Lavin

by Nestor on Jul 31, 2008 6:00 PM PDT in Basketball

Apparently the Joker (aka Howland’s predecessor posing as a “UCLA basketball coach) is feeling good these days about his current gig at WWL:

Call it job security, something Steve Lavin ran short of toward the end of his tenure as UCLA basketball coach. This fall, Lavin starts his sixth year as an analyst for ABC/ESPN telecasts and he couldn't be happier -- not only because he's signed through 2012. It's just a great gig, said Lavin, 43.

While not ruling out a return to college coaching, Lavin said he has enjoyed developing a second career in broadcasting, working alongside Brent Musberger, whom he considers a friend and mentor.

Lavin, who was 145-78 in seven years with the Bruins, has grown into his analyst role and recently moderated an NCAA educational video on amateurism and eligibility issues that is geared for high school athletes who want to play on the collegiate level.

With the top high schoolers in the country in Las Vegas now for the Reebok Summer Championships and the Adidas Super 64, Lavin says it's a good message to be heard.

In the meantime, Lavin said Baron Davis, whom he coached in Westwood, will be a hit back in his hometown.

"Because of Baron's age and his NBA experience, I believe he's now mature enough to handle the challenges that come with returning to his hometown as a celebrity. No doubt he has a lot of friends who will want to be along for the ride. I'll hit him up for some tickets."

Uhm … I guess Lavin must have missed this from last November:

"As reported by Bay Area blogger Geoff Lepper of the Contra Costa Times, former UCLA point guard Baron Davis looked into the rafters at Pauley Pavilion last Friday during the Golden State Warriors' morning shoot-around and said, "We should have a banner up there: the only team to make the tournament without a coach." . . .
Somewhere, surely, Steve Lavin's ears were burning."

Just like he was clueless as a “fake head coach” UCLA, he remains clueless as an “analyst” on WWL. Guess we shouldn’t be all that surprise that this joker as found “job security” in a network that holds out Duke Vitale and Digger Phelps as college basketball “pundits.”

It's a good thing that he is settling right in and enjoying the "job security" in his current gig in which he can play his schtick by rolling out tired and stupid cliches that have nothing to do with basketball because he knows no college athletic director with a brain will hire him to destroy their program.

GO BRUINS.

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"While not ruling out a return to college coaching,,,"

What a ridiculous statement.

In order to “return” to coaching, he would have had to have been a coach at one time.

by bluegold on Jul 31, 2008 9:54 PM PDT 0 recs

insult

calling him a joker is an insult to the joker (either jack or heath)

by kidro2001 on Jul 31, 2008 10:08 PM PDT 0 recs

Agreed

The Joker is very clever, always 3 or 4 steps ahead in the game. Lavs is neither clever nor was his teams ever in alot of games.

by bruin8uclap on Jul 31, 2008 10:32 PM PDT up 0 recs

we all know lavin sucks

but whats the point in taking shots at him for something that has nothing to do with ucla? some of us are so protective over a prospective player, donovan edwards, who in some way or another spurned ucla for cal, yet we blast lavin for simply saying he enjoys broadcasting. did this really deserve a front page post?

by brewin05 on Jul 31, 2008 10:29 PM PDT 0 recs

To the best of our knowledge

It appears that Edwards made a choice to play for Cal instead of UCLA. He was never officially a Bruin, and hasn’t technically done anything to us. On the opposite end of the spectrum, is Lavin, who, despite having the UCLA name to recruit with, still managed to find a way to take the program to depths not seen in half of a century. Some forgive easier than others, and I’m not going to tell anyone to not be upset with Lavin anymore, because I can understand why seeing him on the WWL can grate at some of our nerves: a constant reminder of his incompetence.

BTW, I’d like to know your criteria for what is worthy of a “front page post”. Things you agree with? Sorry, that’s not how it works around here.

by Tydides on Jul 31, 2008 10:41 PM PDT up 0 recs

Nothing about Lavin

deserves mentioning on any page of any publications at all. How he singlehandedly wrecked the program, relegated it to second tier status still haunts us to this day, let alone grate our nerves as you said.

Would those Lavinistas please leave us alone. I’d just as soon you bow towards the direction of his condo in Marina del Rey twice a day in paying homage to him than uttering anything about him here.

by Htse005 on Jul 31, 2008 11:55 PM PDT up 0 recs

oh please...

it was a simple question and opinion and you made it seem like i wanted to take control of this entire forum. chill tydidis, i think nestor does a great job as the leader of this forum and in no way was i criticizing him.

btw, lavin sucks. dont misconstrue my words and try to make it seem like im a lavin supporter.

by brewin05 on Aug 1, 2008 12:02 AM PDT up 0 recs

I see an attempt at equivalence in there

So save the exasperation. How else am I supposed to interpret the implication of a double standard being applied to Lavin but not to Donovan Edwards? It is essentially as I said earlier, even assuming the worst case scenario with Edwards, it would not be worth of even a hundreth of the scorn that is due Lavin. I never said you were a Lavin supporter, but my interpretation of your earlier post was of a linking of the situation between Edwards and Lavin when this is simply an apples and oranges comparison.

PS. I didn’t say you wanted to take over control of the forum either. I asked you for your criteria. It is, as you say, a “simple question”.

by Tydides on Aug 1, 2008 1:13 AM PDT up 0 recs

Coach Howland's Predecessor invites this sort of scorn

He posed as a basketball coach, without ever admitting that he did not have the qualifications to be selected in the first place and without ever admitting that he did not grow after being given the most prestigious position in all of college basketball. He invariably pretended to have basketball knowledge which most knowledgeable people recognized was not there. After his ineptitude ruined a legendary program, he angled to stay in the basketball business by trading on the title of the team he ruined. And of course the ultimate irony is that he is now a basketball “analyst” even though I have heard it said that he truly could not analyze himself out of a wet paper bag.

I must add a caveat – I have never heard the man’s voice during any basketball game. I don’t need an analyst to watch college basketball, especially when I know more about college basketball that that guy. (I’m not touting myself as an expert. It’s just that he’s that bad.) Coach Howland’s Predecessor’s voice has never ruined a game for me because I leave the sound off. Yes, I’m ready to start that debate again. I don’t like country music or rap music, so I don’t listen to it. I know many of you (Philistines all) don’t care for Opera. I am convinced that I could explain Opera music so that you would find it intensely enjoyable. Maybe – I’m suggesting the legendary scintilla of a chance – someone could convince me that country music or rap music is listenable. But NOTHING can make me listen to Coach Howland’s Predecessor and not identify the sound of that voice with the demise of the greatest sports program in the history of civilization.

by Fox 71 on Aug 1, 2008 4:45 AM PDT up 0 recs

Even as a broadcaster

Lavin should never call UCLA games, in my opinion. Inept, clueless, unprepared as a coach previously, his cogent, smooth critiques about his former program now make it even more tragically pathetic to ever know that UCLA once hired him to coach the program in the first place.

In other words, he didn’t know what to do on the job. Now he talks as if he knows everything away from the job. I never stop wondering why Young & Dalis ever thought Lavin could cut it at Pauley.

by Htse005 on Jul 31, 2008 11:43 PM PDT up 0 recs

He nearly ruins the Shipp shot against Cal

with his mindless rambling about Hoosiers. Even Mushmouth, hardly a paragon of broadcasting, was able to stay within the moment and within the situation at hand. Some may say he has no hard feelings so why should we? Why the hell would he have hard feelings? He’s sitting pretty with his cushy job and endless supply of Castrol and is able to masquerade as some sort of basketball mind just because WWL gives him a microphone. Meanwhile, the “unreasonable fanbase” is left to deal with the mess he left behind.

by Tydides on Aug 1, 2008 1:22 AM PDT up 0 recs

Donovan

has done absolutely nothing to embarrass either himself or UCLA. Lavin, on the other hand, continues to embarrass himself and the entire sport over and over again with his inane, uninformed pretense and banter. He repeatedly draws other, more successful people into his pointless posturing-—in this case, Baron Davis——for whom he provided nothing but obstacles to overcome.

There is no comparison between these two people. It defies all common sense to attempt to do so.

Love My Bruins

by Bruingirl83 on Aug 1, 2008 8:23 AM PDT up 0 recs

Lavin shaving in the morning...

by RLB on Jul 31, 2008 11:09 PM PDT 0 recs

i remember

Baron making some sort of comment about Steve Lavin making him a worse basketball player.

by deepdish on Aug 1, 2008 1:27 AM PDT 0 recs

Lavin keeps perpetuating the myth on TV

that if a coach does not win championships then UCLA will give him the boot—and that was why he was so unjustly booted out of there.

Not a season goes by when he doesn’t throw that garbage out there for the uninformed audience. And whatever sportscaster next to him never has the nerve to correct him: No, Lavin, you were fired because you absolutely stunk as a coach, not because you did not win a championship.

by bluegold on Aug 1, 2008 10:50 AM PDT 0 recs

Am I the only one who found it extremely funny that Lavin recently worked on an NCAA video on “amateurism”? I mean, can you imagine anyone who better defines the term “amateur”?

by SactoBruin on Aug 1, 2008 12:52 PM PDT 0 recs

Brent Musburger did

ask Lavin, at one point, during their mindless banterings about the guy, in his courtside seat, dozing off with a little puppy in his laps how he felt, as a pink slipped coach, doing color commentary about his former program.

Amid his silly laughs about daily lives in LA where anything can happen, including someone falling asleep in Pauley Pavilion with a little puppy in his laps, etc, Lavin managed to finesse his answer by mentioning those sweet sixteen appearances, former players in the pros and what not. I nearly puked, and felt like wacking him with a two by four. That’s why Guerrero sacked him in no time. Most Bruin players are expected to be good for the pros, or at least coached well to be considered. Sweet Sixteen appearances, even for a millionth time, can simply not be the standard for Pauley what so ever.

by Htse005 on Aug 1, 2008 11:45 PM PDT 0 recs