Rating Coaches

Fox Sports columnist Jeff Goodman recently posted his list of top college basketball assistants, polling head coaches, assistants, and those close to assistants. His names are broken into BCS conferences and mid-major conferences (would Xavier and Gonzaga have landed in the mid-major area? We don’t know, none of their assistant coaches were on the list). There are a few former head coaches (Larry Shyatt (Florida), Joe Dooley (Kansas), Donnie Daniels (UCLA)), some up and comers, some people with pedigree/ former player resumes (but no major ex-pros), and some guys who started out on the high school level.

This list, however, focuses on recruiting achievements. For an assistant coach, that is a somewhat quantifiable metric - how well a coach can lock down a recruit who is interested in their school. That focus, of course, doesn’t necessarily tell us how that coach is on a comparative level - in a good situation with a good product (some combination of a competitive team, tv exposure, playing time, an attractive campus, big booty hoes, a well-regarded head coach), many people can recruit the names we come to know in college ball. When he was hired, St. John’s coach Norm Roberts was advertised as the man who brought Russell Robinson to Kansas and got a verbal from Charlie Villanueva.*

Being associated with great college basketball names will get an assistant coach a job. But should it? Those recruiting achievements are not the coach’s alone; they belong to the head coach, to the quality and style of play, and perhaps to the institution. Believing that these recruiting wins are the coach’s alone is questionable; and the game isn’t won on the number of 4 and 5 star Rivals or Scout.com recruits a coach gets. It certainly helps, but that’s not the end-all.

Answering some of this is Yet Another Basketball Blog’s Coach Ratings by Dan Hanner. Admittedly, I don’t know all of ratings’ methodology. For example, the recruiting ratings might be from the aforementioned basketball player rating sites or some other source. And does this model account for players who have transferred (probably not, since he does not penalize for players going pro early)? How does one measure expected wins? What if talent is overrated? Otherwise, this is a sharp look at what ingredients constitute what we think of as a good coach. The ratings for recruiting and coaching come from regression analysis of the impact on talent on wins. The main point is that the numbers give a comparative look at a coach’s recruiting and regular season performance at each school.

Some light numbers, and of course chatter about St. John’s, after the jump.

Sports Links 05.12.08

And a wholly unnecessary Emanuelle Chriqui photo.

+ Lenny Dykstra’s high end mag for pro athletes is stuck in legal/ monetary disputes, as former Ram defensive back Ryan McNeil’s is. That “Nails never fails” article in the New Yorker is getting old already. Move it to the “fiction” section, people.

+ More of a peek into the private life of Marvin Harrison after the shooting near a bar that he owns.

+ Mike D’Antoni is the Knicks coach! Holy Crapcakes!

The beauty of NYC is such that the first article I read is “Bringing in Mike D’Antoni wrong move for the Knicks“. And it may be true, if only for the dead wood on the roster that needs to be dumped. This article is a little wrong though; the roster is missing a credible point guard, for certain, but the idea that the Suns put up good shots all the time because of their IQ is questionable. Their speed and spacing allowed them to get good looks early in the offense, and unlike other basketball coaches, D’Antoni has no problem with early shots. Jamal Crawford loves to take jumpers with 20 seconds left on the shot clock! He’ll be a freaking natural! (I’m not joking. I actually think that Nate Robinson and Crawford might be good in this system. Starbury, however, needs to be bought out.)

Though D’Antoni would have KILLED with the Bulls’ roster, no doubt. But they would never play defense, and GM Paxson wanted assurances that there would be defense played at the United Center.

+ Yesterday I glanced at the score of the Mets game and.. what the hot hell? It’s Oliver Perez’ good day! Which ended with a bad hiccup. From the Journal News:

The unsolved mystery that is Oliver Perez was back on display yesterday at Shea Stadium. There he was, sweeping breaking balls past the lefty bats of Adam Dunn and Joey Votto. There he was firing five innings of one-hit ball. Yet there he was giving up three runs in the sixth.

Suddenly, it was a Day at the Improv. He dropped his arm lower, trying to change speeds because he was tiring. It turned out to be a wild pitch, skipping past Brian Schneider to allow one of the runs to score. Perez also surprised the Reds with a bunt single. Before that, he walked and stole second.

“How crazy are you, Ollie?” manager Willie Randolph playfully asked, turning toward the 26-year-old lefty entering the interview room. “Do you have a full deck? They want to know. Inquiring minds want to know. I’ll take you anyway. I’ll tell you what, you can play on my team any day.”

Perez is good. Perez is bad. Sometimes in the same game. Good luck predicting the unpredictable. But after throwing three straight losing duds, the Mets will take the three-run, three-hit, eight-strikeout, four-walk, one-hit-batter work he gave them over six innings in beating Cincinnati 8-3 in the rubber game of the series.

+ Meanwhile, like me, Mets’ minor leaguer Fernando Martinez is allergic to lobster.

+ Uni Watch has lots of the Mother’s Day pink paraphernalia that MLB players and umps rocked.

+ Cablevision is buying Newsday? Isn’t there a limit to local media synergies? I guess not.

Will Long Island become one giant Cablevision bubble, where Jim Dolan is a cuddly teddy bear and the Knicks are everyone’s favorite? If I want to reach Long Island… will I have to go through Dolan? Will he manage Long Island’s media future?

+ The Devil Rays are winning baseball games? What is this world coming to?

+ Florida State player plans to play all 9 positions in today’s game. If the game goes extra innings, he should offer to umpire the game, just to add another layer of gimmick.

+ The 4 armed robbers accused of killing safety Sean Taylor will not face the death penalty.

+ One Droo Hill makes edits to the United Countries of Baseball region map, which was perhaps influenced by this unscientific but interesting attempt from 2007. The map does not reflect certain sports teams that roll deep in every city they go to like the Yank-These and Mets.

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Willie Randolph In Trouble?

The team is 71-71 since last June 1st and the management plans to sit down and evaluate Randolph’s performance at the end of the month. I am sure other teams do that, but ownership might just have a quibble. From Dan Graziano’s article at the Star-Ledger:

Where Randolph comes up short is in his failure to recognize what kind of team he has and manage accordingly. Randolph is a decent man who cares deeply about his team and his job and believes strongly in himself. But he’s also stubborn, and that’s what has him in trouble.

Randolph came from the Yankees, where the championship teams of the late ’70s and the late ’90s were packed with hard-nosed winners. He believes he shouldn’t need to motivate or fire up big-league players, because his teams never needed that.

In principle, he’s right. He shouldn’t need to remind major-league players that it’s important to raise their games in big spots, or not to take games or at-bats off.

But unfortunately for Randolph, his players are soft. His players are the types who don’t raise their games in big spots, who do take at-bats off. His players coast through long stretches of the season, assuming their talent will carry them through without any extra effort or emotion on their part. His players are not self-motivators, and they are a group that might respond well to being scared every now and then.

That’s not to say they need a Larry Bowa/Lou Piniella type of screamer. “Scaring” players like this would be as simple as letting them know their playing time isn’t guaranteed — that a long, languid slump by the $17 million-a-year center fielder isn’t going to be tolerated when there’s a hungry, energetic Angel Pagan around to man the position while Carlos Beltran gets his head together on the bench.

Randolph doesn’t do that. He does what Joe Torre used to do when his veteran players slumped. He tells them he believes in them and will stick by them until they come out of it.

But in the case of these particular Mets, it doesn’t work. These Mets get too comfortable. They can keep mailing it in at no threat to themselves or their lifestyle. You went 0-for-5 again, Carlos? No problem. You’ll be back in there tomorrow, have no fear. We’ll never embarrass you.

By now — after the playoff flop of 2006, the historic meltdown of ‘07 and the sleepy start to ‘08 — Randolph should understand this, and he should be doing something about it. He is not.

But does scaring players with the threat of losing playing time work? Or does it alienate the player? I hate watching Carlos Beltran’s at bats as much as anyone, but playing time is a blunt instrument to effect change. I think Beltran might be served by taking fewer stinking pitches, myself. How does one build the desire to get pissed off at each failed at bat like Paul O’Neill? And do the Mets want players that tightly wound?

Don’t get me wrong, I think Willie needs to do something more than sitting back in the cut. or the dugout, as it were.

This weekend: The Cincinnati Reds. Analysis here from Amazin’ Avenue.

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St. John’s Agrees to Renew Rollover Contract with Coach Roberts

Coach Roberts has his contract renewal. What took so long? Who knows…

May 9, 2008

QUEENS, N.Y. - St. John’s University Director of Athletics Chris Monasch announced on Friday that head coach Norm Roberts has agreed to a renewal of his five-year rollover contract, and will continue to lead the rebuilding of the University’s basketball program.

“As stated in February, Coach Roberts has established the foundation for a successful program — integrity, hard work and discipline. Our student-athletes are performing well in the classroom and are getting better on the court,” stated Monasch. “We are pleased with what Norm and his staff have accomplished over the past four years, and believe the progress in many key areas is consistent with the expectations expressed by the University, our supporters and Coach Roberts when he was hired in 2004.”

“Coach Roberts and St. John’s are committed to extending that success onto the basketball court,” Monasch continued. “The primary focus of this contact [sic] renewal emphasizes the importance of being successful on the court. We are confident that at this point, we have a young, talented nucleus that will return our program to its winning tradition in the very near future.”

“This agreement shows the commitment that St. John’s is making to me and my staff, to continue to build our program and make it as strong as it possibly can be, not just for now but for the long term,” said Roberts. “We believe that we are building a solid foundation with our young players. They are working hard every single day to improve individually and as a team. We are increasing our talent level all the time, and we know as a program we are getting better every day.”

The 2008-09 schedule for the Red Storm provides a formidable test for a team led by two returning seniors and seven sophomores. In addition to the arduous BIG EAST conference slate, which will include games against Louisville, Georgetown and Syracuse, St. John’s will participate in the Preseason NIT and play host to Duke and Miami as part of its non-conference schedule.

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Extension… Extension… Bueller… Bueller…?

LFBall makes a great point in his most recent post: where is Coach Norm Roberts’ extension? Is St. John’s actually just waiting for someone else to take the job after next season, allowing the coach to finish out his supposedly “rollover” contract?

If so, they should just let the man go now and get a new coach if they don’t think he can turn it around. If not, they need to hammer out some kind of deal; at the very least, one with mny out clauses just to help recruiting and build a sense of stability.

If the administration wants Norm to finish out the contract and plan to let him go, what if he’s moderately successful? Then they have crippled recruiting for a full (and fairly well stocked) 2009, and 2010 as well.

Lame duck coaches do no one much good. Attendance and season tickets will be low, interest in the program will be apathetic without some resolution. And if Coach Roberts does not achieve, say, at least an NIT berth (which I hope is criteria for keeping him, unless the administration has made up their minds), the next coach will have an Anthony Mason Jr. sized scoring hole in the team.

Mike D’Antoni Fired From Suns. NY Fans Salivating At Fast Break Basketball.

I was just reading this bit about whether Steve Kerr would consider firing Suns’ Mike D’Antoni…

AND HE DID GET FIREDHe Might Have gotten fired.

D’Antoni, sources say, believes that the situation has been festering all season and that nothing would be accomplished in the meeting. Whatever the circumstances of his departure, it will probably be presented as as a rift between coach and GM, and to a large extent that’s true. But when Colangelo left for Toronto, mostly because he and Sarver were doomed not to coexist harmoniously, D’Antoni lost his biggest booster in the front office, as well as a friend. It’s what happens in the NBA and in all pro sports.

Over four full seasons D’Antoni racked up a 232-96 record, made the Western finals twice and changed the way that observers both in and out of the league thought about the game. Management might have some legitimate gripes about his defensive coaching, and remember that D’Antoni was a bigger booster of the trade for Shaquille O’Neal than Kerr was.

But Suns management now faces one extremely formidable challenge in l’affaire D’Antoni: finding someone better.

BUT WAIT… Drama. The Arizona Republic says that the firing is not so:

Suns General Manager Steve Kerr denied that report [that Mike D'Antoni would not return as coach of the Suns] early Wednesday.

“There’s no truth to that,” Kerr said. “I asked Mike when the story came out and he denied it. Mike’s our coach and has done a great job for four years. We’ll get together soon and talk about where this team can go from here.”

With two years and $8.5 million left on his contract, D’Antoni is unlikely to be fired. If he returns, it could be with concessions to change. But there is also the possibility that he leaves of his own accord, especially with a perceived lack of support - and interest from New York and Chicago, both of which have vacancies. There is also the chance Toronto President Bryan Colangelo fired Sam Mitchell to hire the coach he brought to Phoenix from Italy.

An article in this week’s Sports Illustrated will fan the flames. It paints a picture of a divide between the coaching staff and front office staff. It talks about D’Antoni resenting Suns General Manager Steve Kerr working out of San Diego and taking perceived shots at him in the press, and that Kerr thinks D’Antoni is too stubborn to accept Kerr’s suggestions, whether it be in strategy or personnel use.

Sources confirmed an SI anecdote that Kerr and D’Antoni had an early November argument in which Kerr suggested that the Suns feature post-up plays for Amaré Stoudemire more often. That incited D’Antoni, who set off a shouting match that included him saying, “Don’t tell me how to coach offense.”

Someone call the Knicks. MAKE THIS MAN AN OFFER. NOW. A BIG ONE. If there are reports about a dude being fired, he’s probably not on good terms and can be brought to NY. The coach is not worth the number 1 draft pick (in exchange for D’Antoni’s services and the #15 pick…) but… hm… if the Knicks don’t get a top-5 pick, I think I’d trade that pick for D’Antoni. Imagine Nate Robinson and Jamal Crawford and David Lee in that system. Imagine the free agents who would want to come to New York. Imagine the buzz in Madison Square Garden.

I am salivating.

There’s a Fire Steve Kerr site already.

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Norm Roberts Extension Still Not Finished

Good call by Adam Zagoria bringing up something that hasn’t been talked about (that I mentioned a week ago on the blog): Norm Roberts’ extension hasn’t been announced yet.

Other schools have fired a coach and hired a coach; if this extension was so important for recruiting to mention at the end of February, why haven’t the lawyers dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s yet…?

Which is curious, since that extension was supposed to quell the rumors that he was a lame duck in year 5. From Zagsblog, from Athletic Director Chris Monsach’s time at Columbia’s sports ethics symposium:

“We’re still working on all those details,” St. John’s athletic director Chris Monasch said Thursday night during a panel discussion at the NFL offices in midtown Manhattan.

Monasch in February said Roberts would return next season to finish his current contract, and that an extension would be pursued.

“He has a rolling five-year contract, so he really has a long-term contract,” Monasch said Thursday.

He added: “What we’re going to do is kind of update the contract. There were aspects of the contract that had become dated, built-in bonuses and different triggers if he’s successful that he would be properly rewarded with.”….

Monasch said he thought part of the failure in landing recruits in the fall had been uncertainty over Roberts’ status.

The late signing period runs until May 21 and St. John’s is in the mix for Florida transfer Jonathan Mitchell of Mount Vernon, who is also considering Rutgers and Seton Hall. St. John’s has four scholarships available and Monasch said “a number of athletes” would be on campus this week and next week, adding “I think we’ll see something happen in the next few days.”….

“The mindset in hiring Norm at the time was they felt he was the best fit for the job,” Monasch said. “The range of what you can pay people doesn’t fluctuate as greatly as if you’re successful. IF you’re successful, you can spend a lot of money on a basketball coach.

“I think being patient with Norm is an outcome of how low the program had been and all the things we’ve been through, but there is an urgency to win at St. John’s.”

I have wondered, but not in e-print, whether this is one of those plans to add unpalatable language to the contract - such as “fire such and such assistant and hire an X-and-O person” that is designed to make an ultimatum that Norm Roberts wouldn’t take, allowing him an out to leave voluntarily. That’s likely not the case, or else the administration probably would have moved on that much more quickly (but stranger things have happened). And that’s not the most upstanding way to do business with a coach; the coaching fraternity might remember that kind of maneuver.

It might be that St. John’s is undoing/ changing the buyout clauses in case Roberts doesn’t have success in the next year. The rolling contract probably has different penalties dependent on the year the school decides to make a change, and the AD may want to adjust those to reflect the on-court performance. Patience is a virtue, but this is an awful lot of patience; Coach Roberts, you are on the hot seat. Pull out some wins next year.

Of interest are two parts of the quotes I jacked from the article above. One is the use of “they”, where AD Chris Monsach is distancing himself from the previous hire when he was not the Athletic Director. Second is how Monsach thought the uncertainty over Roberts’ status affected recruiting. I would hope that Monsach isn’t silly enough to think that without some ink on a new contract, he hasn’t really made Coach Roberts’ status much more certain. There are still rumors of him being a lame duck coach, even with the “vote of confidence“. Monsach never “ended the ambiguity“, and those 15 other Big East coaches are at least relaxed about their NY competition on the recruiting trail.

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StJ08 Year in Review Part XII: Good Luck, Larry Wright

Slightly out of order so I can address questions + write an homage about Larry Wright’s ability and skills.

Part 0: Opening | Part I: Team stats | Part II: Boothe | Part III: Burrell | Part IV: Cavataio | Part V: Dele Coker | Part VI: Sean Evans | Part VII: Paris Horne | Part VIII: Tomas Jasiulionis | Part IX: DJ Kennedy | Part X: Eugene Lawrence | Part XI: Anthony Mason Jr

Larry Wright: B.I.P. (Ball In Peace)

(stats taken from BigEast.org, Statsheet, Ken Pomeroy’s Basketball Prospectus, and my own calculations)

2007-2008: Sophomore
Position: Guard
Height: 6-2
Weight: 172 lbs
Age: 20 (06/11/1987)
Home: Saginaw, MI

Larry Wright 2007-2008 Highs

High Points	20	(WVU (h))
High Assists	3	(Pitt)
High Rebounds	6	(Rut)
High Minutes	32	(St. Fr)
High 3P Att	9	(WVU (h))
High 3P Made	6	(WVU (h), FDU)
High FT Att	6	(WVU (a)) 6 made
High FG Att	13	(St. Fr) 7 made
High FG% (+6 Att)	78.5%	(So. Fla)
Low FG% (+6 Att)	11.1%	(Miami)
High Turnovers	2	(So. Fla, Pitt, Syr)

I am writing this as both a basketball eulogy and as an aid to the fine folks at UM Hoops.com; Michigan is one of the schools that may be interested in Larry Wright, and rightfully so.

St. John’s fans are pissed. PISSED, because we’re losing Larry Wright. He was on his way to becoming a cult hero; but unlike other fan favorites, this isn’t a case of that scrappy walk-on kid who plays tough defense and just makes plays. Larry Wright was possibly the team’s best scorer and certainly the most accurate shooter, and the justifiable focus of the fans/ message boards’ “Free Larry Wright” posts.

One would think that, on a team that was near the bottom of all of NCAA’s Division I in scoring and field goal percentage, a team that was one of the least offensively efficient of all D1 teams, a team that was held under 50 points 5 times, a team with two double digit scorers, could find room and time to play their best outside shooter regular minutes. Especially when that shooter was the third leading scorer in half the time as the first two leaders.

Instead, right before conference play (specifically before the Virginia Tech game), Larry Wright lost his starting job for good to DJ Kennedy and at times, Malik Boothe. In fact, he was often not the first player or guard off the bench; he was often subbed in after 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, St. John’s score was, on multiple occasions, in the single digits. That is not a misprint.

Why bench an actual shooter for a glue guard/ forward or a non-scoring point guard? Why keep a guy on the bench when your team couldn’t throw water in the ocean? On a team where the point guards aren’t reliable scorers, only one post player can score and he’s double-teamed, why wouldn’t a coach let the other scorer play to loosen that double team?

I don’t know either.

Did you know that Wright was 12th in the Big East in 3-pointers made? In 19 minutes per game.

Did you know that if he qualified with enough (2) attempts, he would have been 4th in 3-point FG percentage over all? And 3rd in conference play?

Hm.

Why did Larry Wright need more playing time? Let me illustrate by whipping out the scoring stats from the Big East games where he got 20 or more minutes:

* West Va (away): 20 minutes, 15 points, 3-6 3 pt, 3-7 overall

* South Florida: 25 minutes, 17 points, 3-3 3 pt, 7-8 overall

* Rutgers: 26 minutes, 10 points, 1-3 3 pt, 4-9 overall

* Providence: 30 minutes, 16 points, 2-6 3 pt, 6-11 overall

* Cincinnati: 27 minutes, 14 points, 3-7 3 pt, 4-12 overall

* West Va (home): 25 minutes, 20 points, 6-9 3 pt, 7-10 overall

Those aren’t bad results. And, to be fair, there were games where he wasn’t good, with Miami being the prime time ugly example: 27 minutes, 2 points, 1-9 shooting, 0-6 3-pt. And there were games, especially blowouts where he came off the bench late, where he couldn’t find his touch. But shooters have bad days unless they are Salim Stoudamire or JJ Redick in college. It happens. And a good coach gives a good shooter time to find himself in the flow of the game.

Wright has his faults. Rumor has it that he was not the best practice player; though no one claims he dogged it like former Red Storm players (who were booted by the current regime) are known to have done. And his defense wasn’t the best; he seemed to struggle with anticipating his man’s move in the halfcourt.

But if he wasn’t a lockdown defender, he also didn’t turn the ball over, which led to run outs/ fast breaks, i.e., more points on the board for the other team. The only players with fewer turnovers than Larry are Rob Thomas, Dele Coker, Mike Cavataio, and Tomas Jasiulionis, all of whom played about half as many minutes and didn’t shoot nearly as much. Those fast break moments were brought to you by Lawrence, Kennedy, Mason… et cetera…

Most teams have to sacrifice a little defense for offense. Wright should have been starting the whole season, instead of picking up spot time and getting that mystery “injury” DNP against Marquette. Everyone knew he was unhappy, being yanked around, playing a strong stretch with minutes midseason and then back in the dog house until the Seton Hall and West Virginia games. Every player wants to play, and anyone who watched basketball knew that some scoring punch was sitting on the bench, checking his number of splinters. I don’t blame Larry for leaving. He can play more than this.

Larry’s Game:

As for Larry’s game, he shoots deep shots in the flow of the offense and doesn’t overdribble. If he doesn’t have his shot, he looks for the next man. He tends to shoot from around the top of the key, but last year his some of his memorable shots from the corner (I think the Notre Dame game, his last shot was from the right corner? Correct me if wrong). When he gets the ball, he seems ready to shoot or drive, and if he’s blanketed, he doesn’t force it. he doesn’t take his man off the dribble often, but he’s probably quick enough to do so.

He can be bothered by physical defense, but he doesn’t play much with the ball in his hands. He did seem bothered in the Miami game when he got hit a bit, but he has learned to play better against physical team; every team is physical in the Big East.

He’s quicker on offense than defense, but isn’t an above the rim player. He’s solidly athletic, and might prove to be more in a better offensive system that isn’t clogged in the middle.

He uses screens decently, but I can’t say that the Red Storm set a lot of crisp screens, so he might be better than I think. He can curl around a screen and get into the lane for a floater that improved his 2-point game immeasurably; he shot 49% inside the arc this year vs 28% in ’07, and few of them were layups.

He doesn’t hide from big moments; his shots were instrumental in big runs at South Florida, against Seton Hall at the end of the game, and against West Virginia at home.

I think he could have been the back up point guard for St. John’s next year. He brought the ball up once or twice, isn’t a moron with his dribble, and though he doesn’t pass, isn’t inept with the basketball. On another team, though, he’d be better suited to the shooter role.

Larry Wright isn’t the second coming. He is a role player, for sure, and limited in some ways; but that role is an essential one for every single basketball team; the guy who can score in bunches and won’t hurt you in other ways on the court. He could be a potential star and with more regular time, I expect his outside shooting percentages to go up.

He deserves to go to a better program than Davidson (which I’ve followed for a couple of years) or U of Detroit; he can hang with the big boys like Michigan.

	All	Conf
Minutes Per Game	18.9	17.4
Effective FG Pct	56.3%	59.7%
FG Pct	43.4%	45.4%
3pt FG Pct	40.2%	41.3%
FT Pct	75.0%	77.3%
FT Rate	21.4%	20.4%
Points Per Game	9.1	8.6
Rebounds Per Game	1.3	1.3
Off Rebs Per Game	0.3	0.2
Def Rebs Per Game	1.1	1.1
Assists Per Game	0.5	0.5
Steals Per Game	0.5	0.6
Turnovers Per Game	0.6	0.7
Assist-Turnover Ratio	0.8	0.7
Blocks Per Game	0.2	0.1
Fouls Per Game	1.8	1.7

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News Articles on StJ Transfers

NY Post’s Lenn Robbins:

According to a statement released yesterday by St. John’s coach Norm Roberts, Wright, the Red Storm’s best 3-point shooter, was leaving “because of the recent discovery of an illness involving a member of his immediate family.”

But when reached by The Post, Wright acknowledged that although a disc problem that has been plaguing his mother’s back since mid-season had gotten worse, his more pressing reason for leaving was the chance to have a more prominent role.

Daily News’ Roger Rubin:

The reasons for the two transfers are different, but Wright’s departure will be more damaging. The 6-1 sophomore guard was third on the team in scoring with a 9.1-point average and the Red Storm’s top three-point threat, making 40.2%….

Cavataio, a 6-4 freshman swingman, averaged 1.4 points and 1.2 rebounds in about six minutes a game. Though he likes St. John’s and has enjoyed his time at the school, he wants to be part of a program where he can play and contribute more….

Four of the six recruits in his first class departed to play elsewhere. Every member of his third recruiting class - Qu’rraan Calhoun, Avery Patterson, Derwin Kitchen and now Wright - will not finish with St. John’s.

“These are the kinds of this that happen when you’re rebuilding a program from the very bottom,” Roberts said Monday. “Some of the people you recruit are being brought in to fill roster spots with the best talent available.”

I don’t even know what that quote means. At year 4, with a 7 member class, he needed Cav to fill out a roster spot? Why not save it for the next year, then? And Larry? He did more than fill out the roster spot… is he going to get someone better to shoot the basketball?!

An apt description from the comic Bizarro.

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Rumors Become True: Wright + Cavataio transfer

It’s official. Larry Wright and Mike Cavataio are leaving the Red Storm basketball team.

April 21, 2008

QUEENS, N.Y. - St. John’s head men’s basketball coach Norm Roberts announced that guards Larry Wright (Saginaw, Mich.) and Mike Cavataio (Forest Hills, N.Y.) plan to transfer to other institutions following the University’s spring semester.

Wright announced his intentions to transfer because of the recent discovery of an illness involving a member of his immediate family. The Red Storm shooting guard averaged 9.1 points per game in 18.9 minutes as a sophomore in 2007-08, and shot 43.4 percent from the field and 40.2 percent from long range.

“I want to thank Coach Roberts for the opportunity to represent St. John’s for two years. Coach has helped me become a better player, a better student and a better person,” said Wright. “Unfortunately, I feel the need to be close to my family in this situation, and will look for a place to play that is closer to home.”

Cavataio played in 17 games as a rookie last season, averaging 1.4 points per contest and 1.2 rebounds in 5.9 minutes.

“I enjoyed my time at St. John’s, and I think it was a great experience to have played here,” said Cavataio. “I have a great relationship with my coaches and teammates and I wish my team ‘good luck’ as I head into a new situation, hopefully where I can earn some more minutes and play a bigger role.”

“We wish Larry and Mike the best in the future,” said Roberts. “Though they are making their decision for different and distinct reasons, they both put in a lot of hard work and effort in representing St. John’s basketball, and they both leave our University in good academic standing.”

As a fan, it’s hard to continually give one’s support to a team when the team seems to be in constant turmoil. When players are often leaving. Why does this happen to one team and not another? Is it the coach’s personality? Is something untoward happening in practice?

All I know is that when I’m evaluating a job, and I ask about turnover, and I hear people don’t stay more than a year or two, that’s a big a** red flag. And it’s not like the program is launching great careers, not like there have been many big wins…

Perhaps Coach Roberts is too honest with them about playing time. Perhaps he doesn’t look at stats. Or the fact that his teams can’t score enough to be competitive. Whatever it is, one’s best 3-point shooters can’t leave the team 2 years in a row. In 4 years it’s, what, 8 transfers? Let’s see:

Cavataio, Wright (2008),

Avery Patterson, Ricky Torres, Qu’rraan Calhoun (2007),

Dexter Gray, Cedric Jackson (2006),

Rodney Epperson, Tyler Jones (2005).

That’s 9, without non qualifiers Derwin Kitchen and Jermaine Maybank.

That’s a lot of players. If the Coach is so concerned that the freshman can’t become juniors, why doesn’t he get players who can stay to become juniors?

How will the kids mature if they keep leaving?

How will recruits want to come if every year a couple of players decide to roll out?

How will St. John’s get better on-court results if rotation players are transferring?

This is a terrible blow for the basketball team. It really is. Wright’s leaving may have to do with his playing time, along with the issues he mentions in the release; his displeasure with his role was rumored last year. I wish Wright luck and hopes he goes to play for Michigan, where I will cheer him on in an offense that knows how to use a sweet shooter. I guess the “We Love You Larry Wright” Facebook page didn’t keep him in.

There will be a Larry Wright profile, like the rest of the profiles on the main page of the blog. In short, I thought Larry was an underutilized and fantastic player. He was credited with defensive deficiencies, but on a team with players who made defensive mistakes, I’m not sure he’s as bad as his lack of playing time would indicate he was. He could sneak into the lane for a sweet runner and hit a solid J from the outside. There’s a reason he’s everyone’s favorite.

Cavataio, as mentioned in my earlier post, should have redshirted; with all of the guards on the roster, he never would have won a lot of playing time. I wish him luck, and expect him to stay on the east coast; the Holy Cross basketball fans are discussing him on their message boards (I know because I’m getting a LOT of hits from them today). For them, here’s what I think of Cav:

I don’t know if he’s a brilliant outside shooter. What he can do, however, is slash. And on the Patriot League level, he’s not some middling bench player. He’s better than advertised, very active on the offensive glass, and should get into the lane for some points. As basketball miles go, he has fresh legs; he sat out a year in high school, and was injured for some of that time. He’s got a good court sense and isn’t particularly intimidated. Again, that outside shot needs to improve and his release is extremely low. But he’s not a bad get.

As for the team, they’re not really going to be that much worse without either player, necessarily; they were going to be near the bottom of the Big East standings without some changes in pace and some stronger offensive contributions from some players; the song remains the same, even though the offensively efficient Wright will be gone. Maybe Roberts will, once he receives that extension the Athletic Director says they are discussing, get the players to play in a cohesive winning manner. Maybe he’ll pull a Dennis Felton (without the highly rated recruits coming in). That sounds like a longshot but stranger things have happened, I suppose,.

Best of luck to Mikey Cavs and Larry Legend. May your post SJU careers be fruitful.

And I hope the newspapers have a field day with this. The fans, of course, are wildly unhappy, and many of them see the value in a shooter as effective, turnover-free, and able to stretch defenses as Larry Wright.

**EDIT**: Follow this link to a list of completed Player Profiles from this year’s Red Storm squad.

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