The Gospel According To Lavin

Steve Lavin has been preaching since the moment he’s been hired… well, even way before that. Lavin has been omnipresent in the media, bringing exposure the St. John’s via to a wide variety of news outlets. St. John’s fans feel like he’s been a gift from God, especially after referencing the 2011 recruiting effort as building Noah’s Ark (having two of every kind of player). So far, he is delivering, getting 5 verbal commitments before he’s coached a game. .

He’s been a miracle worker so far in building a dream team coaching staff, bringing a real midnight madness back to Queens, and recruiting on a more national level than St. John’s fans have ever come to expect. I’m sure St. John’s students are going to ask him to turn water into wine pretty soon.

So of course, at Big East Media day St. John’s table was swarmed prior to Coach Lavin’s arrival. As he sat, it was like the starting gun of a horse race, with reporters jockeying for position and yelling for coach’s attention. Lavin was thoughtful, patient, and of course, articulate with every answer to questions he received.

I could tell some reporters were getting tired holding their recorders in the air waiting for their turn as Lavin wasn’t giving quotes – he was preaching homilies.

After he was asked for the 100th time who was in his starting lineup, he turned and looked at me. I came out firing and asked Coach Lavin, “What type of brand or even characteristics do you expect to put into a Lavin coached team?” He then gave me the on-court gospel according to Lavin:

“Well, you know, we always want to be tough defensively and [have] a flexible offense – that is vital. We have to be able to adapt to our personnel. We want to run, but we want to fastbreak off of our defense. So if you’re not solid defensively you can’t talk about fast breaking. You can sell that in recruiting, and you can have bumper stickers and slogans about it, but until you get stops defensively you’re not going to be able to run out.

“In the history of the basketball you look at the great Celtic teams, the great Laker teams … you look in college basketball, the great Duke teams, UNLV, and Kentucky teams – they all ran off of their defenses. So if you’re not getting stops or shut outs you’re not going to get run outs. While we want to force the tempo offensively, we’re going to do that through being solid defensively.”

So I followed up and asked him if he was implementing his entire system with this current team or does he need to modify things to tailor to this group of players?

“We’re trying to balance implementing a system, but also moving forward in a deliberate methodical way so we don’t give our players too much. In other words: at times less is more. We’d rather master blocking and tackling of basketball in terms of our stance defensively, our principles on the defensive end. In our staff meetings we discuss that challenge.

“How do we implement a system to get ready to play for St. Mary’s, yet not undermine the natural progression and the natural laws of learning? And that means you need time. I’m confident because we have a great team of teachers and highly accomplished individuals in the game of basketball. Our staff meetings are very lively and productive and I think our players will benefit.”

These two answers took almost 5 minutes in recorded time. I could feel bodies pushing up behind me like I was front row at a Bruce Springsteen concert. I had another question but 20 reporters yelled “Coach” after he finished speaking and his attention was diverted. I ducked under the out stretched arms of the crowd knowing I’d see Coach Lavin again soon enough. Lavin was busy spreading more of his good news to the rest of the world.