Iona's Tim Cluess Rejects St. John's Head Coach Job Vacated by Chris Mullin

Iona head men's basketball coach Tim Cluess turned down an offer to be the next head coach at St. John's on Thursday.

According to ESPN.com, Cluess said the following regarding his decision to stay at Iona rather than making the move to his alma mater:

"I would like to start by thanking everyone for all their support. I am truly blessed to have so many people say so many nice things. I am however taking my name out of consideration for the St. John's job.

"When I was unexpectedly contacted by them last week it opened up a flood of emotions. For those of you who have ever lost a loved one you know that there are special places, trinkets and memories that keep them alive in your heart and soul. St. John's was one of those key places where my love for family has been a part of my life since my earliest memories.

"In my heart the thought of reestablishing the connection to my brothers Kevin and Greg through the possible opportunity to coach at St. John's and the chance to help bring back their rich tradition in the process made it hard to walk away from. There comes a point where the reality of the situation becomes more clear and moving forward is what is needed.

"I love my players at Iona and being a coach there and I am truly blessed to be able to do what I love at a place I love. I look forward to continuing to grow the Iona program to higher levels."

Since Chris Mullin stepped down as the head coach at St. John's last week, three coaches are known to have turned down the opportunity to succeed him.

In addition to Cluess, both Arizona State head coach Bobby Hurley and Loyola-Chicago head coach Porter Moser declined to take the vacant position.

The 60-year-old Cluess is a Queens, New York, native who played at St. John's from 1979 to 1981 before he transferred to Hofstra.

Cluess' brothers, Greg and Kevin, both played at St. John's as well. Greg died of lymphoma at age 26 in 1976, and Kevin was 33 when he died of leukemia in 1986.

For the past nine seasons, Cluess has been the head coach at Iona. He owns a 199-108 record with four Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference regular-season championships and five MAAC tournament championships.

The Gaels have made six NCAA tournament appearances, two trips to the NIT and one trip to the CIT during Cluess' tenure. They have qualified for the NCAA tournament in each of the past four seasons and have not finished with a record worse than 17-16 under him.

While Iona has yet to win an NCAA tournament game with Cluess at the helm, few small-conference teams have gone to the tourney as regularly as the Gaels have during his time with the program.

St. John's has somewhat surprisingly proved to be a difficult job to sell candidates on. That is despite the fact that the Red Storm went 21-13 and reached the NCAA tournament last season.

The Red Storm finished below .500 in each of the previous two seasons, though, and went just 59-73 under Mullin.