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Interesting, I wasn't sure if he'd want to coach again.

I also heard rumors that when he was out of work before landing at SJU he was only interested in jobs in California or NYC metro (largely due to his wife).

I would think Lavin could get a gig better than UAB....

I think lavin, at a mid major level, could have some success. The guy can recruit at the end of the day. But in the big east it wasn't enough. he assembled a roster at St. John's one year with JaKarr Sampson, D'Angelo Harrison, Phil Greene, Dom Pointer, and Rysheed Jordan. Jay Wright, Mack, McDermott, I think any other big east coach takes that team to a sweet sixteen or better. But lavin can't coach, and that team earned a one seed in the NIT, one of the most dissapointing seasons in St John's history.

Lavin isn't a bad guy. Some St. John's fans on redmen or our other forum have hate for him and still do but he isn't a bad guy. I'd root for him if he gets a gig. He supplied johnnie fans with some decent memories. Two tournament appearances, all time St. John's greats such as D'Angelo Harrison and (senior year) Dom Pointer. But this program needs some tournament wins to really revive it completely. Lavin didn't get us there, and it was clear he was never going to assemble a roster better than he already had. But it's in the past. Rant over.

Lavin is/was a great representative for the Big East. I like him as a commentator.

SJUBBALL wrote:I think lavin, at a mid major level, could have some success. The guy can recruit at the end of the day. But in the big east it wasn't enough. he assembled a roster at St. John's one year with JaKarr Sampson, D'Angelo Harrison, Phil Greene, Dom Pointer, and Rysheed Jordan. Jay Wright, Mack, McDermott, I think any other big east coach takes that team to a sweet sixteen or better. But lavin can't coach, and that team earned a one seed in the NIT, one of the most dissapointing seasons in St John's history.

Lavin isn't a bad guy. Some St. John's fans on redmen or our other forum have hate for him and still do but he isn't a bad guy. I'd root for him if he gets a gig. He supplied johnnie fans with some decent memories. Two tournament appearances, all time St. John's greats such as D'Angelo Harrison and (senior year) Dom Pointer. But this program needs some tournament wins to really revive it completely. Lavin didn't get us there, and it was clear he was never going to assemble a roster better than he already had. But it's in the past. Rant over.

"Lavin isn't a bad guy. Some St. John's fans on redmen or our other forum have hate for him and still do but he isn't a bad guy. I'd root for him if he gets a gig. He supplied johnnie fans with some decent memories. Two tournament appearances"

No Lavin isn't a bad guy, just a lazy recruiter. He left Chris with 3 bench players, did he get a single recruit until April when he had to look for a few players to just add to the roster? Atleast Norm left him with 10 seniors, oh and Lavins first appearance was with Norms seniors.

Everyone who knows B.E. basketball know this past season was on Lavin, it was so bad that we probably years away from getting back to the ncaa tourny.

Finally, when Lavin came here, I remember those articles about Lavin when he was at ucla, and I was thinking lol they're mad. Now thinking back to reading them, damn those articles were so right on about him.
So as a SJU fan, and I'm very familiar with this line: WE HAVE TO HAVE PATIENCE.

REDMEN1415 wrote:

SJUBBALL wrote:I think lavin, at a mid major level, could have some success. The guy can recruit at the end of the day. But in the big east it wasn't enough. he assembled a roster at St. John's one year with JaKarr Sampson, D'Angelo Harrison, Phil Greene, Dom Pointer, and Rysheed Jordan. Jay Wright, Mack, McDermott, I think any other big east coach takes that team to a sweet sixteen or better. But lavin can't coach, and that team earned a one seed in the NIT, one of the most dissapointing seasons in St John's history.

Lavin isn't a bad guy. Some St. John's fans on redmen or our other forum have hate for him and still do but he isn't a bad guy. I'd root for him if he gets a gig. He supplied johnnie fans with some decent memories. Two tournament appearances, all time St. John's greats such as D'Angelo Harrison and (senior year) Dom Pointer. But this program needs some tournament wins to really revive it completely. Lavin didn't get us there, and it was clear he was never going to assemble a roster better than he already had. But it's in the past. Rant over.

"Lavin isn't a bad guy. Some St. John's fans on redmen or our other forum have hate for him and still do but he isn't a bad guy. I'd root for him if he gets a gig. He supplied johnnie fans with some decent memories. Two tournament appearances"

No Lavin isn't a bad guy, just a lazy recruiter. He left Chris with 3 bench players, did he get a single recruit until April when he had to look for a few players to just add to the roster? Atleast Norm left him with 10 seniors, oh and Lavins first appearance was with Norms seniors.

Everyone who knows B.E. basketball know this past season was on Lavin, it was so bad that we probably years away from getting back to the ncaa tourny.

Finally, when Lavin came here, I remember those articles about Lavin when he was at ucla, and I was thinking lol they're mad. Now thinking back to reading them, damn those articles were so right on about him.
So as a SJU fan, and I'm very familiar with this line: WE HAVE TO HAVE PATIENCE.

I know he was a lazy recruiter, obviously, any fan of the program knows that this year was Lavins fault because he left a roster with nothing. But I'm not holding a grudge, because if Lavin had a a lot of really good players still on the team, he'd probably still be here. I'm happy with Mullin, and I'm glad that soon we will have no players left from the Lavin era.

But honestly, for people still mad at Lavin, I get it, but our program was an absolute joke before him. There were a lot of johnnies fans up in arms and upset about how bad this year was, we were having years like this every year under Norm. While I wish he could've done a little better and gotten us deep into the tournament, what I'll remember from the Lavin era will be D'Angelo Harrison, not his lack of recruiting in the last year or two. He brought DLo, JaKarr, and Dom Pointer to SJU, and I'm thankful for that.

Maybe I'm not bitter about it still because I am confident in Mullin. I may be the only one in the world, but I think St. John's shocks everyone and makes the tournament next year.

The thing though that you see- when you get a class like what St John's did- and they stick around- it gets very tough to recruit. Kids want playing time, and when you have a group that is taking all the playing time, it's hard to get them there.

look at Seton Hall's recruiting since getting their great 2014 class
2016- 1 4 star player
2015- 2 3 star players- best one played 33.5% of the minutes

The NCAA Tournament after an 8 win season? Damn give me some of that Kool-Aid.

I don't see us getting back until the 18-19 season. I'd be ecstatic to over achieve and just make the NIT next year (Syracuse over achieved this year, why can't we next year?), then I'd say NCAA in 17-18.
The Battle4Atlantis should be a good test to see where they're at.

Lavin knows how to sell himself. He is also a decent color commentator. I just don't see him as a very good coach. I personally think he would make more money as a car salesman than coaching or being a commentator.