There’s a bit of a Duke back story to St. John’s hiring Mike Anderson.
Johnnie’s AD Mike Cragg was at Duke basically forever before taking the St. John’s job and he was a key figure in building the Duke program and brand, albeit behind the scenes. He’s a terrific fundraiser and a good guy who people instinctively like.
So when he was surprised by the resignation of basketball coach Chris Mullin and began his search (he wisely turned off Twitter), former Duke assistant Jeff Capel recommended Anderson. Cragg called Coach Mike Krzyzewski to ask his opinion and Coach K said it would be a “home run.