Just wanted to give a little kudos to coach Lav who many on here were bashing and calling for his head. Although they are still in need of some big wins, he did a great job Tuesday night at Providence. Team played great, well prepared, and coach went with smart line up and made good use of time outs. Good job coach! Keep it going bs Creighton. Go Johnnies!!!
Coach Lav
- Thread starter cappy105
- Start date
I give credit to Lavin and his staff --and most of all the kids-- for this extremely impressive run. That said, the harsh critiques that were going on as we went 0-5 were fully justified, in my opinion. We basically had just 2 new players of any significance to integrate this season. The disruptive, ever-changing rotations just should have not gone on as long as they did.
That said, onward and upward. Sanity seems to have prevailed, for now. I think everyone here badly wants to see the team to succeed.
Not a Lavin fan, but kudos to him keeping this team mentally prepared to compete, despite being in a deep hole. Also, give him credit for giving prime minutes to Jordan & Obekpa recently. Staff encouragement of Chris,during a tough stretch, should also be acknowledged.
NYCRedmen
Well-known member
I've mostly remained silent on the whole "it's Lavin 's fault" thing partly b/c I believe that you really have to wait until the entire season has been played to make any type of analysis on what went wrong or right. If anything I've been harder on the team at times than the staff. Like everyone, the 0-5 start frustrated me and even now it stings that we didn't pull out some of those early season games. That being said, I am pretty sure that most teams in this league are probably not starting the season with a winning conference record if they had to play at Xavier, at G'Town & home to Villanova right out of the gate. The 2 games that followed are the ones that really hurt b/c had we won those games (both were in our grasp) we are 6-4 right now and in 3rd place. But guess what...that's why you play the games. Every single game left on our schedule is easily a game that we can win or lose, plain & simple. Some feel the season is not salvageable, others have not given up (count me in that group) but one thing is sure, as far as February is concerned, Lavin is looking like a genius so far. 
I think Lavin is doing a nice job now. I still think he did a bad job earlier ,with line up changes, the stupid substitutions, etc. I also think his previous poor coaching cost us some games that might be the difference between dancing or not. That said, we have been looking good lately and I am finally feeling good about this team
I'm certainly not a Lavin fan either, but he deserves credit for the recent run. I truly believe some of the personnel decisions he's made were obvious, and that's not second guessing because plenty of us said so back in November. But I think he deserves credit for holding the team together. That's a big component of the job, and a few weeks ago Obekpa looked completely lost and disinterested, Jakarr was struggling, and Rysheed looked to be hitting the freshman wall.
He held them together and apparently convinced everyone to buy in. Thats a big part of coaching, keeping the team together when things get tough. He deserves credit for that.
He held them together and apparently convinced everyone to buy in. Thats a big part of coaching, keeping the team together when things get tough. He deserves credit for that.
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I just want to point out that performances like what this team is going through or what they went through Lav's first year at STJ are exactly why UCLA fans wanted him gone. Because he's not a great system coach, nor a great tactician, his teams always took time to gel. Slow starts, losses to teams they never should lose to early in the season. Slow starts in conference play were an every year occurrence, after his first season he never finished above 3rd in conference at UCLA, but there, like here, he always had above average talent that learned to play with and trust each other as the season went on. I know that it's UCLA fans but they were calling for his head after his third straight Sweet Sixteen! Part of that is that, as we've seen here, underwhelming and underachieving performances the first 3 months of every season causes ulcers, agita, worry and insanity. Plus it puts you in a difficult position, and this year it might even be one he can't get them out of, though I remain positive.
redstorm89
Active member
well i don't blame anyone for being pissed when we started 0-5. heck i was mad too. However I feel the anger was more because we knew the team was better than it was and that we cared.