There are a lot of times when I pretty much stand my ground and have been called a positoid or someone who claims every day is sunny etc. I also threw caution to the wind when RU was supposedly getting smoked in recruiting on a local scale because SJU was doing their usual thing and suddenly Seton Hall secured a Top 25 recruiting class, aided and fueled by the hire of NYC's AAU Tiny Morton.
Morton was long connected and well respected for his AAU ties for a long time and had been trying to work his way onto a staff at a college for a while. He finally did so, essentially carrying with him, Top prospect NYC guard Isaiah Whitehead, other NYC guard Khadeem Carrington and indirectly, with PF Angel Delgado, whose primary recruiter was O.Antigua at the time...Antigua decided to leave for USF to join his brothers staff soon after the spring signing period and Delgado was signed to SHU.
Meanwhile the hurdles of RU and Eddie Jordan were pretty clear and are still monumental in a much tougher Big Ten than the much different Big East.....but 2 years ago, coming off year 1 after Mike Rice, Seton Hall was on it's way and plenty of fans here were pretty adamant that this type of recruiting was welcome....that RU needed a real coach, with real local connections, since that's the only possible way you can win at RU...you absolutely had to have ties to local AAU's and if necessary, make a deal like SHU did.....some fans and posters here were pretty despondent, but I forewarned and pretty much guaranteed that this would blow up on Seton Hall. Others here responded that "but they have juice and they will be ranked"....!!
I don't know anything about Tiny Morton, have never met him in person but know a handful of people who pretty much told me what the deal was....it's not that he's an evil person but that it wasn't the right fit for him at this level of coaching and eventually a school that agreed to it, would have to figure out a way to get rid of him as soon as he was hired.
So now SHU was ranked, had juice early last year and ended the 2014 year beating SJU and was ranked...after that and Morton and other things behind the scenes started "happening", SHU season and locker room fractured, erupted, exploded or whatever description you can think of.....kids transferred in the midst of the season (Sina) and other alpha dogs (Gibbs) who was on his way to an all Big East 1st team season prior to Morton and Whitehead arriving, got derailed when he was not named captain and wasn't catered to as he was prior to Morton and Whitehead arriving.
So, the people I know turned out to be right on this one....not that they are right every time, but I cannot be everywhere, but I knew enough contacts that essentially guaranteed this would happen....guarantee is a strong word, but many RU fans were up in arms on how they were "taking over".
When you fast forward just a few months, which included a SHU whitewash of a depleted RU backcourt at the Rock as part of this SHU revival, things appear to be drastically different now. With Morton essentially bailing out right before the school year starts and probably headed back to safer pastures in NYC, he leaves SHU....when is Whitehead's decision coming is the next guess.
Perhaps Whitehead is better off without Morton and the same for whomever else is left at SHU. Maybe Whitehead accepts the coaching of Willard and Shaheen now that Morton is out of the way and locker room. It has to be better than Morton distracting things there.
I'm only posting this because we have had a handful of posters stay the course and understand that the quick fix and flashy hires don't always work....cutting corners definitely doesn't work and winning the media battles and hype, eventually wears off. If there was anytime to understand that, it's now. Because if Whitehead stays and burns another season at SHU, he almost has to have a great year....if not, Willard is certainly done and will take the blame for not only mismanagement of the best roster they've had in a long time, but potentially losing 2 all Big East guards to departure, or underperformance which is the path for Whitehead right now.
Not to add fuel to the fire, but at the same time all of this was going on, RU struggled mightily....we hired a former NJ coach, who didn't win big as a Head Coach in Shoes Vetrone, essentially to snickers and laughing behind the scenes and also had some fans buying into the hype that this was another terrible hire by RU, because some SHU fans and others believed it was......it turns out that not only was that 100% WRONG, but Vetrone has been lights out in recruiting and revived a staff that perhaps needed that boost. Shoes and Van Macon have sustained and elevated their games in the last year, without a lot of fanfare or hype.
I don't know what will happen at SHU, personally this is addition by subtraction, but if they avoided Morton altogether, they probably finish up with Gibbs this year as BE Preseason Player of the year, still have Sina as complimentary guard and maybe they land Delgado anyway and perhaps Carrington as well, since I don't think he was joined at the hip of Morton or Whitehead.....
Now Gibbs is at UConn, Morton exits, Sina is out and perhaps Whitehead is headed out the door next.....I would rarely say I told you so, unless the people I knew completely believed it....but for those who said RU was destined to fail yet again, etc. etc...and SHU was on a fast track with SJU, I said, wait it out, things are not what they appear to be.....let's see what happens from here.
Morton was long connected and well respected for his AAU ties for a long time and had been trying to work his way onto a staff at a college for a while. He finally did so, essentially carrying with him, Top prospect NYC guard Isaiah Whitehead, other NYC guard Khadeem Carrington and indirectly, with PF Angel Delgado, whose primary recruiter was O.Antigua at the time...Antigua decided to leave for USF to join his brothers staff soon after the spring signing period and Delgado was signed to SHU.
Meanwhile the hurdles of RU and Eddie Jordan were pretty clear and are still monumental in a much tougher Big Ten than the much different Big East.....but 2 years ago, coming off year 1 after Mike Rice, Seton Hall was on it's way and plenty of fans here were pretty adamant that this type of recruiting was welcome....that RU needed a real coach, with real local connections, since that's the only possible way you can win at RU...you absolutely had to have ties to local AAU's and if necessary, make a deal like SHU did.....some fans and posters here were pretty despondent, but I forewarned and pretty much guaranteed that this would blow up on Seton Hall. Others here responded that "but they have juice and they will be ranked"....!!
I don't know anything about Tiny Morton, have never met him in person but know a handful of people who pretty much told me what the deal was....it's not that he's an evil person but that it wasn't the right fit for him at this level of coaching and eventually a school that agreed to it, would have to figure out a way to get rid of him as soon as he was hired.
So now SHU was ranked, had juice early last year and ended the 2014 year beating SJU and was ranked...after that and Morton and other things behind the scenes started "happening", SHU season and locker room fractured, erupted, exploded or whatever description you can think of.....kids transferred in the midst of the season (Sina) and other alpha dogs (Gibbs) who was on his way to an all Big East 1st team season prior to Morton and Whitehead arriving, got derailed when he was not named captain and wasn't catered to as he was prior to Morton and Whitehead arriving.
So, the people I know turned out to be right on this one....not that they are right every time, but I cannot be everywhere, but I knew enough contacts that essentially guaranteed this would happen....guarantee is a strong word, but many RU fans were up in arms on how they were "taking over".
When you fast forward just a few months, which included a SHU whitewash of a depleted RU backcourt at the Rock as part of this SHU revival, things appear to be drastically different now. With Morton essentially bailing out right before the school year starts and probably headed back to safer pastures in NYC, he leaves SHU....when is Whitehead's decision coming is the next guess.
Perhaps Whitehead is better off without Morton and the same for whomever else is left at SHU. Maybe Whitehead accepts the coaching of Willard and Shaheen now that Morton is out of the way and locker room. It has to be better than Morton distracting things there.
I'm only posting this because we have had a handful of posters stay the course and understand that the quick fix and flashy hires don't always work....cutting corners definitely doesn't work and winning the media battles and hype, eventually wears off. If there was anytime to understand that, it's now. Because if Whitehead stays and burns another season at SHU, he almost has to have a great year....if not, Willard is certainly done and will take the blame for not only mismanagement of the best roster they've had in a long time, but potentially losing 2 all Big East guards to departure, or underperformance which is the path for Whitehead right now.
Not to add fuel to the fire, but at the same time all of this was going on, RU struggled mightily....we hired a former NJ coach, who didn't win big as a Head Coach in Shoes Vetrone, essentially to snickers and laughing behind the scenes and also had some fans buying into the hype that this was another terrible hire by RU, because some SHU fans and others believed it was......it turns out that not only was that 100% WRONG, but Vetrone has been lights out in recruiting and revived a staff that perhaps needed that boost. Shoes and Van Macon have sustained and elevated their games in the last year, without a lot of fanfare or hype.
I don't know what will happen at SHU, personally this is addition by subtraction, but if they avoided Morton altogether, they probably finish up with Gibbs this year as BE Preseason Player of the year, still have Sina as complimentary guard and maybe they land Delgado anyway and perhaps Carrington as well, since I don't think he was joined at the hip of Morton or Whitehead.....
Now Gibbs is at UConn, Morton exits, Sina is out and perhaps Whitehead is headed out the door next.....I would rarely say I told you so, unless the people I knew completely believed it....but for those who said RU was destined to fail yet again, etc. etc...and SHU was on a fast track with SJU, I said, wait it out, things are not what they appear to be.....let's see what happens from here.
