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St. John’s hires Chris Mullin: Can he turn the program around?

By Andrew Ross

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St. John’s has found the man they want to lead the team into the future by hiring Chris Mullin as the team’s new head coach. 

The world of sports often moves fast, and the St. John’s basketball program has been incredibly busy over the past few days in regards to their head coaching position.

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A few days ago, news broke that the Red Storm and former head coach Steve Lavin had agreed to part ways. Lavin led St. John’s to a 81-55 overall record in his five seasons with the team. Lavin had three seasons with at least 20 wins with the school, and the last time they even had one 20-win season prior to him coaching was 2002-2003. Lavin was entering the final year of his deal with the Red Storm, and it looks like business got in between a pretty successful relationship. It happens.

St. John’s didn’t wait long to have an extensive search for their new coach, but instead they reportedly offered the job to former Red Storm star Chris Mullin’s yesterday. Well, those reports were spot on, because Mullin’s has accepted the job and is now the new head coach of St. John’s men’s basketball program.

Que the I’m Coming Home billboards.

Mullin’s played at St. John’s during 1981-1985, and he’s arguably the greatest player in the school’s history. In his time as a Red Storm, Mullin’s racked up numerous accolades including being named Big East Player of the Year and an All-American three times and winning the John R. Wooden Award. Mullin’s averaged 19.5 points over his career at St. John’s which was good enough to make him the program’s all-time leading scorer at 2,440 points, and he also led the Red Storm to the Final Four in 1985.

All of that is incredible and it’s tough to find a better college career, but how much will it mean to players he is trying to recruit? Mullin’s name carries some weight in the sports world, but he will never get huge recognition like a lot of other stars. Heck, there are probably a lot of times where Mullin’s can go live his everyday life and no one would recognize him. The players that he will be going after will have been born after his prime days at St. John’s, so hopefully for his sake there are a lot of die-hard Red Storm players that know the program’s history and realize how big of a deal Mullin’s really is. Mullin’s should have no problem dealing with parents as he is recruiting players, because many of them will for sure know and respect (and probably admire) Mullin’s if they are Red Storm followers or alumni.

Mullin’s does not have any head coaching experience, but that doesn’t mean that he is going into this completely clueless. After his NBA career, he was hired to be a special assistant for the Golden State Warriors, and he later became the Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations for the team. After his tenure in the Golden State front office, Mullin’s became an advisor for the Sacramento Kings.

Hopefully Mullin’s will be a long-time success with the Red Storm with his mix of front office experience and already having a legendary status at St. John’s.

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