Seton Hall Basketball

The past few years, Seton Hall University has been in the national news, but for all the wrong reasons. Senior guards Keon Lawrence and Jamel Jackson have both been kicked off the team today, according to multiple sources.

Seton Hall's public statement stated the reason for this action was due to "a violation of team rules and an ongoing pattern of conduct unbecoming of a representative of Seton Hall athletics."

Adam Zagoria of SNY reported that both were late for curfew, which was set for 11:00pm this past Thursday night.

This is the second straight year that a player has been kicked off the Seton Hall basketball team. Last year, it was Robert Mitchell who was kicked off the team after robbing a student house at gun point.

Last season was also the year when Herb Pope was ejected in the first round of the NIT when he punched a Texas Tech player below the belt.

The struggles for Seton Hall basketball continue on the court as well. The Pirates are back to being cellar-dwellers after last season started out so promising.

This season did not start any better. The Pirates have had some bad losses—including Rutgers, Dayton and Clemson. 

The Pirates currently stand at 10-14 and 12th in the Big East.

The Pirates are definitely in a rebuilding stage, but expectations were high this season. They had a great Junior and Senior class that was expected to lead the Pirates to an NCAA berth.

So far, injuries and off-the-court incidents like this have diminished the Pirates' hopes of reaching that goal.

The Pirates will have a whole new look next season with at least four or five new recruits coming in. This will be new Head Coach Kevin Willard's first recruiting class since coming to the school.

The clock is ticking for Willard to turn this program around.

According to Eurobasket.com, troubled Seton Hall big man Herb Pope will play in Turkey next year.  Pope reportedly signed with Antayla.

Seton Hall is not expected to be any good this year.  The recent Big East coach's pre-season poll picked the Pirates near the bottom of the conference, 11th overall. 

Without Pope, Seton Hall could battle teams like Rutgers and DePaul to see who finishes last in the Big East.  Pope was one of the top rebounders in the Big East and Seton Hall's only notable frontcourt player.

Pope has been a troubled player in the past.  He is most well known for a below-the-belt blindside punch to Texas Tech's Darko Cohadarevic in last March's NIT.  Pope was ejected from the game and may be forced to serve a suspension to start the 2010-2011 season.

Pope's offensive on court behavior was one of the many problems that Seton Hall suffered under former coach Bobby Gonzalez.  Many feel that Pope's unjustifiable and unacceptable groin punch was the last straw for Gonzalez.

Pope was a highly touted prospect out of high school.  Pope began his career with New Mexico State where he failed to live up to his top 50 projection. 

Last Apri,l Pope entered the hospital for an extended stay that lasted until early June.  Pope was expected to play this season.

Pope averaged 11 points per game last year for Seton Hall.

At this time, sources at Seton Hall are not confirming the Eurobasket.com report.

One of the main problems with the Big East and possible expansion is the hybrid form the conference takes with regard to football and basketball-only members.  No other BCS conference has partial membership like the Big East.

Some believe the solution is to split the conference along basketball and football lines, but that would mean severely weakening the strength of the conference from the view of basketball and major market presence.  Let’s not forget that the Big East is heavily located in the Northeast Corridor, which is also unique in that basketball is king and there are a lot of television sets.  With this in mind, it is apparent that the Big East would like to keep its position of strength in basketball and presence in major metropolitan areas such as New York City, Philadelphia, DC and Chicago.

At the same time it is apparent that the Big East does need to make some move for football.  Whether adding a ninth team for scheduling purposes, or adding more teams to increase quantity of games for their next TV contract, or adding more teams to protect itself if a team like Rutgers defects to the Big Ten, or adding more teams to increase the on-field perception of the league.

So how does a 16-team basketball behemoth add more teams without becoming even more of a mess?  Some people think 16 teams is too big.  What would they think about 20 teams?  And football-only membership does not work, as we all experienced the disaster that was Temple for a dozen years.  But perhaps the league could settle on a 10-team FB/16-team basketball conference with the view of expanding to 12 football/18 basketball teams in the near future.

Solution One: Villanova

It is no secret that Villanova and their FCS national champion FB program has been invited to join the Big East.  And one would wonder why Villanova’s school president and athletic director would make this invitation public and place that pressure on themselves if they did not already know they were going to accept. 

Villanova is in Philadelphia, has a fantastic overall athletic program (more NCAA all-sports national championships than any other Big East team), and has no problem drawing 20,000 fans to a half-dozen basketball games per year.  Logic would tell you that interest in their football team will increase when they join the Big East, and they should be able to build on their already impressive fanbase to reach the 25,000-30,000 fan level. 

No, it is not Penn State, but it is a start, and just as importantly it brings the conference membership to nine football/16 basketball schools.  They also are one of the stronger academic schools in the Big East, which always keeps their fellow school presidents happy (remember, it is school presidents who ultimately decide on conference membership).

Solution Two: TCU

We have all read the recent reports.  The two most plugged-in New York Big East reporters, Lenn Robbins and Dick “Hoops” Weiss, have broke the news that there is some smoke showing in the TCU/Big East discussions, and the Dallas newspapers are starting to confirm as much. 

TCU is another private school like Villanova with a fanbase that has tended to float around 25,000-32,000 fans, and upwards of 35,000-plus fans in this recent boom.  Like Villanova, they are a very strong academic school and also are located in a major media market.  Nobody would ever claim that Villanova or TCU will capture the Philly and Dallas markets, but they get the conference in the door and on some TV sets in those markets, which is a big part of the battle. 

Now there are certainly some complications, like the fact that TCU is located in Texas and we’re talking about the Big EAST.  However, the Big East already extends to Milwaukee, Chicago, Indiana, Kentucky, Tampa and Ohio.  Is Texas really that much further?  Dallas is probably a more accessible location for convenient travel than upstate New York, northeast Connecticut, Kentucky or West Virginia.  And from TCU’s view, they are already a team out of place in the Mountain West Conference.  They put the Big East conference membership at 10 football/17 basketball schools.

Solution Three: Seton Hall

New Jersey journalist and an “in the know” Seton Hall guy, Jerry Carino, has been hinting for a while at the Big East’s displeasure with Seton Hall.  He recently reported that the Big East was beginning to question the financial commitment of Seton Hall towards athletics.  Seton Hall has been slashing athletic funding and currently doesn't even have an athletic director, a position that may remain unfilled for a year.  Their on-field performance is terrible.  They are not just a cellar-dweller in basketball, but in all sports (when they actually field a team). 

Seton Hall has essentially become to the conference what Temple was at the turn of the century that led to Temple being kicked out of the league—a complete embarrassment and money drain.  Seton Hall also offers no new market, as they are a small private school in New Jersey and the Big East already includes the massive state university of New Jersey: Rutgers. 

It is time for the Big East to ask Seton Hall to evaluate what their goals are athletically and how the Big East conference helps them accomplish those goals.  Is Seton Hall being a member of the Big East really better for them than an Atlantic 10 existence similar to a Xavier, Dayton or Saint Joseph’s (PA)?  Xavier is a tournament regular, Dayton packs 12,000 fans into their house per game, and Saint Joseph’s (PA) had a Perfect Season not too long ago.  Meanwhile, PJ Carlesimo and the Rumeal Robinson’s Phantom Foul took place before current recruits were alive, back when George Bush Sr. was in his first year on the job as President.

The rest of the basketball-only Big East schools add something.  Marquette and Georgetown are recent Final Four teams and tournament regulars who put a huge effort into basketball.  Notre Dame is a big TV draw, helps the football side out with bowl game tie-ins, and joins Villanova as the top non-revenue sport school. 

DePaul and St. John’s stink, but you better believe that market presence in New York City and Chicago are one of the first bullet points on any television contract negotiation.  Providence is similar to Seton Hall, but the Big East conference offices are located in Providence, the commissioner is a Providence guy, the former commissioner is a Providence guy, the commissioner before him was a Providence guy, and the league was started by Dave Gavitt who was, you guessed it, a Providence guy.  Providence doesn’t deserve to stay in the Big East, advancing past the first round of the NCAA Tournament only twice since 1974 (1987 and 1997), but they are not going to be asked to leave.

So the story goes: Villanova added to the football side, TCU added to the conference, Seton Hall discovering that they may be more competitive somewhere else and exiting which leaves us with a 10 football/16 basketball team conference.  Not too big on the basketball side, and a lot better set up on the football side.

Then, down the line, if the league wants to add two more football schools they can do so without worrying about bloating the league to 19 or 20 teams.  18 seems like a reasonable number for basketball, and 12 is a perfect number for football.  Maybe Houston or SMU added to continue the Texas footprint with a team like UCF and their Orlando market as a friend for USF?  Maybe Delaware with their strong statewide support and competitive FCS-level team makes the jump?  Maybe UMass or Buffalo are considered? 

The Big East is finally being pro-active, and it all starts with Villanova, TCU and Seton Hall.

- TJ Corbs, tackling the hard hitting issues of the Northeast Corridor.

The New York Times snagged a quote today from one of the Big East's new kids on the block. After all, 27 days on the job is all it takes to suddenly become an expert on your new conference.

"I'll be honest with you...You look at the non-football schools in the league, and they're some of the greatest basketball traditions that you have. You look at the core of what makes the Big East, it's the non-football schools," (NY Times Online, pg. 1).

Kevin Willard, which decade are you referring to? The 1980s, when there were only basketball schools? The 1990s, when your statement probably would have been accurate? You can't be talking about the Big East today or even the league after expansion in 2005.

What Kevin has quickly picked up on, though, is the attitude of the eight private Catholic schools who believe they will thrive without Pitt, West Virginia, and Syracuse and all the problems football brings to their once sacrosanct basketball league.

The two highest ranked programs over the past five years are Pitt and West Virginia. 

The Big East football schools take home about seven million each. The non-football schools net about two and a half million. The competitive disadvantage will most likely continue to keep the best basketball playing football programs on top.

Using Jeff Sagarin's final team rankings for college basketball from 2005-2010, the eight Big East football schools average 60.65 overall. The rankings would be significantly higher if stats for the two bottom dwellers on the list South Florida (135.8) and Rutgers (148) are thrown out.

The eight non-football schools average 63.72. The lowest ranking member in their group is DePaul with 121.2. 

Big East fans have ragged on DePaul. They misfired. They should have taken aim at Rutgers, the school purported to be the Big Ten's lead expansion candidate.

Here's how the 16 teams stack up:

Big East Member	2009-10	2008-09	2007-08	2006-07	2005-06	AVG
Pittsburgh	26	03	19	11	12	14.2
West Virginia	05	18	16	17	18	14.8
Georgetown	21	45	10	06	10	18.4
Villanova	18	10	40	31	05	20.8
Louisville	52	04	08	27	45	27.2
Syracuse	04	13	52	47	34	30
Marquette	36	20	17	44	35	30.4
Connecticut	60	02	28	69	03	32.4
Notre Dame	50	59	22	23	44	39.6
Cincinnati	65	71	107	138	33	82.8
Providence	100	74	79	75	86	82.8
Seton Hall	64	76	103	127	66	87.2
St. John's	68	102	140	126	111	109.4
DePaul	186	182	117	45	76	121.2
USF	72	135	132	154	186	135.8
Rutgers	140	161	191	185	63	148

Willard epitomizes coaches and ADs on the non-football side. Until this past Monday, John Marinatto fell in that group. He had been sleep-walking since the Big Ten announced plans to expand in December.

Paul Tagliabue has some hard work ahead of him. He has to banish the elitist attitudes among the small Catholics and give them reality-based therapy. Without the football schools, the eight Catholics will become another version of the Atlantic 10.

Yes, if the Big East breaks in two the non-football programs will be strong at the top with Villanova, Georgetown and occasionally Notre Dame. However, the league will be considered mid-major, especially if the era of the mega-BCS conferences dawns.

In the past few weeks, successful coaches have left their schools for better jobs, and the failing coaches have been fired. Here is a look some of the coaching changes that have taken place so far in 2010.

Kevin Willard (Iona) to Seton Hall

Kevin Willard brought a once prominent Iona program back to the top of the MAAC. Willard took over for Jeff Ruland in 2007, after the Gaels had a miserable and embarrassing 2-28 season.

Willard led Iona to third place in the MAAC and the school's first 20-win season since 2005-06. Willard finished his time with Iona with a 45-49 record. He has already had some experience in the Big East as an assistant for Rick Pitino. 

Willard was excited to take the job at Seton Hall, but might have some trouble next season. Herb Pope, Jeff Robinson, and Jeremy Hazell have all declared for the NBA Draft. However, none of them hired agents and could still opt to come back to school.

With Bobby Gonzalez, Seton Hall already received commitments from Fuquan Edwin, Eugene McCory, and Jamir Hammer. While at Iona, Willard received commitments from Darius Leonard and David Laury. No information has been disclosed about the current recruiting situation at Seton Hall since Willard arrived.

Steve Lavin (Unemployed) to St. John's

Steve Lavin posted a 145-78 record with UCLA before being fired. Since then, Lavin has been a college basketball analyst at ESPN and has not been coaching at the college level. 

Lavin is extremely enthusiastic about coaching St. John's in Madison Square Garden. He even has hope of bringing St. John's back to the NCAA Tournament in 2011.

Tom Pecora (Hofstra) to Fordham

Tom Pecora will have a tough role in Fordham next season. The Fordham Rams have only won five games in the last two seasons.

After former coach Dereck Whittenburg was fired midseason, star guard Jio Fontan left school to transfer to USC. 

After making the NCAA Tournament and posting a 26-4 record in his first year with Hofstra, Pecora never brought the Pride back to the NCAA Tournament.

However, Pecora has still had four 20-win seasons since then. In 2010, Hofstra finished 18-15, losing in the first round of the CBI to IUPUI. Pecora finished his term with Hofstra with a 181-130 overall record.

For recruiting, the Rams had received verbal commitments from Jayon James, Sean Armand, and Danny Lawhorn. No news has been announced about whether these recruits will play at Fordham for Pecora next season. 

Tim Welsh (Unemployed) to Hofstra

With the Hofstra job open, Tim Welsh jumped at the opportunity to get back into the coaching business. Welsh has already had success with small schools in New York. Welsh was the head coach of Iona for three seasons from 1995-1998.

He made the postseason in all three of those years and finished in first place in the MAAC every season.

Welsh has some New York connections and could definitely bring Hofstra back to the top of the CAA.

Fran McCaffery (Siena) to Iowa

Fran McCaffery had the option of taking the job at Seton Hall. However, he turned down the offer from the Pirates and chose to make a move out to Iowa City, Iowa.

McCaffery is already somewhat famous after bringing Siena to the NCAA Tournament in three straight seasons. McCaffery went to the second round of the NCAA Tournament in 2008 and 2009. He has taken three different teams to the NCAA Tournament (Lehigh, UNC Greensboro, Siena).

Former Iowa coach Todd Lickliter was set to bring in a very good recruiting class for next season. All of the recruits are from the Midwest. McCaffery's recruiting generally stayed no farther west than Pennsylvania.

He will have to work hard this offseason to keep this recruiting class.

Tony Barbee (UTEP) to Auburn

In four years at UTEP, Tony Barbee brought the Miners to the top of Conference USA. UTEP made an appearance in a postseason tournament in each of the last three years. Barbee took the Miners to the NCAA Tournament in 2010. 

Tim Floyd (Unemployed) to UTEP

Tim Floyd has done well at every school he has coached. Floyd never took Idaho State to the postseason, but in his second season, he had it back at the top of the Big Sky Conference.

Floyd then went to New Orleans for six seasons, where he brought his team to the postseason in five seasons. Floyd took a job at Iowa State where he won a game in the NCAA Tournament in three straight seasons. In 2005, Floyd went to USC for four seasons. 

After a year off from coaching, Floyd will return to UTEP, where he was an assistant coach from 1977-1986.

Corliss Williamson (Assistant at Arkansas Baptist) to Arkansas State

Former NBA forward Corliss Williamson has taken a job 45 miles away from his hometown at Arkansas State. Williamson looks to play an up-tempo, full-court pressure style of basketball. 

Arkansas State will be returning all of its stars for the 2010-11 season. 

Schools That Have Vacant Head Coaching Positions

Al Skinner fired from Boston College

After 13 years in Boston, Boston College has let go of Al Skinner.

As of now, the head coaching position is still open, but some candidates have been announced. It has been reported that Steve Donahue (Cornell), Chris Mooney (Richmond), Ed Cooley (Fairfield), Bill Coen (Northeastern), and Tommy Amaker (Harvard) are all candidates for the position at Boston College.

Kevin Willard left Iona for Seton Hall

Kevin Willard ended a quick, three-year stint with Iona for a job at Seton Hall. The Iona job remains open. Fran Fraschilla is the only person who has expressed interest in the job in New Rochelle, New York. 

Fran McCaffery left Siena for Iowa

Fran McCaffery departed from Siena after a successful five year campaign in Loudonville.

The announced candidates for the Siena job are Mitch Bounaguro (Siena assistant), Bill Coen (Northeastern), Steve Donahue (Cornell), and Cliff Warren (Jacksonville). There have also been unconfirmed reports of former St. John's coach Norm Roberts being a candidate for the job.

Check back for more updates on college basketball's coaching changes.

The Seton Hall Pirates targeted Fran McCaffrey to run their basketball program. McCaffrey surprisingly took the job at Iowa.

The word "surprisingly" makes sense with McCaffrey's decision. The thought was he would rather coach at St. John's than coach at a midwestern school.

He looks out of place at Iowa. It's hard to believe he can recruit east coast players to the middle of nowhere, but he welcomes that challenge.

Seton Hall quickly hired Iona coach Kevin Willard yesterday after McCaffrey made his choice.

It came down to them not wanting to be rejected. That's why they decided to hire a coach who wants the job.

It wasn't the way to go. They should have taken their time and interviewed several other guys for the job.

They interviewed Robert Morris' Mike Rice, Vermont's Mike Lonergan, and Willard last week; but other than that, that was it.

It sounded like Dean Hobbs wanted to end this search rather than go on. That's now how a program should be run.

There were other candidates that were better than Willard. Bob McKillop, Chris Richmond, and Steve Donahue should have been interviewed at least.

Ether of those three should have been hired. The Hall felt all of them would have rejected their offer.

So what if they rejected them? It happens. At least the university could tell their fans and their boosters that they tried to get a qualified coach with experience.

Laugh at St. John's for being jilted by Billy Donovan and Paul Hewitt, but at least they are trying to get a coaching star to come to New York. That's all New Yorkers ask out of them.

They won't give up unless a big-name coach agrees on a deal.

Now, the Hall shouldn't have to wait long, but they should have made their decision after three or four weeks. If they felt Willard was the guy after that, then that's fine.

Who knows if Willard is the right choice? Any coach would have been a crapshoot, but Willard could have used several more years of experience at Iona before he got the job.

Two things are going in his favor: He is the son of a successful coach, and he knows the area when it comes to recruiting.

Let's face it: No prominent coach was going to coach this team now and in the future.

The Pirates' coaching job will always be a job for up-and-coming coaches. It will always be a place where coaches look to add on to their resume. If they do well at Seton Hall, they can use their success to go elsewhere or use other schools as a leverage to get a payday.

This is what exactly Tommy Amaker did. He parlayed his success at Seton Hall and went to Michigan. He wanted to be the guy that turned that program around at Ann Arbor, but it didn't worked out too well for him.

Bobby Gonzalez wanted to do that too. It's hard to believe he was going to stay at Seton Hall if he had success there.

His ego wouldn't allow that.

Who knows about Willard? He acts grounded and mature for his age. Maybe he can be to the Hall what Izzo is to Michigan State.

Not only would Willard be a good coach, but he can stay at Seton Hall for life.

It would be nice to get both.

Right now, the Hall would settle for a guy who can coach.

It's one thing for the Hall to make a quick coaching hire by hiring Anne Donovan to run their women's basketball program today. Donovan proved that she is an elite coach.

It's another to go hire an unknown right away.

Hobbs hopes his decisiveness in hiring Williard works out as well his decisiveness in hiring Donovan.

Earlier today, Seton Hall's Herb Pope announced his decision to enter the 2010 NBA Draft.

At 6'8" and 236 pounds, Pope, who played his sophomore year with the Pirates after transferring from New Mexico State, is a special talent. The agile big man led the Big East in rebounding with 10.7 boards per game, and an NBA GM told ESPN.com that Pope is "the best rebounder in the country."

On the defensive end, the forward averaged 1.8 blocks per game and can use his long arms to deny entry passes to the post.

Pope runs the floor extremely well for a player his size and flourished in Bobby Gonzalez's up-tempo offensive game plan, scoring many of his points in transition. With Jeremy Hazell leading the Pirates' attack, Pope was not Hall's first option but still averaged 11.5 points per game.

His offensive game definitely needs to improve if he wants to be successful at the next level. In the NBA, Pope will need to be able to play with his back to the basket. He currently is decent in the post, but will not be able to accomplish much against the trees of the NBA unless he improves.

With a decent mid-range stroke, Pope can extend his range to beyond the arc, where he shot an impressive nine-of-21 last season. 

Pope has yet to hire an agent despite stating, "I am 110 percent committed at this time to staying in this draft." If he doesn't hire an agent, he can elect to return to Seton Hall for his junior year.

Jeff Robinson, Pope's teammate and Seton Hall's second-leading scorer, also declared for the Draft while Eugene Harvey and John Garcia are set to graduate this spring. Add a new coach to the mix, and Seton Hall will certainly struggle to be a contender next year.

However, Pope shouldn't be discouraged to stay in school an extra year because of this.

Kevin Willard lacks the experience of Bobby Gonzalez, but he is a good coach and Pope should be able to learn from him. Improving on offense will make Pope's draft stock rise.

In Pope's statement, the forward mentioned "the needs" of his family as a reason for declaring for the Draft. Impulsiveness generally leads to mistakes, and while Pope has obviously thought his decision through, he needs to consider the long run.

He might make a few grand by getting drafted, but he's not 100 percent ready for the NBA. The chances of getting cut are high. If he stays at Seton Hall and works on his game, he will be able to step onto an NBA court ready to compete and consistently send checks to his family.

Pope has a promising future and NBA career ahead of him. It doesn't make sense to risk screwing it up for immediate money.

Follow Ari Kramer on Twitter for more college basketball.

Photo from shupirates.com

Seton Hall University is the oldest and largest Catholic university in New Jersey. It also has been a basketball power, on and off, for the past 60 years.

This year the Pirates were on the verge of returning to the elite of college basketball, posting a 19-13 record, including 9-9 in the Big East Conference, the nation’s toughest.

The return was led by coach Bobby Gonzalez, who posted a 66-59 record over four years. But Gonzalez brought a mixed blessing to Seton Hall—the university often had more reason to be ashamed of the Pirates than to be proud of them.

Gonzalez repeatedly clashed with everybody: his players, opposing players, his coaches, opposing coaches, game officials, and his superiors at Seton Hall. Players he recruited were charged with serious crimes.

On Tuesday, it ended.

In the afternoon, a player Gonzalez had just kicked off the team was arrested and charged with first-degree robbery and kidnapping. Later, in the opening minutes of the Pirates’ tournament game against Texas Tech, one of their starters was ejected for punching an opposing player in the groin. Then Gonzalez drew his seventh technical foul of the season.

That was enough for Patrick Hobbs, the university law school dean who has been overseeing the athletic department.

Hobbs fired Gonzalez, explaining, “Performance and success are not measured solely by wins and losses, but also in the conduct of those associated with the program. We have expectations as to how our coaches and players will conduct themselves, and they are expected to treat everyone they interact with, whether officials, the press or our students, with the utmost respect, maturity and professionalism."

That’s enough to put Seton Hall on our short honor roll of universities (along with Oregon and Texas Tech) that put behavior first, winning second.

Read more about ethics at http://EthicsBob.com

After last night's disgraceful loss to Texas Tech in the NIT, Seton Hall Law Dean Patrick Hobbs expressed his displeasure with the lack of control and direction of Gonzalez's regime.

This was a clear sign that a move was going to be made.

It came this afternoon when the university fired Bobby Gonzalez. Quite frankly, it was something the university needed to do.

Enough was enough. The coach has done nothing but embarrass himself and the program.

If last night was not the tipping point, what else would he have to do to be fired?

One would think the team would play hard for their embattled coach in that NIT game, but that was not the case. The team quit as soon as the game started.

Herb Pope provided Seton Hall's highlight when he was tossed for punching Texas Tech's Darko Cohadarevic in the groin. That was a symbol of what has gone on under Gonzalez's leadership.

The players reflect Gonzalez's personality by showing lack of self-control at games. 

It wasn't surprising that they could not prosper when the going got tough. If the coach can't provide answers for his players, how are they going to succeed?

All Gonzo would do is argue with the refs. Has he ever shown that he can be a good game-day coach?

Oftentimes in the huddle, players looked confused whenever Gonzalez attempted to make plays. It was obvious that some players did not pay attention either.

The university paid him a lot of money to represent the program well by winning games and being a good leader. He showed that he had no clue how to do those things. It was enough to justify their decision to fire him.

His behavior was an issue too. It's one thing to be arrogant if he was winning, but he wasn't. He never understood it.

He acted like he was above criticism. Every time someone asked him a question that he did not like, he would treat that person like trash.

This writer asked Gonzalez an innocent question on Big East Media Day several years ago. He acted condescending when asked about what he could do to maintain the standards Louis Orr created. He took a shot at Orr's work as coach.

By then, he knew this coach would not make it in the Big East.

Several people in the coaching fraternity told Gonzalez to change his approach. This buffoon refused to listen to them.

If anything, he made enemies with them after that. What does that tell you about him?

Seton Hall should have understood then that it was better to cut their losses. They gave him a chance to learn from his mistakes, but he rewarded them by acting worse each time.

Seton Hall hired him for his ability to recruit. They experienced buyer's remorse after he recruited players with questionable character.

The players in this area did not want any part of Gonzo's nonsense. He decided to focus on junior-players. They turned out to be failures in the last two years.

They caused nothing but headaches off the court. They weren't good players either.

Gonzalez never tried hard to recruit players in New Jersey. All he wanted to do was focus on the players in New York City.

Most coaches in New Jersey thought he failed to create a working relationship with them. He failed in so many areas. That justified Seton Hall's firing of him.

Now they can go hire a coach that actually knows what he is doing when it comes to recruiting and coaching.

Seton Hall had success when they hired a coach from Siena several years ago in Orr. They should do it again this time around by hiring Siena coach Fran McCaffery.

Rutgers decided not to fire Fred Hill after realizing no one was going to pay for his buyout. This is an opportunity for Seton Hall to take advantage of Rutgers' mistake.

St. John's could be in the mix for McCaffery unless they make an NIT run. It's doubtful that it's going to happen.

Still, St. John's could be looking at Tom Pecora as their head coaching choice. Either way, Seton Hall needs to beat that team in getting McCaffery.

What's next for Gonzalez? Who knows and who cares?

Gonzalez was not long for the job. If he did well, he was going to bolt for another program. He had no interest being in Seton Hall despite what his bobos say.

It's hard to think any major program will hire him again. He will be relegated to coaching a program like Manhattan at this point.

He has no one to blame but himself for the situation in which he put himself.

He had it coming.

Three decades ago and seven years before I was born, Woody Hayes' legendary career came to an end because of one punch in the 1978 Gator Bowl between Ohio State and Clemson.

Wednesday afternoon, the Bobby Gonzalez era ended in South Orange, a day removed from what was in so many words, an embarrassing end to what had been an already polarizing era of Seton Hall Basketball.

After drawing the fourth seed in the Tempe Regional of the NIT, the Pirates literally laid an egg against Texas Tech and in a scene that I remembered from my teenage years in Whitehaven, Tennessee, Seton Hall's Herb Pope hits Red Raider Darko Cohadarevic in the groin, something I'm certain Pope wouldn't do to my buddy Uros Pavolic.

Twice.

Aside from the fact that while in places like North Carolina's Carmichael Arena and Arizona State's Wells Fargo Arena was full, the crowd at the Prudential Center, which seats 18,500, the crowd was 1,825.

That's right, 1,825 fans in an 18,500-seat arena.

While that number may not mean much to people like us in Memphis, save for the infamous 2009 football game played two days after my birthday between the University of Memphis and East Carolina when 4,000-plus fans showed up, it sent a message loud and clear to the officials at Seton Hall University.

Something had to be done.

It's one thing to have troubled players in your program, but to have a pattern of behavior coming from your coach that is on the border of insanity as well as people from your former college literally bad-mouthing you in a New York Times column and others blatantly laughing at your antics, then Gonzalez was the poster child for it.

As a coach of a major university, you're not only the ambassador for the basketball program, but also for the school itself.

Too bad Gonzalez didn't get the picture.