Steve Lavin’s search to find a replacement for Mike Dunlap took an unexpected uptick recently when he took a trip home to visit his father, Cappy, and bumped into a longtime friend, De La Salle (Calif.) High School coach Frank Allocco.
Lavin actually tried to recruit Allocco as an assistant when he first took the St. John’s job but Allocco was not interested in returning East. Lavin, instead, offered the job to Dunlap, who after two seasons was recently hired as the Bobcats coach.
Allocco has compiled a stunning 413-52 record at De La Salle, including an astonishing 216-6 league record. He was born and raised in New Providence, N.J., and went on to play basketball and football at Notre Dame, where he was the backup quarterback and the man behind center in the famous ‘Rudy’ game.
When Lavin bumped into him last week he jokingly told Allocco that the job again was open, never thinking that Allocco was now open to seriously considering such a career change. Allocco, who had already scheduled to come East this past weekend to visit his parents, dined with Lavin Saturday night at the New York hotspot Aurora. That’s when interest really heated up.
It is not a done deal that Allocco will get the job. He has been at De La Salle for 14 years transforming it from a hoops punchline into a national power. De La Salle is one of a handful of prep schools to achieve Nike status and Allocco’s players have a reputation for being smart and disciplined on the court and in the classroom. He has received interest from other major college programs over the years.
Because of the new life Lavin has breathed into the St. John’s program, which has always been an attractive job because of its tradition and location as the metropolitan area school in the Big East, sSome 30 highly qualified candidates have applied. Lavin has gotten calls of recommendation from many of the nation’s elite college coaches, including Kentucky’s John Calipari and Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, said two sources familiar with the search.
One name that generated a lot of interest is Tom Abatemarco, an assistant coach at Colorado who worked for Lou Carnesecca at St. John’s. He remains in the running along with ESPN recruiting expert Paul Biancardi, a former head coach at Wright State, and Red Storm radio analyst Tim O’Toole, a former coach at Fairfield.
Lavin won’t make the hire until August.
Dunlap’s strength was as an X’s and O’s coach. Lavin said from the get-go he was not married to any blueprint and probably would think outside the box on the hire.