Lavin failed to blend talent to create team

otis · Mar 19, 2014

The bottom line is that this season Coach Steve Lavin failed to blend the talent on his team to create team chemistry.

Good coaches create team chemistry. This season's StJohns team frequently played as disjointed parts without chemistry or purpose. Lavin's apologists can spin facts as they wish but there is no comparison between the talent and results obtained by Ed Cooley with the talent which Lavin had to work with and the results his team attained.

Yeah, Lavin will be back next season to coach StJohns but the StJohns Administration should demand that he shake up his staff.

monte · Mar 19, 2014

I'll take it a step further Otis and say that he failed to recruit the right balance of kids to create team chemistry. As much as everyone has touted Lavin's recruiting prowess, a huge part of recruiting is not just grabbing top 100 talent, but finding those kids who fill rolls. He simply hasn't done that and I am skeptical that he has the ability to do that.

newsman13 · Mar 19, 2014

I don't know whether it's team chemistry, or getting the players to go hard for 40 minutes.

redmanwest · Mar 19, 2014

I think it is all of the above, and the fact that he recruits "athletes" not smart, fundamentally sound basketball players. I think these guys as a group are overrated as basketball players. Great physical specimens, great athletic attributes, but in terms of BB IQ and skills (shooting, foul shooting, rebounding, defense....), they are severely lacking. I would categorize Only D'Angelo and Jordan as good BB players. I would include Branch as well, but Lavin has limited his role so much so that it is hard to see consistency. The rest are just a jumble of spare parts that, as stated, have not been woven into a coherent bunch. The other disturbing aspect I see is "heart." I don't now how a team can come up so flat in every one of the big games that they had to play this year. And, I include the NIT game in that as well. It may not have lead to a national championship, but it certainly was important for next year's team psyche, as well as recruiting, program recognition, team and personal pride.....I can only attribute their failure to show up as a lack of heart, and the fact that they are still caught up reading their H.S. press clippings.

SJU1512 · Mar 19, 2014

Agreed, Otis. Obviously, we had a stretch in the middle of the season where things were really clicking. But it remained inconsistent, as we fell right back into the incohesive efforts at critical junctures later in the season (Xavier, Providence).

I think the best thing that can happen for this program right now is for Lavin to stay, all considered. But if we are comparing him to Ed Cooley? There is currently no comparison. Forget the small sample size of Providence edging us out for the tournament, as you can't take much away from what happens in one game. But with the exception of the first half explosion at Providence, Cooley coached the pants off Lavin in 5/6 halves this year. And Cooley was the one who actually caught most of the bad breaks, yet Lavin is the one you hear making excuses/caveats while Cooley found a way to generate results. It's absurd.

Also agreed, Monte. We lack D.J. Kennedy and Paris Horne type players. I always appreciated those two, but I don't think I ever have more after watching this season. With Jordan and Harrison, I am unconcerned with our ability to contend in terms of 1A players. What we don't have is really solid #2s and 3s who do the little things and give you consistency on both ends from game to game.

Mean Gene · Mar 19, 2014

I agree to certain extent Monte. What I think happened here is that when Lavin took the job he went on a recruiting frenzy and just signed the best and highest rated players that he could get just to up the talent level as fast as he could. The problem is that in doing what he did, the way he did it, I don't think he cared to much if all the talents of the kids he was bringing meshed the proper way and complimented each other as to create a cohesive unit when they were all playing together. Hopefully going forward he recruits with that in mind.

Ray Morgan · Mar 19, 2014

I saw 3 or 4 consistent issues in every loss:
1.Failure to recognize and defend the other team's 3 point shooters
2. Failure to stop penetration (which resulted in kick outs and many open 3's)
3. Not rebounding the basketball well enough on either end. (The stats say we were about even with our opponents on both the offensive and defensive glass, but when you shoot poorly, you better board, and when you have a huge athletic edge on every opponent, you should have a huge rebounding edge)
4. Total failure to play a team game on both ends of the floor. On offense, that meant returning tothe bad habit of one on one play and poor shot selection.
During the nice run after the 0 and 5 start, we played as a team. Guys relied on and trusted each other. Then they reverted to old habits when it really counted.

As for Lavin's recruiting shortcomings, we certainly are missing lunch pail guys that both know their role, accept their role, and execute their role. That's why there seems to be attitude issues with several players. The other problem is I can't find significant improvement in even one player. Pointer, in fact, is regressing. Sampson took half the year to look like the player he was as a freshman. Greene? Gift? No chance. Obekpa only slight improvement, in select games, on the offensive end. Only Jordan improved, and that's because he had such a poor start. Th bright side is that these players showed they can achieve big things. I just don't see a willingness to do what it takes to get there.

doodyny33 · Mar 19, 2014

The truly discouraging thing about this year is I repeatedly saw kids mailing it in out there on the court. It's one thing if your opponent is better than you and beating you due to lack of skill. It's quite another when you are giving it 50% and your opponent is beating you because they want it more.

I honestly don't understand how Lavin could accept that over and over. If I had a player that was repeatedly phoning it in, he'd never see the court. This is a team that has talent, but could care less about doing the little things necessary to win basketball games. And while that is a very poor reflection on the coaching staff, it is an even worse reflection on the players themselves. Except for a couple of players, there was very little heart on this team.

paultzman · Mar 19, 2014

Number of games where dug deep holes was disconcerting.

Ray Morgan · Mar 19, 2014

I think it's an easy out to excuse poor play or explain losing by saying the team "mailed it in". What I saw was a lack of execution, and a me first attitude. To execute, you need a game plan, and there was no evidence of that in the losses. Too much selfish play. Sweat was pouring off every player on both teams. Morris came in with a plan. Get shots for their scorers from 3, and play the 2-3 and expose SJU's poor shooting and especially poor decision making. The only thing that worked was the ton of open looks for Hooper and Bourgualt. Why? Because it was obvious that their coach did not plan to see either one on the court. We come in knowing who their shooters are, and we don't even make it tough on them.

kranmars · Mar 19, 2014

Otis, you too with the use of "apologist." I guess you missed my rant on another thread on how I loathe that word because it is so overused here.

While Cooley gets all the accolades for intalling a team concept, if some of his recrruits played, that PC team would not function as a team. Not to mention, Cotton wad a one man gang gor them for most of the season. Good for him for doing what he did to get the most from what he had.

By the way, Wright has had his shares of poorly constructed teams as well. Just thought I would help along any Villanova talk.

MainMan · Mar 19, 2014

"Sheep" is gaining momentum and may over take "apologist" among the more hysterical members. Alas, my personal preference "sheeple" is still lagging behind.

kranmars · Mar 19, 2014

In the long run however, sheeple has the best opportunity to supplant apologist. Once it starts, it will spread like wildfire.

monte · Mar 19, 2014

Agreed. But he had Ron Roberts (and let him go!) who would have been the kind of solid 4 year guy who we could have used. His answer to finding 2nd tier kids is to pick up a Max or Marco who, with all due respect, were one dimensional situation players at best. I'm talking about kids who can contribute consistently throughout the game(on both ends) not just situationally. I am concerned that Lavin is more concerned with getting the "big name" recruits because those are the ones that make headlines when they sign. Lavin has not shown that he is capable of identifying those kinds of kids, or is not willing to seek them out. Or maybe both.

GardenCity62 · Mar 19, 2014

Last night at CA after 5 min game time I thought back to the S F St. Div 2 exhibition and had the same conclusion. If you held try outs for a team and players came in without reputation Greene , Branch and Pointer would be the first players cut of the regular backcourt men.
In college BB the backcourt players of both S F St and Robert Morris are better by a significant margin.Maybe not as high school players but right now there there is no comparison.
These three players should be told their playing time will be reduced significantly next year leaving their playing time to Harrison, Jordan , Balamou and whoever else the staff can bring in at this late date. Transferring should be encouraged.The SJU fan base has an inflated evaluation of just about all their players.Harkless making the pros has caused a wild over valuation of this roster.

otis · Mar 19, 2014

Ron Roberts had a solid career at StJosephs and will be playing in the NCAAs this week. In hindsight Roberts is probably glad that he ended up at StJoe's rather than StJohns.

Ray Morgan · Mar 19, 2014

The problem I see is when your team is primarily made up of fundamentals lacking, highlight reel dunking, volume shooting me first players, you have a hard time landing high IQ, team oriented talent. Remember how out of place Timmy Doyle looked? See how fast he bailed on a style of play so different from the team concept game he played? Kansas and Kentucky get incredible athletes, but their athletes are more complete players than the athletes Lavin can get. Lavin got some great athletes in Dom, Sampson, Chris, Balamou and Jones. Even Polee before. But where are the players that make others better? Where are the players that can accept a limited role, and not complain? Where are the multi dimensional players like D.J Kennedy was?

MarkRedman · Mar 19, 2014

I don't know whether it's team chemistry, or getting the players to go hard for 40 minutes.[/quote]

Speaking to that issue, Branch is quoted in an article in today's Newsday, "We didn't give it our all until the last seven minutes"
That's not a chemistry program
When I coached high school basketball, I would sit any kid who wasn't giving 100% effort on the court
If you need to sub a whole new five to deliver the message, so be it
Kids are going to make mental and physical errors but not giving it 100% at all times is inexcusable IMO
If the coach is accepting less than 100% effort, shame on him!!

redfazed · Mar 19, 2014

Listening to Lavin, you would think our group of young people has endured personal struggles that are second to none.

From today’s NY Times---this is who we lost to last night:

“The senior Karvel Anderson, the Northeast Conference player of the year, led Robert Morris with a game-high 38 points.

Before Anderson enrolled at Robert Morris, he was briefly homeless and living in a park in his hometown, Elkhart, Ind.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/19/s...ntment-carries-over-to-the-very-end.html?_r=0

beast of the east · Mar 19, 2014

Look, let's be fair about this. Just about every inner city kid has experienced violent deaths of friends and family, gang violence, drugs, poverty, and street crime. To my knowledge nor anyone's knowledge once you get past the Brigham Young's of the world, all programs have their share of that. But to diminish the problems our guys have had because they are well known entities for many college athletes, is insensitive and boarish.

Lavin failed to blend talent to create team

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