Loading ...Lavin’ For St. John’s
The hiring of Steve Lavin has the potential to lead St. John's back to prominence
On Tuesday, former UCLA coach Steve Lavin was hired to be the next head coach of the St. John’s Red Storm. The former ESPN analyst will now have the challenge of trying to revive a once historic program dating back to the days of legendary head coach Lou Carnesecca in the 1980’s. In my opinion, this is the right guy for the job because he has had past success at a major program in UCLA, going to an Elite Eight and numerous Sweet Sixteens during a span of seven years. But, there are some questions surrounding this hiring.
The major question will be if Lavin can keep the New York City recruits home. A criticism of Norm Roberts, according to St. John’s students that I talked to on Monday, was that he could never get the big names to come to the Red Storm. Most of the recruits he hired were of the junior college variety and he could never get big local names like Lance Stephenson, who chose Cincinnati over the Johnnies. So, how will a west coast guy in Steve Lavin recruit players to New York City? Well, his first goal would be to hire assistants whose specialty is recruiting in New York City. Two names that he might hire are Manhattan coach Barry Rohrssen and Arizona assistant Emanuel Richardson, who was once the director of a summer program that produced prominent talent in the area (New York Gauchos).
Another major question is how Lavin can sell New York City to the top recruits across the nation? Well, you have Madison Square Garden, but that has become a low point as of late due to the Big East Tournament and the fact that most top teams get to play at the World’s Famous Arena either in Big East play or in the prominent non-conference tournaments. But, when I asked most students who they wanted to be the next coach, I found a lot of Marc Jackson supporters. I disagreed with them because Jackson has no college head coaching experience and I do not think that can guide the Red Storm back to national glory. Lavin is the big name this school wanted because he can win games at a major conference, produce NBA talent, and sell St. John’s to the national media. Over his seven years at UCLA, he produced ten NBA draft picks. Will there be an adjustment period for Lavin since he has not coached in almost ten years? Most likely, but with the talent coming back for next season (all five starters), the future is bright for St. John’s to become a Big East power and possibly a national power once again.
