MINNEAPOLIS — The night St. John’s season ended, Chris Mullin told The Post he was “100 percent” planning on coaching his alma mater the following season. The next day, athletic director Mike Cragg voiced his support of Mullin. Despite a wildfire of rumors over the past 48 hours of a possible buyout, nothing has changed, and Cragg released a statement saying as much.
“Let me be clear, and [as] I said from the start, Coach Mullin is our head coach and we are not looking for another head coach,” Cragg said in the statement.
From the moment he took over, Cragg has supported Mullin and has said his job is to give him the needed support to be successful. In the statement, Cragg said he has met with Mullin several times since the end of the season and described those meetings as “productive, engaging and positive.”
“Coach Mullin has been great throughout and I appreciate his passion for St. John’s,” said Cragg, who is in his first year at St. John’s after three decades as a Duke administrator.
Mullin led St. John’s to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in his four seasons this year, but the team faded late and fell to Arizona State in the First Four. In four seasons, Mullin has a 59-73 record and 20-52 mark in Big East play. It has yet to advance past the Big East Tournament quarterfinals.
Approached by The Post in Minneapolis, Cragg declined to go into further details. Asked if there had been any talks with Mullin or his agent of an extension, Cragg said he wasn’t going to give “play-by-play” of their talks behind closed doors, like he said the day after the season ended. Mullin has two years left on his six-year deal that pays him roughly $2 million per season.
It has been a rocky week for Mullin and St. John’s. Assistant coach Matt Abdelmassih, who did a majority of the coaching staff’s recruiting, left on Monday to join his former boss, Fred Hoiberg, at Nebraska. Friday, junior college point guard Cam Mack — the supposed replacement for star guard Shamorie Ponds, who had declared for the NBA draft — asked for his release. All the while, rumors have swirled about Mullin potentially walking away. However, that doesn’t appear to be the case, based on Cragg’s statement.
Mullin and his staff have been recruiting this week, but have opted to keep the names of the players they are targeting in-house, sources said. A source said the plan, with Abdelmassih gone, is to have a more balanced approach in recruiting, and have a more well-rounded coaching staff not overly dependant on one person.
