At Seton Hall and St. John's, a tough task ahead

I never hated anyone until my freshman year of college. That’s not to say I never told anyone I hated them; for Christmas one year my sister bought me the wrong miniature wrestling ring and I’m pretty sure I called her some awful names. But Louis Orr was, for sure, the first person I had ever despised. He was the basketball coach at Seton Hall (now at Bowling Green) and what makes this story sad is that Orr didn’t have an ounce of hate in his entire 6’8, 180 pound body. He was the type of guy who quoted the bible the way his players quoted 50 cent.

None of that mattered to me. I was a punk 18 year old who had but three expectations in life: 1) That my embarrassingly fake id would work at Bunny’s in South Orange. 2) That the Nathan’s on campus wouldn’t serve hot dogs that tasted like Newark. 3) That Seton Hall basketball would be the national powerhouse I expected it to be.

And you wonder why I finished school in Providence.

By the time I got to the Hall, the rumors were already flying around campus. Despite winning a game in the NCAA Tournament in 2004, Orr’s days were numbered. He couldn’t recruit New York and north Jersey effectively and alumni and school officials felt the program wasn’t in a position to compete with the upper tier of the Big East. They were right, of course, and we all bought into it. I remember the very first game of the 2004/05 season (a loss to Richmond) and the crowd was already tearing into Orr (and trust me, it wasn’t just the students who smuggled cheap vodka in Gatorade bottles to the Meadowlands that were chanting “Fire Louie”. Orr was let go a year later.

Everyone in the Seton Hall community felt the program deserved better. They still feel that way today. The same goes for most of the other tiny catholic universities that helped to start the Big East. It seems as though anyone involved with the Hall, Providence College or St. John’s wants to jump in their Hot Tub Time Machine and flash back to the days when their school mattered in the nation’s top basketball conference. That’s why every time the head coaching job opens up in South Orange, people want to make P.J. Carlesimo (who led the Pirates to the Final Four when I was 2) the top candidate. In Providence, it’s Rick Pitino. At St. John’s, it’s whoever has the biggest name and the slickest hair cut.

Recently, both Seton Hall and St. John’s were in the news for firing their respective head coaches. At the Hall, Bobby Gonzalez was let go not because he wasn’t the model catholic, but because he wasn’t successful enough to not be the model catholic. The Johnnies got rid of Norm Roberts mainly because he didn’t want to make nice with the sleaze balls that dominate youth basketball in New York City.

Neither school managed to hire their first, second or even third choices.

Seton Hall fans wanted Carlesimo; they got Kevin Willard, a 35 year old who never led his Iona team past the quarterfinals of the MAAC tournament. St. John’s wanted everyone from Billy Donovan to John Calipari (I think they even offered Phil Jackson the job); they settled on Steve Lavin, whose hearing has to be damaged after spending the last seven years working with Dick Vitale at ESPN.

Almost all of the experts seem to agree that even if they weren’t the ideal candidates, Willard and Lavin were both good choices. But what lies ahead might be too difficult for even the craftiest coaches to navigate. They don’t have to change the fans’ perception of each program. They have to change the recruits’.

High school basketball players in the New York City area don’t view Seton Hall or St. John’s as elite programs because, well, they weren’t alive when these schools were relevant in college basketball. Seton Hall simply doesn’t have the facilities to impress recruits and as far as the Johnnies go, is Madison Square Garden honestly a selling point? The New York Liberty has been the winningest team in that building over the last decade.

Look, I’m rooting for both Willard and Lavin. I wouldn’t know but I’m told there’s nothing like successful New York City-area basketball. But I can’t help but remain skeptical.

The times have changed. At Seton Hall and St. John’s, only the coaches have.