Steve Lavin walked into the Carnesecca Arena lobby yesterday with a smile and left with an even bigger one.
Meeting the media for the first time since compiling his nationally ranked recruiting class, the St. John’s basketball coach couldn’t hide his enthusiasm for his young team.
“This team is unique in that it’s the deepest team I’ve ever coached,” Lavin said prior to the Dribble for the Cure event at St. John’s, a fundraiser for pediatric cancer research.
He has plenty of reasons for optimism, professionally and personally. Lavin said he is fully healthy after being diagnosed with prostate cancer last year, and ready to resume full-time coaching duties after missing most of last season.
“All the blood work has been clean and I’m cancer-free,” Lavin said.
Furthermore, he has an ultra-talented group, led by returning sophomores Phil Greene, D’Angelo Harrison, and Amir Garrett, senior God’sgift Achiuwa, touted incoming freshmen Christian Jones, JaKarr Sampson, Chris Obekpa and Felix Balamou, junior college additions Marc-Antoine Bourgault and Orlando Sanchez and transfers Jamal Branch (Texas A&M) and Max Hooper (Harvard).
While St. John’s was forced to go with just six scholarship players for most of last winter because Nurideen Lindsay transferred early in the year and Sampson and Norvel Pelle were ruled ineligible by the NCAA, the Red Storm will have up to 14 players on scholarship this season.
And while Lavin’s team was undersized a year ago, over-dependent on Maurice Harkless and Achiuwa, the addition of Obekpa, Sanchez and Sampson — all 6-foot-8 or taller — has turned that weakness into a strength.
“The potential of this team is amazing, it’s crazy,” said Garrett, a 6-foot-6 wing. “In practice, going into the lane is hard. You can’t dunk on anybody anymore because everyone is so tall. They’re shot-changers.”
Lavin was effusive in his praise of virtually his entire roster, from the strides Harrison has made, to the versatile skill sets Sampson and Sanchez bring, to the sharp-shooting of Bourgault and shot-blocking of Obekpa.
“The personnel is at a place where we can be on equal footing with our competition,” Lavin said. “Depending on the day, it’s someone different that jumps out.”