Steve Lavin, a savior for St. John's

Steve Lavin / Wikimedia Commons

Steve Lavin had an early start to his coaching career, and has made quite a name for himself in a short amount of time. When he was merely 24 years old, he was the assistant coach at Purdue. In his three years at Purdue, he picked up valuable experience under the tutelage of Gene Keady. He uses what he learned to help win games to this day. Then in 1991 he was hired by UCLA to be an assistant head coach.

In 1995, Lavin saw the team win the 1995 national championship with a 32-1 record. After 5 years of service as the assistant coach, he was promoted to the head coach position with the UCLA Bruins and led the Bruins to the 1997 Pac-10 Championship and the NCAA Elite Eight with an overall record of 24-8 in his first. In his 7 years as head, Lavin compiled a record of 145-78. His first season there, he led the Bruins to the 1997 Pac-10 Championship and the NCAA Elite Eight with an overall record of 24-8.

His impressive performance caught the eye of many, as he had a 12-4 overtime record throughout the course of seven seasons. He also led the team to a 10-4 record against the rival USC Trojans.As both an assistant and head coach, Lavin participated in 13 consecutive NCAA tournament appearances (1990–2002), while working at Purdue University and UCLA. During Lavin's tenure as a head coach, he was one of only two coaches in the country, along with Duke's Mike Krzyzewski, to lead his team to five NCAA "Sweet 16s" in six years ('02, '01, '00, '98, '97). Lavin guided UCLA to six consecutive seasons of 20 or more wins, as well as six consecutive NCAA tournament appearances. After one losing season, he was fired by UCLA, and began his job as an ESPN analyst.

After seven years as an ESPN analyst, he became the head coach at St. John's, although his dream job was to coach Penn State. According to an article published by SNY, “Lavin said St. John's was one of ‘two or three schools in the country’ for which he would have left his broadcasting career at ESPN.” Lavin’s guidance over the St. John's basketball team led the Red Storm to the NCAA championships for the first time in seven years. He powered the team to obtain the sixth seed in the tournament.

Had Lavin not been there to drive the team, they would have gone another year seedless. According to a PennLive.com article, “(The Red Storm) could not make a winning play when it mattered. They could not beat anyone who mattered. They finished 6-12 in the Big East for the school's eighth straight losing conference season. They weren't even an afterthought in a town that worships at the altar of the sport.” The students at the University believe that Lavin could turn around the dismal losing streak of the Red Storm. “Because I'm a student at St.John's, … I actually believe Lavin has a good chance of helping turn around the program here at St.John's,” according to a student's blog. He also has an off the court presence, where he got Dwayne Polee to sign a “National Letter of Intent” to play for the Red Storm.

Steve Lavin has had an illustrious career. Starting out as an assistant coach at Purdue, he worked his way up to head coach of UCLA, where he obtained five Sweet 16 spots in six years. After a brief hiatus, he returned to coaching at St. John's, one of the few schools he was willing to leave his ESPN job for. So far, he has led them to the NCAA championships, where they have the sixth seed. The team would not have made it this far without him.

Reviewing the Red Storm's 2001-2002 NCAA Appearance

Marcus Hatten / Upper Deck

On Thursday night, the Red Storm will face off against Gonzaga in what will be their first NCAA tournament appearance in nine years. It was announced Sunday that they earned the number six seed in the Southeast region. With this new found opportunity for St. Johns, it is important to look back at how they performed last time they qualified.

The Red Storm faced the Wisconsin Badgers on March 15^th, 2002 in the first round of the NCAA East Regional tournament. The Badgers picked up the win with a 80-70 score; however, they did not dominate the majority of the game. The two teams were tied at 24 for most of the first half and Marcus Hatten proved to be a key player from the very start of the game. By the end of the game, Hatten had shot 12-for-33 from the field Hatten made many shots including three pointers early on, putting pressure on the Badgers to score. Wisconsin identified their weaknesses after leading in the first half and had their best player play defense in the second half against Hatten. Freddie Owens stopped Hatten from making any more three pointers and sank 18 points of his own.

The Red Storm was led by three starters, Marcus Hatten, Anthony Glover, and Eric King. The starters guided them throughout the season with their contributions. Hatten averaged 20.1 points per game that season and also 4.5 assists. Anthony Glover also averaged 10.9 points and 6.7 rebounds . Eric King , averaged 7.6 and 4.5 rebounds. Hatten signed with the Los Angeles Clippers as an undrafted free agent and currently plays in Italy. None of the players on that team had long lasting NBA career. Jon Scheiman, reserve guard from the 2002 team, is the brother of our own math teacher David Scheiman.