and now have a real gentleman at the helm. And other than repeated 20+ point blowouts every other game, at least we won't have to be embarrassed, amirite?

We've had scalawags.

 

[bnoro]

Love Pitino. Folks act like he can never be redeemed from the "restaurant table escapade", like every HC has to be as pious as Gandhi. Say what you will but there is no denying, the man is a great basketball coach. Even as a transitional hire, Pitino heading back to SU would've bagged numerous recruits and sold lotsa of tickets.
Oh well, at least we avoided the embarrassment and trauma of hiring the scallywag and now have a real gentleman at the helm. And other than repeated 20+ point blowouts every other game, at least we won't have to be embarrassed, amirite?

I prefer not having to compromise my morals to root for a sports team

 

[50YRsofCuse]

I didn't say no portal players, but I am a strong advocate that high school talent can be a resource pool to leverage as programs and coaches like this stop bothering.

I personally liked it better when a player transfer to a school for a better opportunity and not for money. I had have better time watching a team of 1st year players learning to be a team than adding several players from the portal with no continuity with one another trying to play together.

Please don’t think that I did not enjoy adding a transfer like Mike Gbinije, Wes Johnson or JJ Stallings to a team one at a time to complement the existing team.

Pitino’s philosophy is geared toward the big pay day by loading up his team with more experienced transfer players than taking the time to home grow them. It fits in perfectly with the NIL/portal era where money talks and there is no need to nurture young players. Bring in the transfers, pay/play them for a year and then bring in the next bunch of transfers. This is the professional mind set that will kill the enjoyment of watching college basketball.

 

[bnoro]

I personally liked it better when a player transfer to a school for a better opportunity and not for money. I had have better time watching a team of 1st year players learning to be a team than adding several players from the portal with no continuity with one another trying to play together.

Please don’t think that I did not enjoy adding a transfer like Mike Gbinije, Wes Johnson or JJ Stallings to a team one at a time to complement the existing team.

Pitino’s philosophy is geared toward the big pay day by loading up his team with more experienced transfer players than taking the time to home grow them. It fits in perfectly with the NIL/portal era where money talks and there is no need to nurture young players. Bring in the transfers, pay/play them for a year and then bring in the next bunch of transfers. This is the professional mind set that will kill the enjoyment of watching college basketball.

The teams with money are also the teams with the better opportunities now as they're all ranked tourney teams. We're a has been

 

[IthacaMatt]

Said that 6 months ago and got raked over the coals for it. SU hoops should abandon HS recruiting as well.

We can't afford to buy 10 guys in the portal each year. We have to develop and retain a handful of guys to build a competitive roster.

 

[IthacaMatt]

A team with three Petar's wouldn't win 10 games. Come on now. He works hard. So does a washing machine.

He's a terrific 3rd big man. This is his first year. He can hit a three, and he rebounds fairly well. Commits a lot of fouls on defense, but at least he's challenging the ball.

 

[sufandu]

Pitino is smart and flexible. He seems to have the rare ability to keep from getting into a rut. He's always assessing and adapting.

 

[Sbucketball]

We can't afford to buy 10 guys in the portal each year. We have to develop and retain a handful of guys to build a competitive roster.

The ones who we successfully develop -- won't we have to pay them almost as much to retain them? They're getting offers from other programs whether or not they enter the portal. They know what they can get and expect SU to match, or if they're otherwise happy here, at least come close.

I think we just need more money (among other things I won't mention in this post).

 

[NineOneSeven]

St John’s currently top 10 is really some icing on the cake too.

 

[Chip]

I prefer not having to compromise my morals to root for a sports team

That ship sailed for me a long time ago. There are little to no morals in this business.

 

[tep624]

He’s only talking about next year. He’s not shutting down HS recruiting forever.

He has some young guys already he references in the article. He wants to surround those guys with more experience, not more youth, because his experience is leaving after this season. He’ll still have a roster with a good balance of youth and experience.

Must be nice to have a coach that understands and has a plan for roster construction. Having a billionaire back you with the NIL to make Pitino’s vision happen is helpful also.

It would be idiotic to completely shut down HS recruiting and Pitino isn’t an idiot. But recruiting is much more situational now than it has ever been. It really will go year to year and program to program as to how heavily a school looks at HS or portal talent. Completely different system now.

 

[Fly Rodder]

St John’s currently top 10 is really some icing on the cake too.

With our former PG.

 

[BomberOrange]

With our former PG.

But, but, but…morals.

 

[AlaskaSU]

That is because they are stuck in the way they have done things and what has worked for them for years and unwilling to change and adapt. This is why the ACC has fallen off all the old head coaches have retired and the entire league has fallen off because the old-school way of doing things both on and off the court just doesn't work anymore (many fans still cant accept that).

SEC not only started spending money on players but also on coaches. They have the highest paid coaches they have the biggest NIL's because they were prepared because of football. While everyone else was way behind because I guess they didn't think it would impact Basketball as much.

Money does not grow in trees.

 

[Eric15]

UConn at St. Johns at MSG this weekend has to be the biggest Johnnie home game in at least a couple decades. Garden should be electric. As I mentioned above, I am all in for this St. Johns team. I really want them to win it all.

 

[kirbivore]

UConn at St. Johns at MSG this weekend has to be the biggest Johnnie home game in at least a couple decades. Garden should be electric. As I mentioned above, I am all in for this St. Johns team. I really want them to win it all.

I'm guessing round of 16 or 8 their horrific 3pt and / or FT shooting will catch up with them.

 

[Cstate]

and this is exactly what we are missing! Get back on defense!

His players would run thru a brick wall for him!