St. John's up and down season ends in NCAA birth

Red Storm Coach Steve Lavin / Eric Chan

The 2010-11 season for the St. Johns Red Storm basketball team was a roller coaster ride. In the end the Red Storm earned their NCAA tournament birth for the first time since 2002. In the preseason coaches poll St. Johns did not receive even a single vote for the top 25.

The St. Johns basketball team got off to a rocky start with disappointing losses to the likes of St. Mary’s, Fordham and St. Bonaventure. However, under the guidance of coaching icon Steve Lavin, the Red Storm would turn it around. In the middle of the season the Red Storm encountered a rough patch in their schedule facing eight straight top 25 teams. As expected, St. Johns went only 2-5 in the first 7 of those games. But in the final game of the stretch, they blew out Duke, ranked 3rd in the country at the time. This game sparked the team to go 9-2 for the remainder of the season including impressive victories over then No. 4-ranked Pittsburgh, No. 10-ranked Cincinnati and No.15-ranked Villanova. The Red Storm ranked 17th in the coaches poll to going into the Big East Tournament.

Senior guard Dwight Hardy was the catalyst of the Red Storm. He came up big when it counted the most, including his 26 points in the upset of Duke and a season high of 34 against Villanova. In the Big East tournament, St. Johns had a controversial win over Rutgers in the first round and then fought hard in the second round against Syracuse, but came up short.

St. John's earned a 6th seed in the NCAA tournament. It appears as if St.Johns has been positioned in a portion of the bracket where they could make a run in the tournament. After a first round match up against 11th seeded Gonzaga, potential opponents for the Red Storm are Jimmer Fredette (BYU), 2nd seed Florida, 1st seed Big East rival Pittsburgh, who they have already beaten this season. All of these games will be a challenge for St. John's, but if they can play tough defense as they did in their big wins they have a chance to go deep in the tournament.

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.