Lavin
- Thread starter ccnobz
- Start date
Lavin was gracious; said he enjoyed his time with SJU; regretted DJKennedy's injury and Obepka's behavior or the results would've been better in those years;
said - understandably - his own cancer and his Dad's death were the hardest part of those years (tears);
that being the SJU coach is a big undertaking and no one has reach the Carnasecca pinnacle but Mullin can; Chris Mullin is galvanizing the fan base; that the future is bright...
Finally the BE is back with a force
I thought no I got that right...listened a few hours ago while driving
all the best
PS pardon any misspellings
redmen1969
Active member
Lavin was gracious; said he enjoyed his time with SJU; regretted DJKennedy's injury and Obepka's behavior or the results would've been better in those years;
said - understandably - his own cancer and his Dad's death were the hardest part of those years (tears);
that being the SJU coach is a big undertaking and no one has reach the Carnasecca pinnacle but Mullin can; Chris Mullin is galvanizing the fan base; that the future is bright...
Finally the BE is back with a force
I thought no I got that right...listened a few hours ago while driving
all the best
PS pardon any misspellings
Sounds like he said all the right things.
Lavin was gracious; said he enjoyed his time with SJU; regretted DJKennedy's injury and Obepka's behavior or the results would've been better in those years;
said - understandably - his own cancer and his Dad's death were the hardest part of those years (tears);
that being the SJU coach is a big undertaking and no one has reach the Carnasecca pinnacle but Mullin can; Chris Mullin is galvanizing the fan base; that the future is bright...
Finally the BE is back with a force
I thought no I got that right...listened a few hours ago while driving
all the best
PS pardon any misspellings
Yes, you covered it all , he was always a good interview. He also added losing Obepka last season really hurt. Did it ever we were one big body away from beating SDST.
Lavin is a good guy. And I think he had bad luck with recruiting. Harmless and Jakarr leaving after 1 year; missing out on Gathers and Pelle, the early blowup of Lindsey, and his coaching limits doomed him and the team to some exciting but, overall, disappointing years.
Good guy.
Now let's do it with Mullin & Crew.
Good guy.
Now let's do it with Mullin & Crew.
MarkRedman
Well-known member
Johnny Fan is 100% correct
Lavin is not a good guy - he "mailed it in" and gladly took the big paycheck
He was a lazy recruiter after his first year
It is Lavin's fault that Mullin inherited an absolute mess this year
Don't be fooled by that smile - in the end, Lavin did us more harm than good
Johnnies91
Member
Anyone have a link of where I can listen?
I'd say Lavin started slacking in the recruiting after his 2nd year because he worked his ass off while having the cancer thing after Gathers decomitted and worked on Obekpa and rerecruting Jakaar when we all thought they weren't coming
After that I think he started the downward.
The thing that I don't get is when people act like he was satan. He was an average coach who gave us 1 remarkable season which got crushed when DJ got hurt but he went out of his way to be super nice to anyone who met him and he remembers you when you see him again
Personally I think after the whole cancer thing maybe that changed him. But he cashed his check just like every single one of us do and while I'd like to think we all give 100% in our jobs I highly doubt it because I see plenty of slackers in my profession but that doesn't make them bad people either
Now I'm sure people will bring up some sort of fbi profile on him but I'm just going from my own personal experiences meeting him and everyone who had met him on this site whether it be on the street or at functions
Average coach. Maybe he got lazy. I'm not even going to argue that because bottom line his results should have been better. But he isn't a bad guy
As many excuses as you think Lavin had Norm had 100 times more for someone who accomplished nothing in professional life other than being a good assistant. And Jarvis was plain arrogant to some
Then you have probably hated every coach we have ever had up until now
I don't think any other ex-coach except Lavin had the complete package
Lavin always treated people with respect who he met or at least the many people I know who he met
There is a reason they changed their wedding because of too many people rsvp'ing. If he wasn't a good guy he wouldn't have a lot of friends
I'll tell you a quick story. The year Lavin was out for the cancer one of the members who doesn't post here often was having a fundraiser for cancer after an msg game at stout ( I think he was a cancer survivor who was still in college at the time ) Lavin ends up showing up with Mary and hung out for a long time talking to people. ( he talked to olv72 and some of the other 114 guys outside the entrance for a while and told them directly we were getting karr and chris when we all fhought no way ) OLV can verify this.
Anywas as we were at one of the back bars we meet some guys around my age from boston. We get to talking hoops and I asked them how were these normal blue collar boston guys sju fans down here. They told me they weren't sju fans they were lavin fans. I asked them why and they were actually down here to see Lavin for dinner. They met him years before while he was at ucla after a game and they struck up a friendship that lasted over time and they talk often. So here are these blue collar boston buys who have literally nothing to offer Lavin since they aren't in the hoops scene who Lavin maintained a friendship with them for no other reason that they hit it off talking and he thought they were good dudes.
If Lavin was a bad guy he wouldn't have had these guys from boston who have nothing to offer him professionally drive all the way down from boston to go to dinner with him and Mary after the SJU game when he is still recovering from cancer and could just have easily just rather go home or go to dinner with his wife
mj,
In the scheme of StJohn's basketball, what difference does it make whether your pal "Lav" was a "good guy"?
The fact of the matter is that Lav was reportedly paid a big time salary by StJohn's of $2M per year with the expectation that he would build a winning program but failed to do so by recording a mediocre in conference winning percentage of just 57% during which time Lav failed to balance the roster, failed to recruit sufficient quantity of Big East talent, and failed to control on and off court drama, the combination of which the Administration found unacceptable.
Yeah, it's great that you and others shared personal moments with Lav but the reality is that despite being a "good guy" he has failed at both of his 2 head coaching jobs having been fired at UCLA and StJohn's. Despite being a "good guy" there is no evidence that any college is beating Lav's door down to hire him to coach next season.
Like yourself, I speak to people associated with college basketball programs. A close friend that is paid associate with an ACC team regularly mocked the work ethic of "good guy" Lav and his staff of the recruiting trail. That same individual does not mock the work ethic of Mullin,who as you have pointed out, sometimes sits on the scorers table.
The reality is that Lavin left the StJohn's program with less talent than he inherited from Norm Roberts.
Lavin is history. It is time to look forward.
In the scheme of StJohn's basketball, what difference does it make whether your pal "Lav" was a "good guy"?
The fact of the matter is that Lav was reportedly paid a big time salary by StJohn's of $2M per year with the expectation that he would build a winning program but failed to do so by recording a mediocre in conference winning percentage of just 57% during which time Lav failed to balance the roster, failed to recruit sufficient quantity of Big East talent, and failed to control on and off court drama, the combination of which the Administration found unacceptable.
Yeah, it's great that you and others shared personal moments with Lav but the reality is that despite being a "good guy" he has failed at both of his 2 head coaching jobs having been fired at UCLA and StJohn's. Despite being a "good guy" there is no evidence that any college is beating Lav's door down to hire him to coach next season.
Like yourself, I speak to people associated with college basketball programs. A close friend that is paid associate with an ACC team regularly mocked the work ethic of "good guy" Lav and his staff of the recruiting trail. That same individual does not mock the work ethic of Mullin,who as you have pointed out, sometimes sits on the scorers table.
The reality is that Lavin left the StJohn's program with less talent than he inherited from Norm Roberts.
Lavin is history. It is time to look forward.
I had almost forgot how many excuses Norm would make after every, single loss (and, there were many..... losses and excuses). He also started doing too much whining on the sidelines. Jarvis came off too much like a goody two-shoes. Mahoney couldn't coach his way out of a wet, paper bag. His time at St. John's, other than his first season, felt like being cooped up in a water torture cell.... Horrible.
I'm a Redskins fan, and Norv Turner and Jim Zorn were the pits. Turner had the same freakin' spiel after each loss (paraphrase).... "What we do works." Hearing him say that was like listening to Roseanne Barr attempt to sing. He never really seemed confident, IMO, either. I said my piece a time or two once he was gone, then moved on.
Some folks act if they're jealous of Lavin or something. Did Lavin piss on some of y'all's ride? Banged your woman or someone you would've liked to banged? Kicked your dog or cat? I haven't liked several coaches from teams that I like, but once they're gone, then so be it. Great! Good riddance!
It's not that serious in the grand scheme of things. Folks wanted him gone and still can't stop talking about him. It's like breaking up with a woman, and still being perturbed with her and talk about her at every, single turn. The previous one may have left you with a couple of unpaid bills that needs taken care of, but that should be cleared up very shortly. If you truly believe your new "woman" is better than the previous, and things will eventually turn out A-OK in the end, then who gives a rat's arse about the one you booted.
Hi Mark! Thanks for your post.
My intention was to summarize the interview of Lavin by Mike F who ( the latter) actually reassured fans SJU is going to be fine, they have players coming...I did not intend to gloss over the issues and/or faults under the Lavin regime...in fact your observation that Chris Mullin "inherited an absolute mess" - well I would express/characterize that in even stronger terms:
Chris Mullin inherited an expansion team with no talent at all...Choo Choo Coleman would have starred...on the star-less, player- less situation CM inherited!
all the best