Five-year run ends as sides have ‘agreed to part ways’
LOS ANGELES — It started with “lovin’ Lavin.” It ends with “Lavin leaving.”
St. John’s brought an end to Steve Lavin’s run as head basketball coach on Friday by announcing the parties had “mutually agreed to part ways” and that the school has begun a national search for a new coach.
Two sources told the Daily News that although a contract extension was discussed, one was never offered, and Lavin was informed that the school was making the move on Friday afternoon. Athletic director Chris Monasch delivered the news via a phone call. “Coach Lavin returned high expectations to our men’s basketball program and represented St. John’s in a positive way,” Monasch said in the school’s announcement. “We look forward to building on this foundation as we strive to continue the tradition of success that the St. John’s basketball program has achieved for more than 100 years,” first-year president Conrado (Bobby) Gempesaw said in the statement.
St. John’s could try to tap into that tradition in picking a successor for Lavin — possibly alums Chris Mullin or Mark Jackson. Other names surely to be discussed are URI’s Dan Hurley and Buffalo’s Bob Hurley. Manhattan’s Steve Masiello, Iona’s Tim Cluess and Davidson’s Bob McKillop could also be in the mix.
Mullin is currently an adviser to the Sacramento Kings. Reached Friday by the Daily News, he said no one had approached him about that job. Asked if the job would interest him, he replied, “Not right now. I’m trying to get us ready for the draft.”
But action probably is needed soon. The Storm’s highest-profile recruit, Louisiana guard Brandon Sampson, is reportedly reopening his recruiting and still is willing to consider St. John’s. Lavin, 50, will probably not be out of work long. Within hours of leaving the Johnnies he was connected to openings at DePaul and Arizona State. A source said ESPN would also have an interest in bringing him back as an analyst.
The Lavin news came a week after the Red Storm was eliminated from the NCAA Tournament with a 12-point Round of 64 loss to San Diego State in Charlotte. The Johnnies were making their second tournament appearance under Lavin and first since 2011, when he helped them end a nine-year NCAA Tournament drought. But the suspension of starting center Chris Obekpa for failing a drug test first overshadowed the celebration of getting in on March 17 and played a big part in the Johnnies’ undoing on the court last week.
A source told The News that SJU administrators “thought it was a potentially good moment ruined in embarrassing fashion.”
Other issues that also mitigated the success of this 21-12 season for St. John’s included a junior-college recruit having a falsified transcript, a high school recruit being declared academically ineligible, point guard Rysheed Jordan using a homophobic slur in a Twitter post and Obekpa getting ejected from a game for throwing an intentional and unprovoked elbow. But there may have been signs that things would turn out this way as far back as last winter. Lavin had hosted a fund-raising dinner at a Manhattan hotel, and some in attendance thought the president’s remarks to the gathering were disrespectful to the coach. Those remarks included heaping praise on the women’s basketball program as exemplary.
Some found fault with Lavin’s management style and even felt that he wasn’t on campus enough and preferred to conduct the program’s business from his home in Manhattan, a source in the administration said.
In five seasons Lavin was 81-55 and 4032 in Big East play, including a 2-2 overall mark in 2011-12, when Mike Dunlap filled in for Lavin when the former UCLA coach had surgery for prostate cancer. St. John’s won 20 games three times in his five years and produced NBA players in Maurice Harkless and JaKarr Sampson. In the two NCAA tourneys, two NITs and five Big East tournaments, Lavin was an aggregate 2-8.
More importantly, he raised the national profile of a program that was once elite but had been embarrassed by a sex scandal, had vacated wins and tasted little success. And he did it without running afoul of NCAA rules and while boosting the program’s Academic Progress Rate. “In life change is inevitable, so I take the long view,” Lavin said in the statement.
“I’m grateful for my time teaching at St. John’s University.”