Lavin, Few friendly rivals

DENVER

Watching the NCAA Tournament selection show on Sunday, there was a part of Gonzaga coach Mark Few that was amused when his team's matchup finally was announced and the opponent turned out to be St. John's. Just a year earlier, Few was among the group of friends and family who advised Steve Lavin to hang onto his analyst job at ESPN rather than return to the coaching wars.

Now, two buddies who grew up in the West Coast coaching ranks together find themselves squaring off in their second-round game Thursday. "Coach Lavin has had a storybook return to coaching," Few said. "All of us who know him are happy for him. We know how much he wanted to get back into coaching. To get that many wins in the Big East and that many big-time wins shows how capable they are."

When they were assistants, Few recalled Wednesday, he and Lavin were part of a group that included future head coaches Dan Monson, Mark Turgeon and Ray Giacoletti.

"We were out there scrambling around, staying late in gyms, traveling all over in the month of July recruiting," Few said. "Really good people. We had a lot of fun."

After Lavin's seven-year run as UCLA's coach ended, he took the job with ESPN and stayed with it to the point where it seemed it might go on forever. When a chance to take the North Carolina State job came along, he passed. Before he knew it, he had been at ESPN as long as he was head man at UCLA.

Since he was based on the West Coast for ESPN, Lavin often was assigned to Gonzaga's games. When it became apparent Lavin was getting the coaching itch again, Few said, "I was one of the guys who tried to talk him out of getting back into coaching because he was phenomenal at ESPN. He felt very strongly that he wanted to get back in."

The urge to return to coaching took root with Lavin about a year and a half before the St. John's job opened up. Whenever he visited with Few, the question of what to do surfaced.

"There would be a subsequent discussion on the pros and cons about this business," Lavin said of Few. "From his perspective, like many others close to me, they felt I had the ideal situation at ESPN, where you're close to the game but you never lose a game.

"But I began to miss competing at the highest level and the camaraderie that develops with a staff and a group of players as you work toward the goal of playing in the NCAA Tournament and do something meaningful and special that you will remember for a lifetime."

Lavin took over a group of nine seniors who never had finished higher than 13th in the Big East, and now, they're a sixth seed in the NCAA Tournament going against a tournament-tested Gonzaga team making its 13th straight appearance. St. John's must adjust to the loss of versatile D.J. Kennedy, who tore up his right knee in their last game. Lavin described his loss as "devastating," but said the key is for everyone to contribute without any one player "trying to become a hero."

Lavin has slipped comfortably back into the coaching mold and turned the Red Storm into a team capable of beating anyone in the country. This is where Lavin and St. John's are supposed to be. "It does feel comfortable," Lavin said. "There were difficult stretches over the course of the season, but overall, it's been seamless in terms of feeling right at home coaching basketball."