(2) Big East Games on Tuesday 1/23/18

[Red Rooster]

Redman, it appears many, many people agree with the points I made. If you honestly watch this team on TV and tell me they have a clear plan, get benched for taking terrible shots, have tons of set plays, and move without the ball on offense, then you are out of your mind because it's not happening. Do you know why we were shooting something like 18% at one point deep into the Creighton game? It's because we had guys taking shots from 35 feet out. It's because we had our 6'11 center chucking jumpers. It's because we settled for jumpers instead of driving another 5 feet closer to the basket. If you miss your shots in the paint at least you usually get fouled. If you miss your jumpers, you're in trouble.

I'm not saying I'm always right, but I'm right about this. Even when Lavin was winning 20 games a year, you could see something was fundamentally wrong and that it would prevent us from truly breaking back into the national conversation. He could not coach and it showed. We never showed up for tournament games and his only postseason win was on a buzzer beating one-legged jumper by Pointer in the NIT. That's it! With all that talent. People said the same things...Lavin is good we just need better players! It's a rebuild! It's inexperience! It's injuries. It's everything but the coach. Well, turns out it was Lavin who was the problem, not any of the other factors (though they didn't help).

If it walks like a duck, looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it IS A DUCK! Mullin was a great player and will forever be in our hearts and minds as the best to ever play for us. But he is a putrid coach and he's way in over his head. The longer he's head coach the longer we suffer. Let me know if you'd like to make a bet about next year. It's easy for me, because I know if we have no coaching we will always suck. I want him to succeed BADLY but he just doesn't have it in him as coach.

Lavin's overall record speaks for itself, as I've said before. Lavin wasn't a superior coach by far, but he wasn't no dummy, either. He was an average coach, who could motivate his team, and a heckuva recruiter. Lavin's issues started and ended with his first class. Things didn't quite go the way he anticipated with that particular class, and it kinda derailed his plans. He slightly rebounded from that derailment, but it was never really the same. Then, there was the physical and some personal issues, along with program/school/booster issues that also created a not-so-good enviroment during his latter season.

Regardless, that's neither here nor there at this moment. The Johnnies have more pertinent issues at the moment. Mullin needs to right the ship or the school will have to eventually get it right when or if it's time for a new hire. We've been screwing it up some way or another a bit too frequently.