Haith has been known to get out while the getting is good. He's a NYC native, who currently works at his second private school where he has had a national recruiting style. The other private school was on the east coast and in a high level conference.
Their search has been a dumpster fire and a guy making 900k in the MVC just turned down the job with a 8 year, 2 million dollar offer. Even if this is just Haith throwing his hat in the ring, there is a better than a coin flip chance he will get a serious look.
St. John's gets a winning coach, local, his buy out is probably less than the Loyola guy. The big east gets to lord it over the AAC they took a coach. Haith gets out of the hot seat and gains some job security and salary raise.
Considering that St. John's has no idea what to do next, I think this has a good chance of turning into something. Haith's agent I am sure made the call just to check.