St. John's Lavin made impact at ESPN, too

The text messages bounce across the continent with every improbable St. John's victory, every upset of a ranked opponent, every move up the Top 25.

ESPN personnel resist rooting for teams they cover, but there is no rule against rooting for people, and no one has more people there rooting for him than Steve Lavin.

"Within our group, everyone is good friends with him and so happy for him," Erin Andrews said. "It'll be like, 'How about Lav?' or 'What about Lav?'

"A producer wrote me the other day, 'This is just getting downright ridiculous.' My dad even texts me about him."

So it has gone for Lavin's former colleagues, who are enjoying the St. John's coach's success as much as the Red Storm's long-suffering fans are.

It is not unusual for coaches to make between-gigs pit stops in Bristol, where the money and visibility ESPN offers come in handy.

But Lavin built a legitimate second career, working seven seasons as an analyst - as many as he spent as head coach at UCLA - and making many friends, including his frequent partners, sideline reporter Andrews and play-by-play man Brent Musburger.

As a result, unlike with many previous coaches-turned-analysts, television types came to view him as one of their own.

"It isn't as though he was visiting and looking for a job all the time; he was a full-time guy," Musburger said. "And he was as easy [to work with] as anybody I have ever dealt with."

Andrews said Lavin "paid his dues" by squeezing wee-hours studio segments into the middle of weeks when he also was on the road.

"He would be in the studio talking about getting his turkey sandwich, plain with the crust cut off, at midnight, and staying at the Residence Inn in Bristol, Connecticut," she said.

"He was friends with the cafeteria people. He was friends with everybody who works there. One of the women who books our travel was at the Duke-St. John's game."

Dan Steir, senior coordinating producer during Lavin's term, said, "If you don't know him and see him on TV with the slicked-back hair, you'd think he's a typical Hollywood type. He is the complete opposite - a meat-and-potatoes Midwesterner in his approach and morals."

As happy as he was at ESPN, Lavin often spoke about eventually returning to coaching, and he nearly left for North Carolina State in 2006.

"The day they brought his name out, I was calling him like crazy and I know Brent was calling him." Andrews said. "His voice mail was full. I was upset because I thought he was leaving."

Musburger said he and Lavin discussed the recruiting challenges he would face from Duke and North Carolina on Tobacco Road. Lavin stayed with the ESPN job and continued to hone his TV skills. It appeared that might be that for his coaching career.

"I thought after the N.C. State thing was over, he was not going to go," Andrews said. "I thought: It's too late now. There's not a connection anymore."

But after Lavin married actress Mary Ann Jarou in 2007, Musburger began to sense he wanted to have a home base and a more settled lifestyle.

"I also think he was probably driven by the fact he was a better coach than people gave him credit for out at UCLA," Musburger said.

No one expected him to prove it quite this emphatically and quickly in his first year at St. John's.

Spending years away from coaching but remaining connected to the game might have been a plus.

"He became a very good student of the coaches and operations we were around, and I think that has served him well," Musburger said.

He never severed his connection to the coaching fraternity, though. Andrews said she and Musburger often would find themselves waiting at the car after games while Lavin lingered and commiserated.

"We're going, 'Come on, we want to go,' and he's talking to the losing coach, saying, 'Yeah, it's a tough one, shake it off,' " she said.

Much to the delight and amusement of his friends in the media, the Lavin who is a national Coach of the Year candidate is an amalgam of a coaching lifer and a TV wordsmith.

"I had to chuckle [after the Pittsburgh game] hearing him call Dwight Hardy's dance down the baseline a 'Baryshnikov,' " Musburger said. "That's Steve.

"It's just fun watching him succeed. If I said I saw it coming right away, no, that wouldn't be truthful. I thought it would take a couple of years. But he's been one of the best stories of the year in college basketball."