Does St. Johns Need to Break Rules to Win?

By Peter Williams

As the men’s college basketball season approaches its end, the annual spike in the attrition rate of failing NCAA coaches makes for an intriguing sub-plot amidst March Madness.  For Norm Roberts and the St. John’s Red Storm, this spike has come to mean bad news.  After six years, a 81-101 record, and zero tournament appearances, the St. John’s coach has been cast to the unemployment lines leaving a highly desired vacancy in New York City.  While revered as one of the classiest coaches in the college game, Roberts struggled to bring in top players from the talent rich AAU system in New York, causing he and the Red Storm to fall to the back of the bus in the Big East Conference.   As we see class and integrity walk out the door at St. John’s, Roberts’ firing begs the question: is a big name coach with loose recruiting morals the key to success for St. John’s in the Big Apple?

Will Georgia Tech's Hewitt be the next basketball coach at St. Johns? He is rumored to have good relationships with AAU coaches.

Six years ago, St. John’s found what they thought to be a gem in Norm Roberts.  A Queens native and former NYPD officer, the Bill Self protégé was a phenomenal choice for the St. John’s job as he brought an undeniable balance of local knowledge and integrity to the table-or so they thought.  Throughout his time at the helm in NYC, Roberts struggled, if not failed, to sign the phenomenal talent right under his nose.  Roberts lost stars such as UCONN’s Kemba Walker, Cincinnati’s Lance Stephenson, and West Virginia’s Truck Bryant (now done for the year) to other Big East powers, leaving the Red Storm on the outside looking in in the Big East.  St. John’s found itself being dominated by other Big East teams whose stars grew up down the street from Madison Square Garden, an unfortunate irony that ultimately came to define Norm Roberts’ time at St. John’s.

Russell Smith, a well-respected AAU coach in New York believes that Roberts was “too-laid back” when it came to recruiting Smith’s highly coveted players.  Smith says that when it comes to recruiting AAU stars, coaches need to “hustle here, bend some rules or do something” stating that St. John’s continually “settled for transfers and second tier kids”.  Another AAU coaching power, Gary Charles, maintained that despite being an incredibly classy individual, Roberts was unsuccessful in developing strong ties with these AAU coaches and wasn’t willing to “go to war” in order to land these recruits.  Charles went on to say that “we are who we are in New York”, essentially stating that those who aren’t willing to play the game and “hustle” for these recruits will ultimately lose out.  After six years of sub-par recruiting, it became apparent that, for better or for worse, Roberts was not willing to play the game.

In a perfect world, coaches would never have to compromise their integrity to sign top players but as is becoming more of a trend, coaches in flashy suits with their hair greased back seem to be the ones on the cutting-edge of recruiting.  Coaches like John Calipari, a known “rule bender”, have always seemed to land the top athletes, regardless of the team the coach led or was slated to lead.  Bob Knight said of this trend, “we’ve gotten into this situation where integrity is really lacking and that’s why I’m glad I’m not coaching”.  Knight lamented that with Calipari, there is now a “coach at Kentucky who put schools on probation…I really don’t understand that.”

But what does this mean for the Red Storm?  It is an unfortunate reality that, in order to be competitive again in the Big East, St. John’s needs to bring in a tenacious recruiter who is willing to “play the game” with the AAU coaches and players in NYC.  While this may mean settling for less in the integrity department, having a bad ass at the helm may be just what St. John’s needs in order to keep the NYC talent at home.  This is undoubtedly a tough pill to swallow for many grass-roots fans, players, and coaches but is a reality that has become impossible to ignore.  Is there a way to dominate on the recruiting trail within the rules?  Let’s hope so.