Steve Lavin Put St. John's Red Storm Back On the Map

The St. John’s Red Storm needed a solid outing in the 2015 NCAA tournament. Unfortunately, they were booted out of their first game of the dance. Now, head coach Steve Lavin will have to look for work elsewhere.

St. John’s and head coach Steve Lavin mutually agree to part ways. Lavin was 92-72 in five seasons at St. John’s. pic.twitter.com/A5b0RaNDUE

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) March 27, 2015

“Mutually agree to part ways” is as vague as it gets. There’s no doubt that Lavin did not meet expectations to the max while being the head coach at St. John’s, which is probably a big reason why he is no longer with the team. Money probably came into play as well.

Regardless, I won’t say this is a mistake by St. John’s, but I will say it is tough to see. Lavin did more good than bad while at St. John’s, and he is definitely leaving the program in much better shape than when he got there.

That said, the Red Storm will be losing some valuable pieces over the offseason. Pieces like leading scorer D’Angelo Harrison. Rysheed Jordan and Chris Obekpa still have some years left with the team, but you never know how players will respond to these types of situations. Sometimes players simply transfer when their head coach loses his job.

Steve Lavin didn’t coach St. John’s to the Final Four or anything like that, but he did take two teams to the NCAA tournament. Also, Lavin coached the Red Storm to the dance in 2011, which was the first time they were in the tournament field since 2002.

Needless to say, he put this program back on the map.