St. John's head coaching candidate profiles: Leading candidate Chris Mullin offered job

After spending five years with one of the better-known head coaches in all of college basketball in Steve Lavin, it's somewhat unclear as to what direction this program will be heading towards at this point. Will they play it somewhat safe with a less-polarizing head coach such as Steve Masiello? Or will they make a splash and go after a household name?

If the Red Storm plan on making a splash with whoever they choose to hire within the next few weeks (depending on how long it takes the school's administration to come to a decision, which as we all now know, could be a while), it would be hard to grab a bigger name than Chris Mullin.

Mullin, a Brooklyn-native who played at St. John's under Lou Carnesecca from 1981-85, is easily the most well-known player in the school's history. As the program's all-time leading scorer with 2,440 career points, he led the Redmen to a 1985 NCAA Final Four appearance, and was named the Big East Player of the Year in each of his final three seasons.

Following his collegiate days, Mullin would go on to enjoy a hall-of-fame NBA career, with much of it coming as a Golden State Warrior. He was a member of the 1992 "Dream Team" and also holds Olympic Gold as a member of the 1984 USA Basketball team as well.

Coaching History

The thing about Chris Mullin is, unlike any of the other candidates for the job, he has no head coaching experience. However he does have a good amount of front office experience, first with the Warriors but more recently in Sacramento with the Kings.

He served as the Warriors General Manager from 2004 to 2009, with Golden State making only one playoff appearance in that span. Under Mullin, the Warriors also did not see a great deal of success in the draft, with notable picks such as Ike Diogu (ninth overall in 2005), Patrick O'Bryant (ninth overall in 2006), and Anthony Randolph (14th overall in 2008) never really playing out.

For what it's worth, just a month after parting ways with Mullin in 2009, Golden State drafted this year's potential NBA MVP Stephen Curry seventh overall.

After parting ways with Golden State, Mullin found himself in Sacramento as an advisor in the Kings front office. Sacramento has struggled in each of their two seasons with Mullin in the front office, winning just 28 games last season and going through three head coaches this season, including George Karl, who signed a four-year contract in February.

Back in December, there were reports that the Kings head coaching job was Mullin's if he wanted it, but obviously that never came to fruition.

Why is he appealing?

Simply put, Chris Mullin is easily the biggest possible hire that the Red Storm can land, and with him at the helm it would be hard to say that they would not remain either at or above the level of national relevance that Steve Lavin built up over the past five years.

Mullin is a household name not only with those associated with St. John's and those in the Metropolitan area, but for basketball fans all across the country. His hiring would have people talking about St. John's for now at least, and more importantly, it would only help recruiting efforts, especially within New York City, which is an area that many felt Lavin was never able to take full advantage of.

Sure hiring Mullin, a guy with zero head coaching experience, to head your presumed rebuilding effort (or retooling effort depending on how you want to look at it) is a big-time risk. But if St. John's wants to make a splash on the national level, there would be no better candidate to hire.

Mullin offered head coaching job

According to multiple sources, St. John's has made an offer to Mullin to become their newest head coach. The details of the offer have not been released at the moment, but one source told ESPN that Mullin may accept it as early as later tonight.