St. John’s and athletic director Mike Cragg are parting methods after six years, the college introduced Monday.
Cragg’s tenure will finish June 30.
“It has been an honor to guide the athletic division at St. John’s College,” Cragg stated. “I’m pleased with what now we have completed collectively and am assured that the division is in a powerful place for continued success.
“As I bid farewell to St. John’s, I prolong my gratitude to our passionate followers and dependable alumni whose assist has been the bedrock of our group. I’m profoundly grateful for the devoted and unbelievable employees of directors and coaches whose dedication has propelled us ahead. Most significantly, I have fun our outstanding student-athletes, whose arduous work and spirit have been a continuing supply of inspiration. Collectively, now we have achieved nice issues, and I’ll ceaselessly cherish our shared journey.”
Cragg took over in 2018 after greater than 30 years at Duke, the place he labored carefully with Mike Krzyzewski and the Blue Devils basketball program. Throughout his six years in cost in New York Metropolis, St. John’s received six Huge East championships in addition to a pair of particular person nationwide championships in fencing.
The varsity’s athletic applications additionally moved again to Nike in 2019 after being outfitted by Underneath Armour for six years.
Cragg’s greatest strikes got here within the males’s basketball program, the place he oversaw two important teaching modifications. Purple Storm legend and Corridor of Famer Chris Mullin resigned because the staff’s head coach in 2019, with Cragg turning to Mike Anderson as his substitute. After Anderson went 4 years with out an NCAA event look, Cragg fired him after the 2022-23 season.
That opened a path for St. John’s to pursue Corridor of Famer Rick Pitino, a New York native and somebody the fanbase had needed for the reason that Eighties. He was rapidly employed, and the Purple Storm narrowly missed the NCAA event in his first season.
St. John’s stated it’s going to conduct a nationwide seek for Cragg’s substitute, though one identify sources anticipate to be concerned is Fordham athletic director Ed Kull, who earned his MBA from St. John’s and labored within the athletic division there for a number of years.