GAME: If you’d asked me yesterday whether I’d be writing about St John’s 61-57 loss to Ed Cooley’s diseased head on Saturday afternoon I’d have responded with a responding No. Or more accurately “helsch noosch,” as I had about 17 martinis in me by then. This morning though I find myself with some thoughts rattling around the brain pan and I know from experience that they’ll continue rattling around in there until I excise them. First is the obvious: without their best player and with a walk on playing significant minutes St John’s put a pretty good scare in a senior laden projected 11 seed on their home floor on Senior Day. Not quite a moral victory but pretty remarkable nonetheless. And in fact had Marvin Clark exerted one or two more nanojoules on a three that he front rimmed with St John’s down 50-47 with two minutes left the outcome might have been different, because Providence looked to be looking to give the game away. Whether they were playing down to their competition or St John’s was playing up to theirs or whether St John’s record isn’t what their record says they are depends I guess on your your perspective. Mine is that they’re better than their record says they are: that absent some player defections (Lovett and Wilson) and some inexplicable awful early season performances (a 20-point home loss to Providence; a 20-point home loss to DePaul) and a bounce here or there (the double OT loss to Georgetown) they’d be firmly on the tournament bubble. Which is pretty remarkable considering the circumstances. That’s not to minimize the disaster that this season has turned out to be and especially the losing streak, but to put it in perspective. Barring a miracle in the BE tournament losing three out of their last four makes them I think a long shot for an NIT bid but on the bright side I think they’ve assured themselves a pretty good seed in the CBI, if there is a CBI any more. Because even if they beat Georgetown Wednesday night – not out of the realm of possibility if Ponds plays, but as bad as Georgetown is they’re a bad match-up, that 12 hour turn around is a lot to overcome. If not, wait till next year bums.

PLAYERS: Justin Simon had 13 points, nine assists and six rebounds but that was overshadowed by his ten turnovers. I realize he’s a natural three playing point guard but that doesn’t excuse the cavalcade of boneheaded passes he threw and it’s not like its the first time: he’s good for three or four a game. For the record the record this year for turnovers a game belongs to Trae Young, the projected number one pick in the NBA draft. Which puts Simon in some pretty good company. … Clark had 14 points and six rebounds before fouling out for the ninth time this year. That might be a record too but I can’t be arsed to look it up … Oft maligned Bashir Ahmed had his usual game: 12 points, seven rebounds and three steals; I predict that next year some of you will think at some point, wow I wish Bashir Ahmed had had another year of eligibility …. Tariq Owens had 12 points, all of them in the first half … Amar Alibegiwitz – the gem of Steve Lavin’s 2104 recruiting class, a class which comprised Amar and Keith Thomas, whose forged transcript was passed to a Lavin assistant in a darkened parking lot by a since convicted felon – finally fulfilled the promise he showed when I pronounced him as potentially the best white player at St Johns since Phil Missere: he played yeoman’s defense and didn’t embarrass himself too badly on offense. I take back every bad thing I ever said about him except a couple of the really egregious ones. In all seriousness, one of the things I don’t understand about how Mullin has gone about things this year is his not being able to steal a few minutes here and there with Amar and Yawke. Yes, they stink. But as a teacher you’re supposed to find ways to get the best out of even your worst students. Here I think Mullin failed miserably …. Speaking of Yawke he did not play, coach’s decision. Ostensibly he had some sort of gastrointestinal issue, but he sat on the bench the whole game and unless his diaper was full and he changed it at half time he didn’t look to be in great distress …. Brian Trimble played two minutes, got yanked for missing a defensive assignment and was never heard from again. Scuttlebutt has it that in a fit of pique he refused to go back in the game thereafter; to quote Bartleby  the Scrivener, “I would prefer not to,” he said. Which if that’s the case, kid’s today. Imagine being a chubby three star recruit who’s privileged to be sitting ten feet away from two of the greatest basketball players who ever lived who are mentoring you in your chosen profession and you defy their authority because you’re butthurt. The mind boggles. When Chris Obekpa refused Steve Lavin’s invitation to enter an NIT game in 2014, that I could understand: Obekpa was a grinning sociopath and Lavin a buffoon worthy of no one’s respect. Trimble on the other hand seems like a good kid who was this year given an opportunity beyond his current abilities and Chris Mullin is Chris Mullin. My immediate reaction was: if what allegedly happened happened, don’t let the door hit you, because you abandoned your team mates and defied the coach’s authority, which if this was war time he’d have been shot for it. This isn’t war time though, it’s university and in light of day shooting him seems a bit drastic, as does revoking his scholarship. What doesn’t seem drastic is having his fat ass run up and down the bleachers until he pukes … Someone called Justin Cole performed admirably in his stead.

NOTES: I watched the game with good old missus fun, who had a couple of comments worth noting. First she asked why, if Ed Cooley goes to the trouble of having his shirts custom made he doesn’t go to the trouble of doing something about the back of his head. He could shave it she said, or get a piece or use some of that spray-on hair. To that I had no answer, except that perhaps he doesn’t care what people think of him when he’s leaving, only when he’s arriving. She also requested that I fast forward through the half time show, because “life’s too short to listen to Steve Lavin.” And having evidently caught up on her reading she asked whether I was really going to retire after this season and looked vaguely disappointed when I said that that was my current mindset. I’d like to think that she enjoys reading my ramblings but in truth I think she looks forward to my retiring to the library for a couple of hours three times a week, because believe it or not I can sometimes be a bit of a long day. There was a time when she’d have looked forward to our spending more quality time together. Alas, it seems those days are gone.

A couple of weeks ago in the midst of St John’s losing streak Post beat writer Zach Braziller – and this is not to take a gratuitous shot at Braziller, but to piggy back on something I wrote last time about the shortcomings of real time expression of half formed thoughts  – tweeted that there were myriad issues plaguing the program, including “coaching.” As bored as I am by the anti-Mullin contingent in various SJU fan forums at least they’re consistent: they slam Mullin whether he beats Dook or loses to DePaul. This though I thought cheap and opportunistic, because ZB wasn’t criticizing Mullin’s coaching when the team was 10-2. When I pressed ZB, asking him what exactly were Mullin’s shortcomings he back peddled, claiming that I’d taken what he said out of context. Which I hadn’t but whatever. Yesterday Brazziller tweeted that “With a minute left, St. John’s trailed by 5 and opted not to foul. These are the kind of late-game decision that we’ve seen all year and are perplexing.” Now, is that really perplexing? You’re down two possessions with 60 seconds left. If you foul and they make their free throws you’re down three possessions with 60 seconds left. How does that improve your prospects for winning? To me if you’re down five with 60 seconds left – and remember that SJU came back from down five just this week with 15 seconds left – you play aggressive defense and hope for a steal or a stop: it’s not like Dean Smith’s out there running the four corners, there’s a shot clock. I’m not saying that’s the only strategy there is, but it’s hardly perplexing. What was perplexing to me was not taking a shot down the court down four with four seconds left. Probably Providence wouldn’t have offered any resistance, but maybe, just maybe Providence has a player as dumb as the many players St John’s has who’ve fouled the three point shooter in the waning seconds of a basketball game and maybe they get lucky. Because – and you might want to write this down – you’ll never get anywhere in life underestimating the stupidity of the other guy. Personally I think the criticism of Mullin’s coaching over blown: it’s not the coaching people don’t like, it’s the system. The same fans who’ve been lamenting for years the walk it up the floor offense St John’s has played since times antediluvian are now when confronted with an NBA style of play pining for Carmine Calzonetti running Lou’s half court offense. Well, I’m not. I mean sure Mullin’s no Mike Schrewshrenski or Doug McDermott’s father, but there’s not a lot of geniuses in the coaching ranks. What I see when I see Mullin on the sidelines is an engaged coach doing the best he can under the circumstances – some of which are his fault, sure. But what I’m most struck by is that he looks like he’s having a good time, despite the results. He looks happy. I think he looks happy because he loves St John’s basketball and his happiness makes me happy, because so do I.