SAN DIEGO — Steve Lavin, an NCAA Match common in 12 seasons as coach at UCLA and St. John’s, was employed Wednesday evening to take over the struggling program on the College of San Diego.
The 57-year-old Lavin replaces Sam Scholl, who was fired March 6 after the Toreros went 15-16 in a 3rd straight dropping season. San Diego has had simply 4 successful seasons and one NCAA Match look underneath three coaches since Brad Holland was fired after going 18-14 in 2006-07.
Athletic director Invoice McGillis stated Lavin had been a candidate for the reason that starting of the month-long search course of.
“I just think it’s a great alignment. I think under his leadership we have a chance to catapult to new heights,” stated McGillis, who had dinner with Lavin close to campus on Wednesday evening.
Lavin was 145-78 at UCLA in seven seasons from 1996-2003. He took the Bruins to the Elite Eight in his first season and made 4 different Candy 16 appearances. He was fired after UCLA went 10-19 in 2002-03, the one season he didn’t get the Bruins into the NCAAs.
He was 92-72 at St. John’s from 2010-15, with two NCAA Match berths and two NIT appearances. Lavin left St. John’s in 2015 after going 21-12. That season ended with a 76-64 loss to San Diego State within the first spherical of the NCAA Match.
Lavin has labored for a number of seasons as a university basketball analyst on tv.
“I considered a lot of outstanding coaches but in the end I just felt that he was the best fit for elevating the level of success on the court,” McGillis stated.
Lavin up to date his Twitter bio with “(at)USDMBB Head Coach” at one level Wednesday night earlier than deleting that. Shortly after McGillis tweeted affirmation of the hiring, Lavin restored that line.
“I think I told him his Twitter account got hacked,” McGillis joked. “He just decided to subtly share the good news before the rest of us.”
Steve Lavin hired as hoops coach at struggling San Diego initially appeared on NBCSports.com
