Mike Anderson fighting St. John’s over ‘for cause’ firing
St. John’s is bringing Rick Pitino to Queens, but the school’s former men’s basketball co𝓰ach isn’t done with the school yet.
Mike Anderson is planning to take St. John’s to arbitration after the university fired the coach “for cause” on March 10 after four seasons, a source tol🥀d The Post’s Zach Braziller.
St. John’s said in Anderson’s termination letter, which was obtained by ESPN, that the 63-year-old failed “to create and support an environment that strongly encourages student-athletes who are in the men’s b🐲asketball program to meet all university academic requirements.”
The school also said it was firing Anderson for “failure to perform your duties and responsibilities in a manner that reflected positively on St. John’s University … in actions [that] brought seriou꧟s discredit” to the unive🦂rsity, along with a “failure to appropriately supervise and communicate with your assistant coaches.”
Several sources said the culture under Ande💦rson in recent yeaཧrs had deteriorated significantly.
There were repeated disciplinary issues and two players — Rafael Pinzon and Andre Curbelo — were suspended this past seas🃏on.
Last season, point guard Posh Alexander didn’t start multiple games due ✨to disciplinary reasons.
Anderson, who wou🏅ld’ve been owed $11 million if fired without cause, .
“I vehemently disagree with the university’s decision to terminate my contract for cause,” Anderson said. “The for cause accusation is wholly without merit and I 🎃will be aggressively defending my contractual rights through an arbitration process.”
Former St. John’s assistant coach Steve DeMeo filed a lawsuit against the school in 2021 after he claimed Ande🍸rson fired him in June of that year due to a heart problem that required surger🍌y the previous August.
DeMeo’s lawsuit alleged that St. John’s players did not want to play for Anderson, and that was the reason the team passed on 💖playing in the NIT in 2021.
The school and Anderson💙 denied DeM✤eo’s allegations at the time.