St. John's coach Chris Mullin's second act at the school at which he starred as a player is ending badly, partly because his influence with school president Bobby Gempesaw has eroded.
St. John's coach Chris Mullin with Shamorie Ponds during a game against Butler on February 12. It was just over four years ago when St. John’s school president Conrado “Bobby” Gempesaw stood at a lectern in the school’s gymnasium, Carnesecca Arena, and lauded his new hire Chris Mullin, saying: But those lofty dreams now have been superseded by the harsh reality that Mullin’s stint as head coach is over. Mullin's resignation was announced Tuesday afternoon.
But that changed last year. What follows here, pieced together from sources with knowledge of what went on behind the scenes, is a closer look at how the relationship between Mullin and Gempesaw changed to the point that when Mullin went over the head of athletic director Mike Cragg to Gempesaw in recent days, he got no relief.
In fact, it was a similar situation in which Gempesaw first turned down Mullin. According to several people with knowledge of what happened, Mullin wanted to hire former Rutgers head coach Mike Rice as an assistant last summer. Rice has not been in college coaching since 2013, when Rutgers fired him after embarrassing video came to light of him intimidating his players during practice.
The landscape changed further for Mullin when Gempesaw hired Cragg in September. Cragg had been the senior administrator for Duke University’s basketball program since 2000 before coming to Queens to oversee all the athletic programs, particularly men’s basketball. His hiring marked the first time in Mullin’s tenure that he would have to answer to somebody besides Gempesaw.
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