St. John’s may have finally stumbled onto someone suited to resurrecting the prospects of their once-proud program: Steve Lavin. According to CBS Sports, the school has set up an interview with the former UCLA head coach and current ESPN analyst about filling their vacant head coaching job.
Steve Lavin, ESPN Analyst And Former UCLA Coach, To Interview With St. John’s
Lavin has worked as an analyst for ESPN after getting axed at UCLA in 2003. It’s always been puzzling that Lavin has never gotten another chance as a head coach, given that he was fired after suffering one bad season, preceded by six stellar ones. Part of that may be due to the fact that he was happy with his ESPN gig, but still, it’s unfathomable that more teams haven’t been beating down his door given his track record. Indeed, from 1997 to 2002, Lavin navigated the Bruins to six consecutive NCAA tournament appearances and five Sweet 16 showings, including a run to the Elite Eight in 1997. Lavin was also a top-notch recruiter, bringing home top overall recruiting classes in 1998 and 2001.
Compared to the other names St. John’s has reportedly been linked to in it’s coaching search -- Billy Donovan, Paul Hewitt and Al Skinner -- Lavin would be a coup. Donovan was never going to leave Florida for what St. John’s offered, Hewitt has been disappointing at Georgia Tech outside of 2004 when they made an improbable run to the championship game, and Skinner has done a solid if unspectacular job at Boston College. None of those other names, however, have had the type of sustained success Lavin had at UCLA (not even Donovan, who’s Florida teams have been plagued by early tournament exits aside from the 1999 and 2006-7 teams). While five Sweet 16s in six years may not have been good enough for the legacy of John Wooden, that would certainly seem like the promised land for a St. John’s program that hasn’t even been to the NCAA tournament since 2002.
And while Lavin doesn’t have any ties to the New York area, he can ask former St. John’s coach and current ESPN analyst Fran Fraschilla for any pointers in the meantime.
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