Briscoe Annoucing Next Thursday.

[SJHooper]

If Lavin lands Briscoe, Lavs will be here for a while. Lavs takes a lot of heat for his coaching, and I have had comments about it as well. But when you look at his overall four years here, it's not necessarily terrible. "Year 1" he went on that amazing run with Norm's kids. Now, Norm had the same group for the three years prior and they did nothing but an NIT loss. In year one, we are beating top ten teams left and right and end our NCAA drought. Year 2 he is out with cancer. It is a freshman laden squad that grabs 6 conferences wins. The following year we go to the NIT and win a first round game at St. Joe's before losing to Virginia. Last year was a disappointment for sure. And I would say Lavin not having a set starting five when the Big East started was a big part of the problem. Still, we managed 20 wins and 10 in the Big East in a tie for third. So while his coaching sometimes makes you scratch your head, it has not necessarily been a disasterous few years. When Norm was here, I remember him saying St. John's was not going to be able to compete with the Dukes and Kentuckys for players. Lavin's first class, signed before he even coached a game for the Johnnies was ranked 3. He has hauled in players from all over and has given the Johnnies a buzz. In his first year, before coaching a game, he got the Garden to transform the Knicks locker room into St. John's locker room with SJU carpeting, chairs, etc. for Garden games. Before they used a different locker room. He has two Big East rookies of the year and two NBA players from SJU. So while Lavs is often a target, he has St. John's on a good path that is slower than we would all like, but good nonetheless. This year is big. New York is expecting a lot from this group this year and we will see how that goes.

Lavin is going to need more than just Briscoe with all that you'll lose after this year. The class will have to be incredibly unbalanced again. I think even if Lavin reals in several highly rated players like he did in his first class that he's not the man to get the job done. Lavin's done a terrible job balancing his recruiting classes and will be hitting reset on the team all over again next year just like his second year. Next year's team will be the De la Rosa, the italian import, and Jones that's it. He needs like 9 kids in this recruiting class to even field a team.

Agreed. That's a big problem with the unbalanced classes. But I think the idea is that getting Briscoe is the first domino that will lead to others falling. If he comes here I'm sure he can get a few more good recruits to come too. I still feel like UK is in the lead despite people saying he's leaning SJU. I just can't see a kid turning down UK for SJU announcing on ESPN. Will be pleasantly surprised if he does. If Lavin loses this recruiting battle then he likely gets the axe because that means no Sampson or Diallo and likely a 9th place finish next year with literally no play makers. IMO getting Briscoe is a must for Lavin. It sucks that your job could come down to fighting against UK but that's the nature of the beast. He sucked for 2 years recruiting and now we are depleted. It's all on him now.

[redmen9194]

Briscoe is not the only player he is after. Just one of the bigger ones.

[hoops22]

Can't believe I'm getting sucked in again, but I honestly believe we're going to get him. Has me wondering what kind of hopeless degenerate I must be, that I never seem to learn.

[REDMEN1415]

Briscoe is not the only player he is after. Just one of the bigger ones.

Do we have a real shot with Diallo? Hearing KU and Iowa St. lead for him.

No doubt IB would be a huge get, but I'll wait till he choosen before getting all excited then oh well he's going to uk.

[SJHooper]

Lavin has other targets, but it's pretty much assumed that if Briscoe is gone, then so are the others. We need Briscoe to come for other recruits to want to come.

[redmen9194]

Briscoe at SJU game today. Looking good for the Johnnies.

[ChestRockwell85]

I was at the game. I am sorry, I know I take shots at St. John's, mostly because I am disappointed that they haven't been good in so long and the new Big East needs SJU to step up, but the atmosphere at Carnesecca is not good. I know it was an exhibition but I have been to high school games with more fan support and the student section continues to disappoint. Now that The Sly Fox is closed you can hardly grab a burger before or after the game anywhere as well. I hope you guys get Briscoe but your fans need to start filling those seats and acting like they care. Too few making the effort.

[NJRedman]

I was at the game. I am sorry, I know I take shots at St. John's, mostly because I am disappointed that they haven't been good in so long and the new Big East needs SJU to step up, but the atmosphere at Carnesecca is not good. I know it was an exhibition but I have been to high school games with more fan support and the student section continues to disappoint. Now that The Sly Fox is closed you can hardly grab a burger before or after the game anywhere as well. I hope you guys get Briscoe but your fans need to start filling those seats and acting like they care. Too few making the effort.

It's an exhibition on a Saturday afternoon. It's not an indication of poor fan support.

[SJHooper]

I was at the game. I am sorry, I know I take shots at St. John's, mostly because I am disappointed that they haven't been good in so long and the new Big East needs SJU to step up, but the atmosphere at Carnesecca is not good. I know it was an exhibition but I have been to high school games with more fan support and the student section continues to disappoint. Now that The Sly Fox is closed you can hardly grab a burger before or after the game anywhere as well. I hope you guys get Briscoe but your fans need to start filling those seats and acting like they care. Too few making the effort.

This is like the chicken and the egg argument…what comes first? The fan support that leads to a winning team? Or a winning team that leads to fan support? It's not even a real question though. The obvious answer is that a winning team leads to fan support and not the other way around. SJ has been terrible to mediocre for most of the past 20 years. Much of the momentum from the successful mid to late 80's, late 90's, and early 00's is lost. If it weren't for that magical 2011 season, fans would care even less. Bottom line is that this team needs to find a way to consistently win enough to make the tourney and occasionally get ranked/win a few tourney games. I don't think it's too much to ask that this team be in the top 25 at some point every 3 years or so with the current talent level coming here.

New York fans have expectations. If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. But if you fail here or are mediocre here, you will hear crickets at your games. Go watch clips at MSG from the game in 2011 when we beat a top 5 Pitt team at the last second. The place was loud enough to be a Knicks playoff game. At the Georgetown game at MSG last year when we won by 20 (I was there), the place went nuts and there was a 15 minute wait to get into Stout NYC (the official SJ bar). People were high-fiving each other on the train, in the street, etc. People truly care about this team when it is good. The problem is that there has been nothing to cheer about except maybe 2 or 3 seasons in the past 20 years. If SJ ever had half the success of Nova or G'Town, you would see the fans come in droves. Don't blame the fans. Blame the program.

[ChestRockwell85]

Been going to SJU games for years at both Carnesecca and MSG. Your student section is lacking, has been for awhile.