Thursday, November 7, 1996
LAVIN:
Successful career precedes promotion of young, playful
assistantBy Kristina L. Wilcox
Daily Bruin Contributor
"This is my line of defense," said basketball coach Steve Lavin
while gesturing to the green wind-up frogs positioned at the head
of his desk. He proceeds to wind one of these little toys up, and
the frog shuffles across the desk, moving its arms up and down.
"A person is a better athlete when he plays a game in the
stance," says Lavin. "He is low to the ground, feet and hands are
apart."
Following his unexpected promotion to head coach of UCLA’s men’s
basketball team Wednesday, Lavin’s players will need to be ‘in
their stance’ all the more often.
Lavin proceeds to pick up the wind-up crab that serves as the
post player on his toy basketball team. "John Wooden called this
activity without achievement." The crab skitters around, but its
arms do not move.
The last toy he introduces to the demonstration is a Yosemite
Sam Pez dispenser. Laughing, Lavin says that this is a guy that you
do not want on your team because he has no stance whatsoever.
The youngest of six children, a bit of the child still remains
in this 32-year-old man. "Steve was a fun-loving kid who was always
the center of attention and the ‘class clown,’" said Jim Saia, the
newest assistant coach on staff and longtime friend of Lavin.
Born on Sept. 4, 1964 to Cap and Mary Lavin, Steve was destined
for a life in basketball. His father was named the high school Bay
Area Basketball Player of the Decade in high school for the 1940s,
and was team captain at the University of San Francisco where he
played for Hall of Fame coaches Pete Newell and Phil Woolpert. Cap
was drafted by the Minneapolis Lakers but decided to become a high
school English teacher in favor of pursuing an NBA career.
Coach Lavin recalls one Christmas when each of the six Lavin
children received their own leather Wilson basketballs. This was a
"big deal" for a family being raised on a teacher’s salary.
"The family is kind of an anchor," Steve once said in an
interview with a Bay Area newspaper. "The older you get, the more
you appreciate being around your family."
With this appreciation in mind, Lavin founded the Lavin
Basketball Camp in 1984. The youth program runs through the summer
in Northern California, and attracts the likes of John Wooden, Jim
Harrick, Purdue’s Gene Keady and former Bruin All Americans Ed
O’Bannon and Tyus Edney. Cap and Steve’s sister Rachel Lavin Moore
are also heavily involved in the running of the camp.
"The Lavin family represents everything that is good about
basketball," Harrick said last year. "The Lavins are exceptional
teachers and super people."
Steve has been a coach at the Division I level since 1988,
beginning when he was hired by Coach Keady as an assistant for the
Boilermaker program. Lavin described his initial position in the
program as being the "cream and sugar in (Keady’s) coffee" guy, as
he was only 24 years old and fresh out of college.
It was under Keady where Lavin developed much of his defensive
knowledge, centering around the importance of conditioning,
quickness, concentration, mental toughness and communication.
In 1991, while assisting Keady at the USA Pan American Team
Trials, Lavin’s teaching skills caught the eye of Harrick. The
ex-UCLA head man hired Lavin away from Purdue shortly
thereafter.
Lavin welcomed the return to the West Coast, as it gave him the
opportunity to be closer to his family and their basketball camp.
More significantly, however, it gave him the chance to be an
intricate part of one of the most storied college basketball
programs ever.
"UCLA is on the cutting edge," Lavin said. "We are going a mile
a minute."
After Wednesday’s upheaval, UCLA’s basketball program will be
going even faster as it struggles to adjust for the upcoming
season. But this is the kind of situation that Lavin thrives
on.
"He is going to work his rear off to justify being bumped up to
head coach," said Pete Newell.
And he is likely to enjoy it.
"Coaching is the most natural job for me. It combines working
with people and basketball, my two passions in life," Lavin said.
"I’m being paid for something that I would do for free."