When Steve Lavin was first hired it was well known that he had intentions of putting together an All-Star staff. Slowly but surely it has taken form with the hiring of Tony Chiles, Rico Hines, and Derrick Wrobel.
Lavin stated in his press conference when he was announced as St. John’s 19th head coach:
In terms of staff, clearly I want to put in place talented, capable, hard-working and loyal assistant coaches. It’s critical that they have a familiarity not only with New York, and have an understanding of the unique dynamic of recruiting in this city at all levels, but also the Northeast. So assistant coaches that are familiar with the BIG EAST, the ACC — those recruiting territories are critical.
Naturally, in terms of Southern California, the West Coast, the Midwest, I’ve had experience in the Midwest as an assistant at Purdue and also covering the Big 10 for ESPN for seven years. So that part of the country I’m very familiar with and the West Coast is where I grew up and spent 12 years at UCLA. But don’t be mistaken, when you’re at UCLA, you’re recruiting coast-to-coast and you’re recruiting internationally.
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