Top 25 BE players as per Bleacher Report

[Westbrook36]

A lot of pressure being thrown at SJU but Villanova (Jay Wright) is in the same boat...Both programs should win more games than they have over the last 3-5 years for multiple reasons. Also Hillard is a much better player than Ryan Arch right now and should have been on the top 25 list.

You mean the last 5 years were Jay won 30, 25, 21, skip a year(ok 13), & 20? That's 109 wins, which is about 22 a season, those 5 years that include a FF & 4 twenty win seasons? Jay has had one turd of a season in the last 9 years, give it a break.

[redmen9194]

The Nova contingent gets very touchy here. No one is saying Lavin is the greatest coach ever. This thread was on another web page that listed the top 25 players in the Big East. They put five from St. John's. My point was that at least three of them had significant stats from last season to back that up. How this turned into whether Lavin can coach or not is beyond me. He had three seasons at St. John's so far. Year one we finished the season ranked 18 in the AP poll. While these were not his kids, this group had never finished higher than 11 or 12 in the Big East under Norm Roberts. His second season he missed due to cancer and had seven scholarship players - all freshmen but one after graduating every player from the year before except one. Last season he had freshmen and sophmores - finished with a winning record and NIT bid. Not a great first three years, but not bad either considering where the Johnnies had been. His three years so far have resulted in the following:

3rd place finish in Big East
AP Poll final rank of 18 (2011)
Two Big East Rookies of the Year
Number 3 recruiting class in his second year
One of his players drafted in first round (Moe Harkless 2012)

Maybe that's good, maybe it's not, but I will tell you this - he has made St. John's relevant again in NYC and made them a story nationally. He got the Garden to give St. John's the Knicks locker room for games and to actually remove the Knick pictures, logos, carpets, etc., and replace them with St. John's. The Johnnies are also becoming a fixture at the Barclays Center playing there last season and having three games there this season. If the Big East wants to keep a hold of New York City, we all better hope he continues on the right track because it is vital to the league to keep NYC interested in Big East hoops.

[Dave]

The Nova contingent gets very touchy here.

Not all of us....

[FriarJ]

Well he overachieved in his first year at St. John's - I don't think anybody anticipated being tied for third with wins against Duke, UConn, Pitt, G'Town and ND. He still have to prove he can get Ws but that's not what this list was about. It was about players. But with this team, he should contend for top spot in the league.

I think most of this Lavin bashing is nothing but wishful hoping by opposing teams fans. SJU is loaded and I agree he can certainly coach based upon what his team did the year before, last year there was some immaturity, it happens. I expect SJU to challenge for the title this year.

They say the same thing about Cooley (He can't coach, etc...) when all he did last year was go 9-9 in a league where they were picked to finish last by the coaches. (including two overtime losses to UConn) With all the injuries they had to take eventual NIT winner Baylor to the final seconds on their home-court in quarterfinals shows the man can coach.

Both these programs are in great hands and they are going to be in the upper half of the BE as long as these coaches are there.

[SJU87]

Sir Dom Pointer of St. John's ain't overated. If you watched him all last season you'd say he was underated. Multiple triple double games and an all out hustler. Steve Lavin calls him the Tasmanian Devil for his fierce play.Not only is he a scoring threat/rebounder, he's one of top defensive players in the league. Multiple triple double games on a team like St. John's with all those players expecting lots of minutes is quite impressive.

[ChelseaFriar]

I think most of this Lavin bashing is nothing but wishful hoping by opposing teams fans.

I agree. Fans of the current successful programs in any conference don't like to think about things getting shaken up a bit when one of the struggling programs starts to show signs of life. Lavin is a lot more mature than he was at UCLA and he also brought in Gene Keady. If he keeps recruiting like he has, SJU will be a consistent contender in the BE.

[SJU87]

Lets Hope Cooley and Lavin get signed to long term deals. I think Lavin has 2 more years on his contract. You never know because he's a west coast guy. His wife is a Broadway actress and she loves NYC so that'll work in SJU's favor, Lavin want's to prove he's a big time coach.spend that endowment money and sign these 2 coaches because successful athletic schools attract students. Seems like Providence was never the same after Pitino left and when Carneseca left SJU. Carneseca left in 92 and then they hired Mahoney who did an OKay job but couldn't recruit. Then they hired Fran Franchilla who was a fabulous recruiter and built a great team that almost went to the final 4 in 1999.But they fired him .Until 2000,SJU was just as good as Syracuse and then they got cheap and hired no name coaches. During this time SJU modernized it's campus and they neglected their athletic programs.

[TheHall]

A lot of pressure being thrown at SJU but Villanova (Jay Wright) is in the same boat...Both programs should win more games than they have over the last 3-5 years for multiple reasons. Also Hillard is a much better player than Ryan Arch right now and should have been on the top 25 list.

You mean the last 5 years were Jay won 30, 25, 21, skip a year(ok 13), & 20? That's 109 wins, which is about 22 a season, those 5 years that include a FF & 4 twenty win seasons? Jay has had one turd of a season in the last 9 years, give it a break.

Are you serious...So Jay Wright wasn't feeling major heat from the media & fan base (unfairly I agree) before having a great run on the recruiting trail this summer? Plenty of winning coaches feel pressure, so just listing some of his on court accomplishments is cherry-picking. It's actually more about expectations and wright set the bar very high early in his career and you should know that.

[TheHall]

A lot of pressure being thrown at SJU but Villanova (Jay Wright) is in the same boat...Both programs should win more games than they have over the last 3-5 years for multiple reasons.

Why do you have to be a Nova hater? Are you a St Joes fan?

I like how you didn't disagree...and instead went for the obligatory cheap shot...classic philly.

[BEX]

Makes me laugh that Christon is not top 5, but then none of these morons @ bleacher have ever seen him play. Honestly, don't why anybody would discuss anything they have to say. Rank amateurs.