SEEING RED, AGAIN
Rivals old and new: Anderson has St. John’s stabilized and ready to wage Garden battles with UConn men
St. John’s promising season ended in disappointment in 2019 and the school painfully parted ways with one of its legends, coach Chris Mullin. The search for his replacement ran into dead ends until a prominent booster, Mike Repole, went on WFAN-AM to call it a “national embarrassment.”
The men’s basketball program had New York’s attention, all right, but for all the wrong reasons.
On the sidelines, meanwhile, was a coach with vast experience, a programbuilder who had never had a losing season. Mike Anderson accepted the New York challenge, and brought a steady hand for troubled times.
“What you try to bring in is, a calmness, an even keel,” Anderson said. “You’re starting off, starting over again for the most part. … The first thing I did, I got in and I got a chance to sit down with our players. Those were the most important recruits, the guys that were coming back. I had to re-recruit them.”
During 2019-20, Anderson’s first season, the Red Storm started out well, hit bumps in the road when Big East play started, then finished with wins over Creighton, Marquette and Georgetown over the last four games, before the conference tournament was called off due to the coronavirus. They were 17-15, making it 18 seasons in a row of .500 or better for Anderson.
“We started off as one team, and we finished off as another type of team,” Anderson said. “We played well early on, and then in conference play, boom, we got