Big East previews: Will St. John's legend Mullin be their savior?
NEW YORK -- Joe Oliva, the interim athletics director at St. John's, thought bringing Hall of Famer Chris Mullin home to coach his alma mater was a pipe dream.
Oliva considered, "Maybe I'm caught up in my own glory days." After all, Oliva chose to attend St. John's after watching Mullin lead the Johnnies to the 1985 Final Four. Now he was in the process of vetting the greatest player in university history. Oliva only had one concern? Did Mullin really want to coach.
"The more time I spent talking to him, the more I was impressed with his plan for St. John's,'' Oliva told FOXSports.com. "He was meticulous. He had thought of every aspect of the program. That's when I began to think we just might be able to do this. He wanted the weekend to think it over and I wanted to be respectful of that. But I kept waiting for the phone to ring.''
It rang the afternoon of March 30.
"He said, 'This is Coach Mullin calling,''' said Oliva. "I'm not sure I recall what he said after that.''
Mullin has said, and done, all the right things since returning to the campus where he gave new meaning to the term gym rat. He's gotten commitments from several of the most highly-touted prep players in the New York metropolitan area. Keeping local players at home had become a lost art at St. John's. Mullin has been a maestro.
But this season, he has six freshmen and six players from Europe and Africa. Mullin's coach, the legendary Lou Carnesecca, swung by to check out the roster. When Mullin asked his thoughts, Carnesecca quipped, "League of Nations," and left.
At Big East media day at Madison Square Garden, Mullin fielded a series of questions about the potential of the players on his ridiculously young roster. After a third name was brought up, Mullin fixed his aquamarine eyes on the reporter and issued his most passionate response.
"It's all about preparation,'' Mullin said. "If you know you've done the work and you know you're prepared, that's where your confidence comes from. First, we gotta see which of these guys are willing to do the work.''
Mullin will have to work overtime. He has only three players -- Amar Alibegogic, Christin Jones and Felix Balamou -- with real game experience at St. John's, which was voted 10th in the league coach's preseason poll. He has commitments from power forward Kassoum Yakwe and guard Shamorie Ponds but it will be at least a year before they don a St. John's jersey.
Memo to Yakwe and Ponds: Start doing the work.
