As far as Coach Lavin's legacy, we will continue to debate that for years to come. The grade range seems to be from a D to a B. It probably all depends on your criteria and point of view.
I was at Coach Lavin's first game, the midnight opening of the CBB season at St. Mary's. There was electricity in the air. We are back!!!
After years of disappointment with both Coach Jarvis and Coach Roberts, we all were excited with anticipation. Our feelings of good times to come were fed by our beloved CR's encouraging tales of Coach at UCLA. Remember! We all deserved some good St. John's CBB seasons.
Coach lavin's credentials back then were an excellent recruiter and an average in game coach.
From the start with DP the first year and all those highly talented recruits the second year, we thought we were back to the Looie years, or even better. However, as we saw with all the problems with that #5 recruiting class there were snakes in Paradise. It really never got better recruiting-wise. Losing two players to the NBA did not help, especially with no real new recruits to take their places.
Okay, so Coach lavin was not a good in game coach. I think we all would agree on that now, with so many post season blow outs. He deserves a D for that area.
What I cannot figure out is why he screwed up so badly with recruiting? 2.5 quality recruits in 4 years is just terrible. His complacency here, or just plain laziness, also earns him a D.
The one bright spot, and to me, and it is a very bright spot, is the fact that he moved us forward after years of decline. I have to give him an A for that achievement.
So my overall grade for Coach Lavin is a C and a comment on his report card, "Young Man we expected better from you.".