It has largely been a pinch-me basketball life, much of it spent in the practice gym, an Irish kid from Brooklyn obsessed with straight shooting. Chris Mullin, 54, is still there, taking aim now with blunt talk.
His third season at the coaching helm of St. John’s, where he was counseled by the raspy-voiced musings of Lou Carnesecca in the 1980s, began with the expectant fruition of a program rebuild, with N.C.A.A. tournament ambition. By the peak of winter, when afternoon light shifted too quickly into darkness, Mullin’s team was enshrouded in an 11-game Big East Conference losing streak.