I will admit that part of my problem with letting Lavin go is what will become of the program long term with him gone. With Lavin, we still maintain a glimmer of hope that we can become a perennial power again. Almost nobody could have recruited as well as Lavin has at St. John's since he's been here. I know the past two years have been down, but that fact still remains. We were recently in the final two for a top 10 guy.
With Lavin, I think we will always have talent. I also think he knows he isn't the greatest X's and O's guy, which is a huge plus. He knows he needs a good assistant to help him out. Year one he had Dunlap, now he has Whitesell, maybe he will stay.
Bottom line, my problem with firing Lavin is that the Big East is no longer going to attract top coaches and top talent like it once did by itself. You need a recruiter, Lavin is a recruiter. You have to ask the question who are you going to replace Lavin with and can they do a better job? I don't see a clear example of a guy like that. Masiello? Maybe, definitely not a given. Pitino? What has he really proven?
I'm good giving Lavin an extension. I won't say he's undoubtedly deserved one, but the amount of crap he gets on this board is not deserving when you look at his overall tenure at St. John's. You can't have a lame duck coach, it's simply bad for the program no matter how you look at it. IF we make the tourney this year, that's 2/5 years dancing. Two consecutive 20 win seasons. We are St. John's. We have no business firing a coach like that.
We fire Lavin, in a watered down Big East, we are signing up as a mid major school. Some of you may be fine with that, I have higher goals.