Former UCLA basketball coach Steve Lavin has had multiple
meetings with long-time friend and mentor Gene Keady this week
about becoming the lead assistant at Purdue, a source at the
university said.
The source indicated that Lavin ““ a former Boilermaker
assistant coach from 1989-91 ““ would only accept the job if
his contract guaranteed that he would succeed Keady as Purdue head
coach after the 2004-05 season.
Lavin tentatively scheduled a meeting with Purdue President
Martin C. Jischke for Tuesday, and cannot be offered the job until
then.
According to the source, Iowa State has contacted Lavin about
its vacant head coaching position, and is also mulling a lucrative
offer from ESPN that would pay him $500,000 per year to become its
top college basketball analyst.
He has also had talks with Fox Sports Net and CBS, and hopes to
finalize his plans for the season by the end of next week.
Speculation about Lavin returning to West Lafayette began after
long-time Boilermaker assistant Bruce Weber took the head coaching
job at Illinois ““ despite rumors that he was being groomed to
succeed Keady at Purdue. Nonetheless, there are signs that Keady
first approached Lavin about the job months ago.
According to a source close to the UCLA program, Lavin met with
Keady in late November before the Bruins played Duke at the Wooden
Tradition in Indianapolis. The two coaches had preliminary talks
about the possibility of Lavin ““ who was still employed by
UCLA at the time of the meeting ““ joining the Purdue staff in
the future if he were to be unemployed after the season.
Lavin was fired in March after his seventh season as the UCLA
basketball head coach, and has publicly expressed interest in
returning to Purdue.
“Some of my most rewarding years in coaching were my years
as an assistant at Purdue and then at UCLA,” Lavin told The
Journal and The Courier. “Because of my special feelings for
coach Keady, Purdue and greater Lafayette, this is one of the few
places I would consider being an assistant coach.”
Lavin appears to have the support of Keady. If he can convince
the Purdue administration that he is the right man to take the
reins once Keady retires, the job will likely be his for the
taking.