Hewitt The Answer To A St. John's Rebuild

If you ask a college basketball fan to name the 5 winningest programs in the sport's history, you're going to hear some of the usual suspects. Kentucky, Kansas, North Carolina, Duke, UCLA, Indiana are all in the top 12 and boast multiple national championships. But sitting there at #7 (ahead of UCLA and Indiana thank you very much) is a school that no one from my generation would guess unless they already knew the answer.

St. Johns once ruled New York city college basketball and went to the Final Four in 1985. They dominated the area by keeping local kids at home with tradition and the opportunity to play at Madison Square Garden and on TV in the area. But in an era where everyone is on TV and the players they're recruiting can't remember a time when the Johnnies made the NCAA tournament on a consistent basis, a change is necessary.

The last few hires have been names from smaller schools (Jarvis and Frachilla) or assistants from big time programs (Roberts) but not established names. The administration can reach out to all the Billy Donovans and Rick Pitinos they want just for show, to placate fans who want a big name, but if the end result is a middling type coach, then the program is just treading water.

The coaching search this year again has some less than inspiring names. The obsession with "upside" has come into the coaching ranks. Names like Kevin Willard of Iona, Fran McCaffery of Siena and Tom Pecora of Hofstra (recently hired by Fordham) are coaches whose upsides are another candidate's resume. The administration wants someone with NCAA tournament success and who understands New York. This is where Hewitt comes in.

Hewitt was born in Queens, played his college ball at St. John Fisher and was formerly an assistant at Fordham and head coach at Siena (who he took to the NCAA tournament). In his 10 years at Georgia Tech, he has been a recruiting force and went to the Final Four in 2004 while making the tournament 4 other times in an extremely competitive ACC. Those are the kinds of credentials that a school like St. Johns should demand. St. Johns will have a senior laden team in 2010-2011, while only losing oft-injured leading scorer Anthony Mason Jr. This should give Hewitt time to make a recruiting mark. Hopefully, the rebuilding can finally start for real.