Excellent Interview with The Johnnies New Coach

[Herman Cain]

Lots of good things happening for The Johnnies and Mike Anderson

https://nypost.com/2019/07/17/mike-andersons-first-impression-of-his-st-johns-team/

[GooooMarquette]

Anderson had a really nice run at Mizzou, but his performance at Arkansas was pretty mediocre.

He will be better for SJU than Mullin (not a very high bar as a coach), but I doubt they become a BE contender anytime soon.

[#UnleashSean]

Are there any interviews that aren't excellent?

[GoldenWarrior11]

St. John's really lucked out with their head coaching search.  They got turned down by Bobby Hurley (who I am guessing now regrets that decision since his brother Dan and UConn is now returning to the Big East), Tim Cluess (who may or not have been offered, Porter Moser and even Ryan Odom at VCU.  Anderson has taken every program to the tournament, and has never had a losing season as a head coach (pretty remarkable).  His consistency will actually immensely help St. John's, since they have been so up and down over the past twenty years.

[Herman Cain]

St. John's really lucked out with their head coaching search.  They got turned down by Bobby Hurley (who I am guessing now regrets that decision since his brother Dan and UConn is now returning to the Big East), Tim Cluess (who may or not have been offered, Porter Moser and even Ryan Odom at VCU.  Anderson has taken every program to the tournament, and has never had a losing season as a head coach (pretty remarkable).  His consistency will actually immensely help St. John's, since they have been so up and down over the past twenty years.

I agree with this analysis.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Anderson strikes me as a high floor,  low ceiling type hire. Should have SJU competitive in two or three seasons. Not sure that he'll ever have them more than competitive

[TheTulsaWarrior]

With that Tulsa connection, I've followed Anderson for a long time.  He's a quality individual and St. John's lucked out.  He's the kind of hire I would have liked to have seen at Marquette over the years.  It would have been the perfect marriage of personality, recruiting chops, game management, and institutional resources.  He's a Nolan Richardson clone with a smoother demeanor to the general public.  While he's had success I don't think he's ever had the absolute right fit to reach his top potential.

[Mr. Sand-Knit]

Huge fan of Anderson

[4everwarriors]

Are there any interviews that aren't excellent?

Like surgery, its all successful, aina?

[GooooMarquette]

Anderson strikes me as a high floor,  low ceiling type hire. Should have SJU competitive in two or three seasons. Not sure that he'll ever have them more than competitive

Based on his performances at Mizzou and Arkansas, I agree with this analysis. They never totally sucked, nor did they achieve any consistent success.

[Uncle Rico]

Based on his performances at Mizzou and Arkansas, I agree with this analysis. They never totally sucked, nor did they achieve any consistent success.

It's a quick fix hire.  Hope to catch lightning in a bottle.  If he got them into a couple of tournaments with middling results, I'm not sure the difference between him and Steve Lavin.  Hard for me to believe they can't find a solid, motivated east coast guy for that job. 

[Herman Cain]

It's a quick fix hire.  Hope to catch lightning in a bottle.  If he got them into a couple of tournaments with middling results, I'm not sure the difference between him and Steve Lavin.  Hard for me to believe they can't find a solid, motivated east coast guy for that job.

The coach has a consistent track record of success. No losing season ever 369 wins 64.5 winning percentage and 9 tournaments made in 17 years.

https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/coaches/mike-anderson-1.html

[The Sultan]

Anderson may end up being decent but his tenure at Arkansas was very much a disappointment and looked very much like a coach who was past his peak. Just like Nolan Richardson's last few years there.

I mean the same person who thinks this was a good hire accuses Wojo supporters of having "Stockholm Syndrome?" 🤔🤔🤔

[Uncle Rico]

The coach has a consistent track record of success. No losing season ever 369 wins 64.5 winning percentage and 9 tournaments made in 17 years.

https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/coaches/mike-anderson-1.html

Yup.  Very Steve Lavin-like without as many Sweet 16 appearances

[HutchwasClutch]

I think he's an underrated hire.  Goodman trashed it for one.  But he had very good runs at Missouri and UAB, both challenging places to win at.

I look at his Arkansas tenure like Rick following shortly after Al, coaching in a very large shadow of a legend at the school, Richardson.  Very difficult to live up to those expectations and that model has really failed all across major sports landscape. 

But the guy can obviously win and he's done it his whole coaching career .  It's not like he fell on his face at all at Arkansas, but there weren't championships and Final Fours, so he's judged as falling short there.

[shoothoops]

It's very interesting to see the comments here praising Anderson, others saying he is mediocre, and then comparing them with Wojo comments.

At a similar age and first head coaching stop, Anderson was winning the Conference USA league and making a Sweet 16 at UAB. He had the memorable Elite 8 run at Mizzou that was very close to a Final Four. He obviously has had more success than Wojo to this point in their careers. But we will see what Wojo can do this upcoming season, and possibly the next few to several seasons.

On an entirely separate note, Anderson is one of the better people in college basketball. He likely would have stayed at Mizzou a long while if not for the Arkansas opening where he spent much of his life. He has had success if uneven success in his career. He will get St. John's up and running.

My expectations for Marquette are higher than Mike's success over the years.

[GooooMarquette]

On an entirely separate note, Anderson is one of the better people in college basketball.

Having been in the stands in Boise for the MU-Mizzou game, I disagree. I watched as JT Tiller fell to the floor, got up looking fine, and then started writhing in pain after Anderson yelled something to him from the bench. And voila - Tiller is "injured" so Anderson can put in a better FT shooter. But the icing on the cake was when Anderson sent Tiller back to the scorer's table to come back in while Kim English was standing at the line ready to take (and make) the FTs for Tiller.

I get that the rule at the time allowed a coach to choose a substitute FT shooter for an injured player. But it did not anticipate a coach telling a player to "be injured" so he could be subbed out, and then magically recover within seconds to come back in following the FTs.

If telling a player to writhe in pain and then magically recover defines "one of the better people in college basketball" for you, it tells me you think the bar is awfully low.

[The Sultan]

Comparing Mike Anderson to Rick Majerus makes no sense at all.  Anderson was a 10 year head coach when he took over at Arkansas.  Nolan Richardson ended his tenure poorly and two coaches took over for him in the meantime.  The situation is nothing like Rick had at Marquette.

And I am not comparing Anderson's success to Wojo.  Clearly Anderson has been more successful.  But I just find it ironic that the same guy who is praising Mike Anderson is talking about how mediocre Wojo is.  Mike Anderson has been nothing but mediocre his last decade as a head coach.

[Uncle Rico]

Comparing Mike Anderson to Rick Majerus makes no sense at all.  Anderson was a 10 year head coach when he took over at Arkansas.  Nolan Richardson ended his tenure poorly and two coaches took over for him in the meantime.  The situation is nothing like Rick had at Marquette.

And I am not comparing Anderson's success to Wojo.  Clearly Anderson has been more successful.  But I just find it ironic that the same guy who is praising Mike Anderson is talking about how mediocre Wojo is.  Mike Anderson has been nothing but mediocre his last decade as a head coach.

There is no similarity whatsoever between Anderson at Arkansas and Majerus at Marquette.

Entirely possible Anderson does well at St. John's but it's not a hire that is a long term hire

[HutchwasClutch]

Comparing Mike Anderson to Rick Majerus makes no sense at all.  Anderson was a 10 year head coach when he took over at Arkansas.  Nolan Richardson ended his tenure poorly and two coaches took over for him in the meantime.  The situation is nothing like Rick had at Marquette.

There are certainly similarities - long time assistants to the greatest head coaches in each schools history whose only national championship was won by them.  They became head coaches at their schools roughly within same timeframe as legend they coached under, Rick 6 years after Al and Anderson 9 years after Richardson and neither were immediate successors. 

Just because circumstances weren't exact, which I never said they were, doesn't discount the parallels.  Both had enormous expectations because of legendary coach they had strong ties with and then couldn't live up to following that level of success. They were both supposed to bring back the glory days of their schools because of ties to the legends and didn't. 

The fact that Richardson's tenure didn't end well doesn't take away at all from what he accomplished there and enormous shadow he leaves for all who follow.   

[The Sultan]

There are similarities. That's about it. Mike Anderson was an experienced head coach at a well funded program when he took over at Arkansas. And he was mediocre.

Rick was inexperienced and had other issues with the program he had to deal with.

[brewcity77]

I think he's an underrated hire.  Goodman trashed it for one.  But he had very good runs at Missouri and UAB, both challenging places to win at.

Anderson could work out. I think he's a decent coach, and frankly think the Johnnies backed into something far better than the trainwreck process would've been expected to produce.

[The Sultan]

Anderson could work out. I think he's a decent coach, and frankly think the Johnnies backed into something far better than the trainwreck process would've been expected to produce.

Agree with this as well. He may end up doing well there.

[GooooMarquette]

If you look hard enough, you can probably find similarities between any two coaches. Bob Dukiet and Al both coached at small Catholic colleges, and then came to Marquette.

And I promise that's the only time I ever use those two names in the same sentence....

[THRILLHO]

Anderson could work out. I think he's a decent coach, and frankly think the Johnnies backed into something far better than the trainwreck process would've been expected to produce.

And honestly, if it doesn't work out, the messed up hiring process provides him with a perfect plausible excuse that it wasn't his fault.