Steve Lavin Discussion from Ryan Harrow thread

I don't consider UCLA to be an elite hoops program anymore.
Howland had some success there, but they really were given a gift with s tourney bid this year.

There are two dozen programs that been stronger more recently, and present a higher profile opportunity. It doesn't help that the PAC 10 has 3 good teams.

I don't consider UCLA to be an elite hoops program anymore.
Howland had some success there, but they really were given a gift with s tourney bid this year.

There are two dozen programs that been stronger more recently, and present a higher profile opportunity. It doesn't help that the PAC 10 has 3 good teams.

Quote from: Poison on May 11, 2011, 06:25:42 PM

I don't consider UCLA to be an elite hoops program anymore.
Howland had some success there, but they really were given a gift with s tourney bid this year.

There are two dozen programs that been stronger more recently, and present a higher profile opportunity. It doesn't help that the PAC 10 has 3 good teams.

Um, my reference was to getting the UCLA job in 1997 - one season removed from the 1995 National Championship.   In other words, he's BEEN the coach at an elite school - He took them to the Tourney 6 straight years, the Sweet 16 five times, an elite 8 once (depsite a plethora of ill-timed injuries that crippled their chance to advance farther in the dance almost every year - Jelani McCoy cracked sternum for the Sweet 16 in 1997, Baron Davis torn ACL in the round of 32 in 1998, Dan Gadzuric's broken leg in the last week of the season in 1999, Earl Watson's fractured eye socket in the round of 32 in 2000, and team captian Rico Hines torn ACL in the round of 32 in 2002), won 23 or more games for 6 straight seasons, finished in the top 25 of the AP or UPI/USA Today 6 straight seasons....and got run out of town as  "Loser" after the legs were chopped out from under him as he was taking his team to that 5th Sweet 16 and having it made public  that the schools chancellor had offered his job to Rick Pitino.

My point is Elite programs won't hold much sway with Steve  Lavin.  Been There.  Done that.  Bought the T-Shirt.  Had if ripped off his back by a crazed mob.....

what about Ryan Harrow? He is out of the office!

Gee, I just got on and saw all the activity for today under Ryan's site, so I thought he had committed to us.  Now I see most of it is about Coach Lavin's future.  Why not create another site just for that topic and let this site focus on Ryan's magical mystery tour of colleges leading up to his reaching "home" (St. John's) at the end of his trek with his Mom.

Gee, I just got on and saw all the activity for today under Ryan's site, so I thought he had committed to us.  Now I see most of it is about Coach Lavin's future.  Why not create another site just for that topic and let this site focus on Ryan's magical mystery tour of colleges leading up to his reaching "home" (St. John's) at the end of his trek with his Mom.

The last 3 seasons UCLA has been one of many.
A win over an elite program is considered a signature win.

A win over UCLA in the last 3 years is not an elite win.
It's a win that Montana, Cal State Northridge and Southeast LA State can all claim to have earned-and w out much sweat.

Those 3 straight FFs are a distant memory.

redstorm212, I am not kidding you. UCLA is on the decline. As is the entire PAC 10 Conference.
Yes, they almost made it to sweet sixteen. I don't believe they deserved to be in the tournament at all.

They had one signature win last year. Us.

I met Coach Lavin twice this past year, at the St. Mary's and UCLA games.  The extent of my conversation with him both times, was one word, "Thanks!".  I was too in awe of him to say any thing else.

Coach, as crgreen has mentioned several times, is a very special person.  He is a NYC-type of guy.  His wife is also a NYC-type of person.

Coach is not a transient coach like those other guys at UK and UL.  He did wait until the right situation opened.  And lucky for us, it was at St. John's.

Coach believes in the value of the family and that means his St. John's family as well.

The NBA hold nothing that I believe Coach Lavin wants.

I believe he truly wants us to be an elite program in a few years.  St. John's (Thanks, Mike R.) and NYC will take care of his financial needs, so he can focus on taking us to new heights.

And yes, while Coach C. is very special to us at St. John's, he is not of the same stature as Coach W. was at UCLA.  So Coach Lavin is free to create his own place in St. John's history to go along with Coach Freeman, Coach Lapchick, Coach McGuire, and Coach C.  I think we all hope that under Coach Lavin we will finally achieve the NCAA title.

So Coach, good wishes on your health issues, and we appreciate all you have done to rescue the St. John's Men's Basketball Program.

Quote from: crgreen on May 11, 2011, 08:30:04 PM

Quote from: Poison on May 11, 2011, 06:25:42 PM

I don't consider UCLA to be an elite hoops program anymore.
Howland had some success there, but they really were given a gift with s tourney bid this year.

There are two dozen programs that been stronger more recently, and present a higher profile opportunity. It doesn't help that the PAC 10 has 3 good teams.

Um, my reference was to getting the UCLA job in 1997 - one season removed from the 1995 National Championship.   In other words, he's BEEN the coach at an elite school - He took them to the Tourney 6 straight years, the Sweet 16 five times, an elite 8 once (depsite a plethora of ill-timed injuries that crippled their chance to advance farther in the dance almost every year - Jelani McCoy cracked sternum for the Sweet 16 in 1997, Baron Davis torn ACL in the round of 32 in 1998, Dan Gadzuric's broken leg in the last week of the season in 1999, Earl Watson's fractured eye socket in the round of 32 in 2000, and team captian Rico Hines torn ACL in the round of 32 in 2002), won 23 or more games for 6 straight seasons, finished in the top 25 of the AP or UPI/USA Today 6 straight seasons....and got run out of town as  "Loser" after the legs were chopped out from under him as he was taking his team to that 5th Sweet 16 and having it made public  that the schools chancellor had offered his job to Rick Pitino.

My point is Elite programs won't hold much sway with Steve  Lavin.  Been There.  Done that.  Bought the T-Shirt.  Had if ripped off his back by a crazed mob.....

I happen to think that crgreen is on the money.  SJU offers Lavin every advantage he needs to win games here.  He has already proven it with a phenom recruiting class.  It is assumed that every coach has the same formula for what their career path is.  That every coach wants UNC or something of the like.  Lavin's story is a bit different.  I think that Lavin's path as a coach is a bit different as well.

   From everything I gather, Lavin's priorities are certainly a bit different.  He And his wife seem to only really want to live and coach in NYC or LA.  They're metropolitan types and I think it is a HUGE factor in why Lavin landed here.  Lavin also has a great appreciatIon for programs with tradition.  I think he loved/es the idea of SJU's great and long tradition in college ball.  It mirrors UCLA's in many ways, save the fact that we had nowhere near the level of success. 

I think that it was important to Lavin to have a supportive administration, and he certainly has more than that here at SJU.  The good people at SJU wanted to keep norm around just because they liked him.  The focus of our administration,as maddening as it was when Norm was here, is very sincere and certainly not about the bottom line.  SJU hasn't hired a coach because of the bottom line in years if ever, a rarity these days.  It makes it even more amazing that we were able to grab Lavin. 

The x-factor then is really the money.  SJU seems to have no problem coming up with the money in the past.  Now we have mike Repole's support coupled with massive renewal of fan interest as well as a phenomenal fundraiser in Lavin himself, and he is the first coach in a long time that will fill seats and help increase donations exponentially. 

All-in-all, SJU really seems to be a plum job for Lavin and a great hire for SJU fans as well as the University,  he'll be hard-pressed to find any other job in America that has what we can offer him, first and foremost the only major D1 College ball program in NYC, unequivocal administration support as well as the financial backing, facilities etc.  For a guy who loves the metropolitan life, it's hard to beat living in Soho a short cab ride from your home games at the "worlds most famous arena".  Steve Lavin is just one of the few who saw this program for what it could be.  I hope we have him here for a long, long time.