300 Words or Less: Lavin

[Avon Barksdale]

Sorry if this was posted already

http://www.newjerseynewsroom.com/pr...-lavin-st-johns-spinning-on-a-road-to-nowhere

BY JOEY WAHLER

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

St. John’s had just been ousted from the NCAA Tournament on Friday, when Steve Lavin began doing what he does best: Spinning.

“The most satisfying season I’ve ever had as a coach,” said Lavin, after a year that ended with three straight bad losses, and no wins in the Big East Tournament or NCAA Tournament – again.

The Red Storm may have lost to San Diego State in their NCAA opener before it even began, when starting center Chris Obepka was suspended for smoking pot.

The real question is, what is Lavin smoking?

Observers gushed all year about the Red Storm’s athleticism and experience. Still, they started 0-3 in the Big East, digging an early conference hole for a second straight season. They failed to secure an NCAA bid until recent weeks, largely on the shoulders of one player, Sir’Dominic Pointer.

Indeed, we kept hearing about Pointer’s senior emergence, D’Angelo Harrison famously overcoming being kicked off the team and Rysheed Jordan finally maturing.

In the end, where did it get this team? Nowhere.

When Lavin arrived from southern California five years ago, he was touted as the guy who would panache St. John’s into UCLA East. But unlike his thick mane, Lavin’s rosters are thin. Unlike his Armani suits, his excuses are cheap. Unlike his gorgeous wife, his results are ugly.

Many of Lavin’s top recruits have proven ineligible, and he hasn’t landed many big fish lately, period.

Most inexcusable is that St. John’s current senior class exits with no Big East Tournament wins in four years. Playing on their home floor. Madison Square Garden. The centerpiece of their recruiting pitches.

“Come play in the World’s Most Famous Arena,” Lavin tells recruits.

And how have you done there, coach?

That’s where the Lavin spin begins yet again.

*** *** ***

Joey Wahler has covered sports in the metropolitan area on TV and radio for more than 20 years. He does updates on WFAN and CBS Sports Radio Network.

 

[ADORAZ]

Got us nowhere? We still made the tournament this year. For anyone not living in the 1980's that's a big accomplishment, and yes it's progress.

I'm by no means 100% on the Lavin bandwagon, but people have such short memories as to how much better the last five years were as opposed to the decade prior.

 

[simplyred]

Hit piece by a Seton Hall fan? Rutgers? Attck the coach if you want, but he seems to take a snipe at the players too. Unfair.

 

[fun]

Hit piece by a Seton Hall fan? Rutgers?

Hit piece by 9 time Emmy nominee.

Unfair.

Waaa.

 

[simplyred]

I like the way you do the multiple quotes. Too much work for me.

 

[jerseyshorejohnny]

Joey is an occasional WFAN 20/20 update guy.

Years ago, co-hosted a local NJ cable TV Show on Garden State High School Sports.


http://newyork.cbslocal.com/personality/joey-wahler/

 

[Spruces2]

Hit piece by a Seton Hall fan? Rutgers?

Hit piece by 9 time Emmy nominee.

Unfair.

Waaa.

Hey - look at the clown! :silly:

Pretty good summary, IMO. The program has undoubtedly made progress under Lavin but not as much as I expected. If things were looking up next year, might be able to stomach rolling the dice w/an extension. Agree that his constant spin and dopey post game interviews are hard to take.

 

[SJU65]

Lets forget about the glory years of Loooie and the "80's.Lets not compare Lavin to that. If you want to be objective about Lavin lets compare him to anyone who came to their program 5 years ago, and lets see how he compares to them. I have no idea where that takes us but I thing its an objective starting point.

 

[redfazed]

Lets forget about the glory years of Loooie and the "80's.Lets not compare Lavin to that. If you want to be objective about Lavin lets compare him to anyone who came to their program 5 years ago, and lets see how he compares to them. I have no idea where that takes us but I thing its an objective starting point.

.

Fred Hoiberg comes to mind. Came to a program 5 years ago that hadn't made the NCAA tourney in years. Worked out fairly well I'd say.

 

[southernjohnny2]

Lets forget about the glory years of Loooie and the "80's.Lets not compare Lavin to that. If you want to be objective about Lavin lets compare him to anyone who came to their program 5 years ago, and lets see how he compares to them. I have no idea where that takes us but I thing its an objective starting point.

.

Fred Hoiberg comes to mind. Came to a program 5 years ago that hadn't made the NCAA tourney in years. Worked out fairly well I'd say.

Iowa state has a huge fan base to begin with. Big money donors to the program, and he was a homerun coach.Should be leaving for NBA soon, so there will be kids available..

 

[fan5577]

Lets forget about the glory years of Loooie and the "80's.Lets not compare Lavin to that. If you want to be objective about Lavin lets compare him to anyone who came to their program 5 years ago, and lets see how he compares to them. I have no idea where that takes us but I thing its an objective starting point.

Why not compare to the eighties? This team should be fighting for a Big East Championship every year, in the new configuration, and making the NCAA every year. I can see both sides of the Lavin argument. I do not think the people who are "pro" Lavin are settling for the status quo. I think they believe he gives us a shot at doing what I said above.
The settling by some of this fan base with the "we can never be what we were" attitude is a bit disturbing. I hear it in the media, that's bad enough, but to hear it from the fan base downright depressing. What "advantage" does a Villanova have the we do not in order to be a threat every year to win this league? Please do not say coach, I am speaking institutionally. The only difference I see is that Villanova has won recently and consistently. If we could do that Coming to St. Johns for a local kid would be a goal. Yes, there will always be kids who want to get away, but there are also kids that would love a viable option here in the city. We have to become that, we can become that. There is no reason we can not win like the 80's. If Villanova can do it so can we.

 

[monte]

Lets forget about the glory years of Loooie and the "80's.Lets not compare Lavin to that. If you want to be objective about Lavin lets compare him to anyone who came to their program 5 years ago, and lets see how he compares to them. I have no idea where that takes us but I thing its an objective starting point.

Why not compare to the eighties? This team should be fighting for a Big East Championship every year, in the new configuration, and making the NCAA every year. I can see both sides of the Lavin argument. I do not think the people who are "pro" Lavin are settling for the status quo. I think they believe he gives us a shot at doing what I said above.
The settling by some of this fan base with the "we can never be what we were" attitude is a bit disturbing. I hear it in the media, that's bad enough, but to hear it from the fan base downright depressing. What "advantage" does a Villanova have the we do not in order to be a threat every year to win this league? Please do not say coach, I am speaking institutionally. The only difference I see is that Villanova has won recently and consistently. If we could do that Coming to St. Johns for a local kid would be a goal. Yes, there will always be kids who want to get away, but there are also kids that would love a viable option here in the city. We have to become that, we can become that. There is no reason we can not win like the 80's. If Villanova can do it so can we.

Agreed completely. If I didn't think it was possible, I'd go find another team to root for. My loyalty is not blind. Get the right guy at the helm and the sky's the limit!

 

[fan5577]

Lets forget about the glory years of Loooie and the "80's.Lets not compare Lavin to that. If you want to be objective about Lavin lets compare him to anyone who came to their program 5 years ago, and lets see how he compares to them. I have no idea where that takes us but I thing its an objective starting point.

Why not compare to the eighties? This team should be fighting for a Big East Championship every year, in the new configuration, and making the NCAA every year. I can see both sides of the Lavin argument. I do not think the people who are "pro" Lavin are settling for the status quo. I think they believe he gives us a shot at doing what I said above.
The settling by some of this fan base with the "we can never be what we were" attitude is a bit disturbing. I hear it in the media, that's bad enough, but to hear it from the fan base downright depressing. What "advantage" does a Villanova have the we do not in order to be a threat every year to win this league? Please do not say coach, I am speaking institutionally. The only difference I see is that Villanova has won recently and consistently. If we could do that Coming to St. Johns for a local kid would be a goal. Yes, there will always be kids who want to get away, but there are also kids that would love a viable option here in the city. We have to become that, we can become that. There is no reason we can not win like the 80's. If Villanova can do it so can we.

Agreed completely. If I didn't think it was possible, I'd go find another team to root for. My loyalty is not blind. Get the right guy at the helm and the sky's the limit!

It's funny; right after I posted this I left to get my son from an appointment, as I was waiting in the car I had on WFAN and someone called in with the question "can St. Johns be Villanova" and our friend Mike said "of course they can".

 

[IDRAFT]

Is more popular than Monasch.

 

[monte]

Lets forget about the glory years of Loooie and the "80's.Lets not compare Lavin to that. If you want to be objective about Lavin lets compare him to anyone who came to their program 5 years ago, and lets see how he compares to them. I have no idea where that takes us but I thing its an objective starting point.

Why not compare to the eighties? This team should be fighting for a Big East Championship every year, in the new configuration, and making the NCAA every year. I can see both sides of the Lavin argument. I do not think the people who are "pro" Lavin are settling for the status quo. I think they believe he gives us a shot at doing what I said above.
The settling by some of this fan base with the "we can never be what we were" attitude is a bit disturbing. I hear it in the media, that's bad enough, but to hear it from the fan base downright depressing. What "advantage" does a Villanova have the we do not in order to be a threat every year to win this league? Please do not say coach, I am speaking institutionally. The only difference I see is that Villanova has won recently and consistently. If we could do that Coming to St. Johns for a local kid would be a goal. Yes, there will always be kids who want to get away, but there are also kids that would love a viable option here in the city. We have to become that, we can become that. There is no reason we can not win like the 80's. If Villanova can do it so can we.

Agreed completely. If I didn't think it was possible, I'd go find another team to root for. My loyalty is not blind. Get the right guy at the helm and the sky's the limit!

It's funny; right after I posted this I left to get my son from an appointment, as I was waiting in the car I had on WFAN and someone called in with the question "can St. Johns be Villanova" and our friend Mike said "of course they can".

People love to say "we're not Duke or Kentucky or Kansas....." Of course we're not. We never were. But we should be right there with the Villanovas and Gonzagas of the college basketball world. There's only one difference between us and those schools. When the administration figures out how eliminate that difference and level the playing field, we'll be right there with them as a perennial top 25/tourney team.

 

[Ray Morgan]

The SJU fan base has been kicked around for so long that some are happy that the kicks to the groin during the Norm years is now just a stomp on the foot. Hey, look at us, some are saying, we made the dance. That didn't happen under Norm. No, it didn't, but it happened plenty under Looie, when far less teams got invited. Now close to one in 5 division 1 teams gets an invite or is in a play-in game. We should expect an invite nearly every year. Especially with a program rich in tradition, with a highly paid staff in one of the world's great cities. I have seen 5 years of coach Lavin. He seems like a special guy, based on the comments of his players. Unfortunately, he doesn't seem like a special coach. He needs to recruit completely loaded rosters to achieve what some coaches can do with a lot less. Without the UCLA brand behind him, he is finding landing those rosters much tougher in Queens. I suppose he still has it in him to land a big class. so that still puts him well ahead of Norm. I don't want Norm, who was also a great guy, to be the dividing line that separates success from failure. We are better than that.

 

[Knight]

The SJU fan base has been kicked around for so long that some are happy that the kicks to the groin during the Norm years is now just a stomp on the foot. Hey, look at us, some are saying, we made the dance. That didn't happen under Norm. No, it didn't, but it happened plenty under Looie, when far less teams got invited. Now close to one in 5 division 1 teams gets an invite or is in a play-in game. We should expect an invite nearly every year. Especially with a program rich in tradition, with a highly paid staff in one of the world's great cities. I have seen 5 years of coach Lavin. He seems like a special guy, based on the comments of his players. Unfortunately, he doesn't seem like a special coach. He needs to recruit completely loaded rosters to achieve what some coaches can do with a lot less. Without the UCLA brand behind him, he is finding landing those rosters much tougher in Queens. I suppose he still has it in him to land a big class. so that still puts him well ahead of Norm. I don't want Norm, who was also a great guy, to be the dividing line that separates success from failure. We are better than that.

If he stays, get some new asst coaches. He needs lots of help that he is not getting.

 

[monte]

The SJU fan base has been kicked around for so long that some are happy that the kicks to the groin during the Norm years is now just a stomp on the foot. Hey, look at us, some are saying, we made the dance. That didn't happen under Norm. No, it didn't, but it happened plenty under Looie, when far less teams got invited. Now close to one in 5 division 1 teams gets an invite or is in a play-in game. We should expect an invite nearly every year. Especially with a program rich in tradition, with a highly paid staff in one of the world's great cities. I have seen 5 years of coach Lavin. He seems like a special guy, based on the comments of his players. Unfortunately, he doesn't seem like a special coach. He needs to recruit completely loaded rosters to achieve what some coaches can do with a lot less. Without the UCLA brand behind him, he is finding landing those rosters much tougher in Queens. I suppose he still has it in him to land a big class. so that still puts him well ahead of Norm. I don't want Norm, who was also a great guy, to be the dividing line that separates success from failure. We are better than that.

If he stays, get some new asst coaches. He needs lots of help that he is not getting.

Good coaches, like good managers, know how to assemble good support staff. He didn't at UCLA and he hasn't here.