After Steve Lavin had completed a rousing commencement address last Sunday to the St. John’s Class of 2012 — “Make no mistake, this generation will need their best,’’ he exclaimed, “but you’re up to the task because you’re Johnnies!” — the Red Storm basketball coach and his lovely wife, Mary, were strolling back to their downtown Manhattan apartment when he exhaled, a long, full, life-affirming breath.
Lavin, too, had just graduated a significant chapter in his life.
The prostate cancer and ensuing surgery that forced him to the sidelines for most of the 2011-12 season, is gone, according to his most recent checkup.
The bonanza recruiting class of six players, which on paper will give Lavin a deep and talented team, is signed.
The commencement address, before some 19,000 guests on the school’s Great Lawn, was his second in two days. He addressed the Staten Island class, and 2,100 guests, on Saturday.
It was the first time he’d gone back-to-back since last Nov. 17 and 18, when the Johnnies dropped consecutive heartbreakers in the Garden to Arizona and Texas A&M — the last two games he would coach — and Lavin was beaming like, well, a graduate.
“There was a demarcation, a breakthrough,’’ Lavin said the other night at Campagnola, where the maître d’ calls him ‘Coach.’
“I was elated. There was a weight off my shoulders that I suddenly wasn’t carrying around anymore. I was on a high.’’
The business of overseeing a big-time college basketball is one of highs and lows, but Lavin would be quite content if the 2012-13 season were an even-keeled one, confined mostly to hoops and coaching.
When he took the St. John’s job in March 2010, Lavin said it would be a three-year process before he had the program in place to perennially compete at a national level.
That was before he signed the nation’s No. 3-ranked recruiting class only to have three of his nine players fail to meet freshman academic eligibility standards . . . before mercurial point guard Nurideen Lindsey opted to transfer, junior Malik Stith left the team and star freshman Moe Harkless declared for the NBA . . . and, of course before Lavin was diagnosed with cancer.
Complications from a biopsy forced his surgery to last more than one-third of a day.
For the first time in almost 25 years of a life in college basketball, he missed a practice, then a game, then a season.
He tried not to take umbrage at what seemed like a running loop of rumor — he was more sick than he revealed; he regretted his decision to return to coaching after seven years at ESPN; Mary, a fledgling actress, wanted to return to Los Angeles to pursue her career.
“It was like Groundhog Day,’’ said Lavin.
Great movie, unless you’re living it.
While his young St. John’s team, which finished a 13-19 season starting five freshmen and with just six scholarship players who saw time, Lavin threw himself back into recruiting and revitalizing.
His second full recruiting class didn’t receive the publicity of the 2011-12 squad even though it includes forward JaKarr Sampson, one of the three freshmen who didn’t qualify, and elite big man Orlando Sanchez.
Forward Amir Garrett gained his eligibility last December and played the second half of the season. Texas A&M transfer Jamal Branch, a stellar point guard, will be eligible this December. Lavin will have, on paper, 11 capable scholarship players.
With the six recruits, two commencement addresses and one successful battle against prostate cancer behind him, Lavin and Mary are thinking some crazy thoughts — like finally buying a couch and hanging some of the coach’s sports memorabilia in their loft.
“I haven’t felt this good since I’ve been at St. John’s,’’ said Lavin.
When asked to sum up the last year in one word, the loquacious Lavin hesitated.
“Perquacky,’’ he joked.
Wow — move that tassel from right to left.