Of everyone linked to St. John’s head coaching vacancy, no one possesses ability to turn Red Storm around quicker or more efficiently than Tim Cluess. (Photo by Vincent Simone/Daly Dose Of Hoops)
Unless you’re either flying back from the Final Four or some other destination, or living under a rock — or maybe if you’ve had no access to social media — or any kind of media, period — you now know that St. John’s is once again in need of a head coach after Chris Mullin resigned Tuesday afternoon, closing the book on four years at the helm of his alma mater.
Where, and to whom the Red Storm program turns now is where everyone’s attention has become simultaneously transfixed. And much like when St. John’s and Steve Lavin parted ways four years ago, there is a clear-cut choice to replace Mullin, one who stands head and shoulders above any of his fellow candidate brethren.
That man is none other than Tim Cluess, who for the past nine years has operated in the shadow of both Lavin and Mullin at Iona College — just over the Throgs Neck Bridge and New England Thruway from the corner of Union and Utopia — and taken the Gaels to six NCAA Tournaments in the same timeframe that St. John’s only managed half that total, winning five Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championships, including each of the past four.
Like Mullin, Cluess is a native New Yorker. In fact, his Floral Park home is a mere ten minutes from St. John’s Queens campus. Often mentioned for high-major positions as he has turned Iona into a mid-major dynasty, Cluess has eschewed the potential lure of football war chests and million-dollar paydays simply because he is content where he is. But with that said, those who know Cluess best know that if there were one job to get him to even contemplate leaving New Rochelle, it would be at the place he began his collegiate playing career, learning the game from the legendary Lou Carnesecca.
“It means so much to my family and myself,” Cluess said of St. John’s — where his three brothers and sister also attended college — when his Iona team faced the Red Storm in the Holiday Festival in December of 2017. “The passion that came from St. John’s basketball — watching it, being a part of it, growing up with it, especially making the lifelong friends that we’ve all made from that school — it’s been great to our family. I can’t explain to you what this school means to my family. All five of us went there.”
That answers the first question surrounding Cluess, that of who would support him at a place he still obviously loves very much. His rich connections to the New York and New Jersey area will help replenish a St. John’s roster in need of talent enhancement sooner rather than later. And for those questioning whether he could win after his top assistant, Jared Grasso, left for a head coaching opportunity of his own before last year, Cluess won ten of his last eleven games with an Iona team decimated by injuries to reclaim the MAAC championship. Furthermore, his skill of maximizing each individual player’s gifts while tailoring them to fit his system — a hybrid of uptempo offense and pressure defense — has proven to be the common thread between each of his Iona teams, which have experienced roster turnover in almost every way imaginable.
For those who say Cluess cannot recruit, or is heavy on transfers, look no further than A.J. English, Rickey McGill, and E.J. Crawford. Each of those three were four-year starters — Crawford will be when he begins his senior season in November — and each worked his way from role player into indispensable all-league talent and program pillar. And each one has more than one NCAA Tournament appearance on his ledger. With an unmatched eye for finding diamonds in the rough, coupled with his unique way of bringing out the best in everyone, access to a greater and more plentiful talent pool will only burnish Cluess’ reputation on that front. And for those doubting whether transfers would work at a higher level, take a look at what Iowa State did in recent years — with Abdelmassih recruiting the majority of the expatriates, no less — and admit you’re lying to yourself.
If you’re questioning why St. John’s would hire a 60-year-old coach when Bobby Hurley — the popular choice among fans and some media — is 13 years younger, can I mention that St. John’s is no stranger to having veteran coaches at the perceived tail end of their careers? Carnesecca was 67 when he retired in 1992. And if you look at the so-called bluebloods of the sport that some St. John’s fans still dream of becoming, you’ll see Roy Williams about to turn 69 at North Carolina. Mike Krzyzewski is 72, and doesn’t look like he’s leaving Duke anytime soon. Jim Boeheim turns 75 in November, and his demise at Syracuse isn’t around the corner. Cluess may be seasoned at 60, but he definitely has at least another decade left in him, at least. This game may take years off your life, but if you’re active in it, the game also keeps you young.
Finally, athletic director Mike Cragg said the following in his statement issued Tuesday when commenting on the search process to replace Mullin:
“We are committed to building a championship-level program, so we will aggressively search for an experienced coach capable of running a high-level Division I team in New York City, someone who is ready to build upon the recent successes of our program with integrity by recruiting young men of high character.”
Tim Cluess checks all of those boxes. His record — which includes a winning season EVERY year he has coached, wherever he has been, AND a postseason appearance every year at Iona — speaks for itself as far as building a championship-level program. His experience — at the high school, junior college, Division II and Division I levels — indicate the grinder that this program needs to succeed in this market and at this level. And not only did Cluess build upon an already successful Iona history, all of the so-called question marks and checkered pasts that arrived in his gym eventually walked out better basketball players, better young men, and better citizens of this world.
The time of winning press conferences and making big splashes has come and gone. If St. John’s is the program that the bulk of its fan base still professes it to be, then the powers that be will corroborate that vision by hiring the man that will win games in the short term, not headlines. The administration that takes a lot of flak for clinging to the halcyon days of 1985 will use the short-term turnaround as a fuel to ignite a long-term resurgence.
Insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over, and expecting a different result. This is the fourth time in the last decade-and-a-half that St. John’s will be undergoing an extensive rebuild. What has been seemingly broken has yet to be fixed, but standing before the Red Storm is a man with a perpetual Midas touch for even the bleakest of situations.
The choice, as it has been many times before for this program, is clear. Maybe this time will finally be the one in which it makes the right one.
Place your trust in the proven commodity. Take a leap of faith with one of your native sons, and emphasize your core values by welcoming him back into your family.
Don’t be clueless, St. John’s.
Hire Tim Cluess.
