St. John's fires Mike Anderson / hires Rick Pitino | Page 6 | Syracusefan.com

St. John's fires Mike Anderson / hires Rick Pitino

Why is St. Johns such a hard place to win at lately? They had an amazing history for a whole bunch of years. Is it facilities, the school, being in the city? I don’t get this one.
Back in the day, St. John's had a built in advantage because, as I understood it, they did not have dorms or student housing and thus, were able to legitimately and above board pay their athletes the "cost of their housing" in NYC. I think they now do have dorms or student housing and I am guessing kids see the grass as greener elsewhere. Only a guess as to one contributing factor.
 
Why is St. Johns such a hard place to win at lately? They had an amazing history for a whole bunch of years. Is it facilities, the school, being in the city? I don’t get this one.

Back in their day, St John’s had no student dorms for the players.
So - they were legally allowed to provide them a stipend (aka a bag) to provide for housing close to campus.

Since the majority of their guys were NYC players anyway, they just pocketed the $.

And for guys from out of town, 2-3-4 would live together, and pocket the difference.

Then, in their infinite wisdom, St John’s built housing for the student athletes, and that unique loophole went away.

And they’ve pretty much sucked ever since.
 
St John's and Syracuse playing each other in Brooklyn in front of 7K or whatever was a crime against New York basketball.

Ricky getting that job would make it fun.
I was there. I couldn't believe the sparse crowd. I told my kids that back in the day, 19 thousand people would cram MSG to watch SU and St. John's.
 
Why is St. Johns such a hard place to win at lately? They had an amazing history for a whole bunch of years. Is it facilities, the school, being in the city? I don’t get this one.
For years they didn’t have dorms, so players were given stipends for housing off campus. They had a lot of extra money if they decided to live together. It wasn’t cheap living in nyc. Today, they have dorms so the stipends went away. I think this has played a role in their decline.
 
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Anderson has had a solid career but that was baffling from the beginning why St John's felt he was a good fit there. This was not hard to see coming.
 
I was there. I couldn't believe the sparse crowd. I told my kids that back in the day, 19 thousand people would cram MSG to watch SU and St. John's.
My son's first game was SU-St. John's at MSG in 2012. Place was full (75% 'Cuse fans) and rocking.

Crazy what's happened to both programs 10 years later.
 
Back in their day, St John’s had no student dorms for the players.
So - they were legally allowed to provide them a stipend (aka a bag) to provide for housing close to campus.

Since the majority of their guys were NYC players anyway, they just pocketed the $.

And for guys from out of town, 2-3-4 would live together, and pocket the difference.

Then, in their infinite wisdom, St John’s built housing for the student athletes, and that unique loophole went away.

And they’ve pretty much sucked ever since.

St Johns and Depaul.
 
My first SU game was SU vs St. John’s at the dome in the mid 80s.
I feel that St. John's and Georgetown are similar as opponents. When they were premiere programs it was a great, intense rivalry. But their fanbases are so fickle and shallow, as soon as they weren't great anymore all the energy was sucked out.

I'm not sure that kids today see St. John's as anything more than a mid-major program with a great but very distant history. If they know that history at all.
 
I feel that St. John's and Georgetown are similar as opponents. When they were premiere programs it was a great, intense rivalry. But their fanbases are so fickle and shallow, as soon as they weren't great anymore all the energy was sucked out.

I'm not sure that kids today see St. John's as anything more than a mid-major program with a great but very distant history. If they know that history at all.

St John's at least has something of a CYO dad fanbase (all the guys I grew up with).

Living right outside of DC if someone didn't go to Georgetown (and even then) there's just nothing there.
 
Why is St. Johns such a hard place to win at lately? They had an amazing history for a whole bunch of years. Is it facilities, the school, being in the city? I don’t get this one.
They have no money or facilities. It’s a small commuter school. They were relevant back in the day because of NYC location, MSG and Louie. Then again, you’d think they’d be better than Seton Hall.
 
I feel that St. John's and Georgetown are similar as opponents. When they were premiere programs it was a great, intense rivalry. But their fanbases are so fickle and shallow, as soon as they weren't great anymore all the energy was sucked out.

I'm not sure that kids today see St. John's as anything more than a mid-major program with a great but very distant history. If they know that history at all.

You’d think the Garden alone would be enough for some recruits.
 

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