I have to hand it to the AD--this was a good hire. Not a grand slam home run, but a solid double. And especially given how the hiring search was going, it looked like they were going to be lucky just to make contact.
Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of good coaches out there. Probably some guys coaching in the America East Conference or Patriot League with even better in-game management, as X's and O's guys.
But Lavin brings some cache.
U. C. L. A. That is as big as it gets in college hoops, and a guy who had some success over there is now coaching the Johnnies. 5 sweet sixteens and 6 NCAA tourneys in 7 years is nothing to sneeze at. The lofty expectations in Westwood may have cost Lavin his job b/c he did a very good, but not exceptional job, in his 7 years there. But that was a decade ago. Lavin was 32 when he began at UCLA. At 45, he's had the benefit of much more life experience, and plenty of time picking the brains of the many basketball coaches he's worked with and analyzed during his time at ESPN.
Lavin is a great age to take over a program at 45. He has 15-25 of coaching in him if his heart is in it. He has the name recognition to bring in big time recruits (twice while at UCLA he brought in the top class in the nation). He'll just be hitting his stride at St. John's as Boeheim and Calhoun are calling it quits. There will be more room at the top of the Big East for the program with the acumen to grab it.
St. John's still faces a lot of challenges: recruiting top shelf talent to come to a commuter school that is on an unimpressive campus in a semi-urban envirornment, facilities that are not top shelf, convincing pampered elite recruits that they should play second fiddle in New York instead of being worshipped (and serviced by coeds) in places like Chapel Hill, Lawrence, Storrs, and Lexington.
I don't know if those challenges can be overcome. But there was no one on the table, including those who turned the job down (Hewitt and Greenberg), who I think are better suited to the task at hand.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I agree, this was a good win given how slim the pickings were getting. Although some critics complain that Lavin doesn't have any east coast ties, I'd say his bigger name recognition (and tourney success) will do more to haul in recruits than some lesser names who simply happen to have connections to LI/NY schools.
If SJU were smart, they would try to negotiate some sort of TV rights in the tri-state area. They clearly are not big enough and successful enough to do what ND football has done with NBC on a national level, but it is conceivable that they might be able to do something with local CBS. This type of TV coverage, even if they only guaranteed a few games a year, would help in recruiting players.
I think most of their games are already televised on SNY. Don't know how long until the contract is up, but I think they'd have to up their game considerably before it would be worthwhile.
Post a Comment