Official St. Mary’s (MD) Preview: Even In His Absence, Lavin Still Present With Red Storm

Throughout this preseason for the Red Storm, the focus has been on homework, in all its forms.

The most obvious is in the classroom, where six of the eight scholarship players are working through their first semester at a Division I institution.

Last Tuesday’s 110-80 over Division II C.W. Post, though impressive in some areas, leaves the Red Storm with “homework,” and much to improve upon.

But, in the prolonged absence of head coach Steve Lavin, who is still recovering from successful prostate cancer surgery, these young members of the Red Storm have taken another assignment upon themselves: to see their coach through until his return.

“We check on Coach every day to see how he’s doing,” said sophomore guard Nurideen Lindsey, who had 16 points in the Red Storm win Tuesday night. “We let him know that he’s definitely still here with us. We work every day extremely hard for Coach Lav. He’s our leader. It’s kind of a homework assignment for us. Every day.”

Lindsey says players communicate with Lavin through text message and, though the second-year coach may be leaving out specifics, he still makes his presence felt.

“He’s the ultimate confidence coach,” says Lindsey. “I’ve never met anybody, let alone a coach, who instills the confidence in people that he does.”

St. John’s has been using a platoon of assistant coaches Mike Dunlap, Tony Chiles, and Rico Hines, along with special assistant Gene Keady, to fill Lavin’s vacant seat at the end of the bench.

Dunlap maintains that all practice schedules and itineraries are run through Lavin, with constant communication between the coaches, as well as video footage of each practice being sent to Lavin for his input. Gene Keady also visits Lavin to update him on the state of the team.

“With those forms of communication, we’ve pretty much pulled him into the gym. They have a statue of him upstairs,” Dunlap jokes. “We put him at center court, we talk to him, we feed him, we water him, he’s there.”

This young group is Lavin’s first full class of recruits and it appears the same strong personal communication and family atmosphere that drew many of these players to Queens is carrying over, even in Lavin’s absence.

“He checks on us on a regular basis, like besides basketball,” says freshman guard Phil Greene, who burst onto the scene with 20 points against C.W. Post. “He asks about our families and ‘How’s everything going with school?’ So, he really steps away from basketball sometimes to communicate with us.”

On the court, St. John’s will face Division III St. Mary’s College of Maryland on Tuesday night, a blossoming powerhouse that lost in the D-III Elite 8 last season.

Led by head coach Chris Harney, the Seahawks return eleven letter winners from last season, despite losing their top two scorers from a year ago.

Among those returning is 6’5” senior forward Mikey Fitzpatrick, who garnered interest from Columbia and Colgate coming out of high school, and was offered a walk-on spot at the Citadel.

Taking what was seen in the exhibition against C.W. Post, the Red Storm head into Tuesday with a simple task: continue to become a single unit.

“Our objective, more importantly, is to push to continue to improve,” says Dunlap. “[By being afraid of injury] that means we’re operating from a base of fear and, regardless, we cannot do that.”

“We’ve been practicing and I think we got a lot better defensively. We’ve understood each other’s role and we’re starting to know our personnel a lot better,” said Lindsey. “I think we’re going to come out and we’re going to play a lot more under control. Play our style of basketball, but just a lot more poised.”

And with the season slated to begin November 7th vs. William & Mary, Lavin’s coaching, though from a distance, will continue to be the guiding principle.

“There’s attitude things that [Coach Lavin] absolutely loves,” said Dunlap. “He doesn’t like guys going to their shorts and grabbing their shorts. We’re going to do it periodically, but we can harken to his voice and highlight his voice and say, ‘Hey, when “The Chief” comes through the door, that’s not going to be acceptable.”

Here’s to The Chief’s speedy recovery.