Just get me there, I am a ST John's fan. You start winning one NCAA game a year and you are moving into Louie territory.
Question.
Which would you choose? Head coach Norm Roberts with Lavin's staff and players or head coach Steve Lavin with Norm's staff and players?
Choice number 3
Honestly, based purely on Norm's lack of recognition of how good Hardy and Brownlee were I would take Lavin coaching Norm's last year's team.
Norm touted himself on being a big time recruiter and that he could rebuild the program that way, supposedly having been the lead recruiter at Kansas. Overall, Lavin brought in greater talent. No one has had trouble recruiting at UCLA, including Lavin, but at least he showed he could bring in NBA level talent - something Norm could not. Neither was a very good game coach, but I'd take Lavin by a mile over Norm in that regard. Also, people speak of cleaning up the program as if it were like cleaning up mob infiltrated unions. As soon as Jarvis was gone, the stench left also.
When Jarvis left the stench was gone? Maybe his personal stench, but not the program stench. That began on that night in Pittsburgh, after Jarvis was gone. Norm had to recruit with the pungent aroma of some sanctions and tremendous scrutiny, not the least of which was from Father Harrington. He was a stopgap hire that was there to run a clean program because he was so grateful just to have a high major head coaching job. He struck out on every major recruit, but at least he fielded a team that Lavin, with Dunlap's help, ultimately benefited from. Lavin recruited NBA talent, and got little out of them except except a few disappearing acts by Jordan, a few brawls started by Dom, and a nice elbow to the head by Obekpa, after which he got his head set in the privacy of his dorm just in time for the NCAA tourney. I think these threads on Lavin continue because of what he left behind, or better put didn't leave behind. Except his prized European vacation recruit, an athletic guard who can actually play a little whom he stole a year from, and Christian Jones, who showed more under a few months under Mullin than he did in a few seasons under the other fellow.
Pitt happened because the school was too cheap to hire a temporary staff, and there was not enough oversight on the road. Not because of anything Jarvis did, or his successor.
Would you have guessed CO would turn out to be a knucklehead? Even so, people here were still on his side when it looked like he would return for senior season. His stupid suspension likely came out of the lack of knowledge that you can still test positive for marijuana 30 days after using it. I doubt he was the only one on the team who ever smoked. Harkless, Sampson, Jordan, Obekpa, Harrison, Pointer, Greene were all considerably better than what Norm produced overall.
Before you continue the myth that Norm was great at cleaning up the program, he also went after headaches like Stephenson - so he wasn't exactly recruiting altar boys - he just took whatever he could. I don't remember any public disclosure that he had passed on anyone. If Lavin passed on Jordan and CO, other big programs would have grabbed them
