St. John's gets its man in Chris Mullin

— -- NEW YORK -- St. John's can't be certain that Chris Mullin can connect with recruits or coach basketball as well as he played it at the college and pro level.

But, gratefully, hiring him as the program's next basketball head coach should finally give the school its answer about whether it can re-create the heyday of Lou Carnesecca, or move on already. And it's about time.

Just-departed Steve Lavin wasn't able to survive beyond five years in the St. John's nostalgia machine, and remember, he was an experienced coach who was no stranger to operating in the shadow of a legend. He was the seventh coach to follow John Wooden at UCLA. The previous six averaged only 3½ seasons.

It's true Lavin didn't exactly wake up the echoes at Madison Square Garden, where the Johnnies play some of their games, or the campus arena that's now named after Carnesecca. But Lavin's teams did make the NCAA tournament two times (including this season), along with two trips to the NIT. Nobody has accused him of the ugliness that shadowed, say, the Mike Jarvis regime by its end.

Lavin sent players to the pros. St. John's was compassionate toward him during the season as he recovered from a bout with cancer. Their parting Friday seemed as professionally handled as such things go, even though at the start of their negotiations there were erroneous media reports that Lavin, who went 21-12 this season, was actually negotiating an extension and not an exit package.

But Lavin was never Carnesecca. Not even close. Factions at St. John's still saw Lavin as a West Coast guy, an outsider, and they balked at that as much as his tepid postseason success. And the same will be true of everyone who takes the job except Mullin, or his former St. John's teammate Mark Jackson.

Two sources said Monday that Mullin was the first and only person St. John's reached out to about the job, unworried that he had zero head-coaching experience on his résumé despite plenty of NBA front-office experience with the Golden State Warriors and Sacramento Kings. Carnesecca isn't worried about it, either.

"I'm just delighted, and I think a lot of people feel the same way," Carnesecca told ESPN's Ian O'Connor. "I think this is the most popular choice ever at St. John's."

"We talked, and you have to understand this is a big thing for Chris, a major, major step," Carnesecca said. "Now it's a vocation. This is no longer a job, it's a vocation.

"I told Chris, 'This decision has to be what you feel in your heart. But I don't want you to be one of those guys who said, "I should have taken it when I had the chance."' People have to be patient, because the barn is empty."

On a lot of levels, the hiring makes sense for St. John's. But for all those wondering why this move makes sense for Mullin, there's an easy answer: His influence in the Kings' organization clearly diminished in recent months.

Mullin has been serving as an adviser to new Kings owner Vivek Ranadive, whom he knew from their days with Golden State, where Ranadive was a minority-share owner.

Mullin actually was offered the chance to coach the Kings last December after they fired Mike Malone, but he balked, preferring to start fresh next season with a full training camp and his own staff if he took the job at all. Rather than wait, Ranadive and the Kings hired George Karl instead, and now have Vlade Divac installed as vice president of basketball and franchise operations -- a title that covers just about, well, everything.

And Mullin knew a power shift when he saw one.

So the timing at St. John's was finally right for Mullin, and it was right for St. John's, as well.

What Mullin will find upon arrival -- and what he surely must already know, given his continued relationship with the university and Carnesecca -- is that St. John's is no longer the place it was when he lead the Johnnies to the Final Four in 1985 with Jackson, Bill Wennington and Walter Berry.

New York City's reputation as a scholastic basketball gold mine has outlasted the reality that the local talent has slipped a bit, too. And after all the musical chairs among college conferences, the Big East ain't what it used to be, either.

Not that all of that always feels as though it's sunk in at St. John's.

The reports in recent days that some St. John's boosters had genuine aspirations of going after Louisville's Rick Pitino -- as if they could get him, or muster the millions it would take -- ignored this very uncomfortable fact: Could a Catholic university really overlook how Pitino admitted to police that he paid for an abortion for a woman with whom he'd had an extramarital encounter after meeting her in a bar? A woman who was later convicted of trying to extort him? Even an overture was beyond unlikely; even mentioning Pitino as a St. John's candidate with a straight face was delusional.

But here's part of what was in play with the pursuit of Mullin:

"The feeling at the campus is they [St. John's administrators] wanted to significantly propel the university forward with this hire," a St. John's insider said Monday. "The challenge remains in that there are a lot of people in the fan base and alumni base who are opinionated about the program, but don't give $5, never mind $5,000 or $50,000.

"Where Chris has the big advantage over just about anyone is, I think he can really galvanize the entire university community. If there's a person that can pull all of those things together, it's him. When he gets there, they're not going to tell him, 'You can't have an extra 50 grand' to hire a specific assistant coach. If he says, 'We need a charter airplane, even to go to Jersey,' there needs to be support for him inside of the university and out.

"The decision has to be made that if he fails," the source continued, "it can't be because they didn't give them all the support. So maybe this does wake up the program and all the Wall Street guys and other alums, all the 50- to 60-year-olds that remember Chris and now will rally with financial support. Because Chris' return has to be about getting those guys on board, too. It can't just be about nostalgia." Are those kind of whales even out there for St. John's? "We're about to find out," the insider laughed. "This is a Hail Mary."

A lot of college programs -- especially basketball-only places like St. John's -- think the glory days are just their next hire away. And there's nothing wrong with that. St. John's urban campus isn't the attraction that some other places are. But the 51-year-old Mullin does have a lot going for him. He's a Naismith Hall of Famer, not just the best player St. John's has ever had. His presence should activate the St. John's fan base, if nothing else, and amp up media coverage of the team.

Mullin's name might not have much resonance at first glance for today's high school players who never saw him play. But his résumé -- two-time Olympic gold medalist, three-time Big East Player of the Year, NBA All-Star who still has current NBA connections -- will be a plus once he gets in the door or texts them his credentials.

As it is for a lot of rookie coaches, much will depend on Mullin surrounding himself with assistants who can recruit like crazy and pitch in with strategy and developing players.

For now, it's a fair question to ask if Mullin is really willing to pound the pavement, if he has the extremism to live the job 24/7 and the charisma to be the closer who walks into a recruit's living room and seals the deal. But he was a cerebral player and there's no reason to think he can't be the same as a coach. Maybe he will be great at this new gig, too.

Either way, St. John's finally gets to confront its past head on, rather than feel frozen in it. Mullin will either revive the glory days at St. John's or put the unrequited longing for Looie and his homegrown stars to bed already.

In that way alone, this hiring already is a good move.