Since arriving at St. John’s some 11 months ago, Steve Lavin has been all things to all Red Storm people.
He assembled an impressive staff, recruited an elite class, motivated donors to dig deep, inspired his players to believe, and most of all, got St. John’s back on the winning track.
His mantra was “Hammer to Rock.”
Last night the rock cracked at The Rock in Newark.
With 1:55 left in what was still a winnable game, Lavin, incensed by the officiating, drew a double technical foul and was ejected. Seton Hall’s Jeremy Hazell of Harlem converted 2-of-4 free throws giving the Pirates an insurmountable 79-68 lead en route to an 84-70 win over the No. 15 Red Storm.
“I’m not proud of my conduct,” Lavin said. “I apologized to the team in terms of setting a poor example of playing through things that you can’t control. I can’t control officiating. I should know that.”
Yes, Lavin, who was ejected once in seven seasons at UCLA, should have known that even if he had a gripe, he couldn’t lose control at that moment. So much was at stake.
The loss snaps the 15th-ranked Red Storm’s six-game win streak and all but ends its chance of gaining a precious double bye in the upcoming Big East tournament.
St. John’s is now 19-10 overall and 11-6 in the league, tied for fourth place with Syracuse (24-6, 11-6). The Orange end their season tomorrow at home against lowly DePaul. St. John’s hosts South Florida tomorrow night in Carnesecca Arena. Should both St. John’s and Syracuse win, the Orange get the tiebreaker based on a 76-59 win over the Johnnies earlier this year.
“We were really looking forward to the double bye, but it doesn’t matter if we get one bye, two byes,” said forward Justin Brownlee. “We just looking forward to the tournament.”
The double bye does matter. St. John’s now will have to win four games instead of three.
St. John’s, assuming it ends up as the No. 5 seed, will play the winner of the Rutgers-Seton Hall game. A rematch of Seton Hall-St. John’s would be a rock fight.
Without Lavin, the Johnnies came unhinged. When Anali Okaloji went in for a bush-league dunk with 7.6 seconds left, Justin Burrell made an equally bush-league play by committing a flagrant technical foul and was ejected.
“New York and New Jersey, always is” said Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard when asked if the game got chippy. “Try crossing that bridge every day, you’ll get a little chippy, too.”
Last night the problem was Hazell, who had a season-high 31 points, and freshman Fuquan Edwin, who had a career-high 19. Seton Hall (12-17, 6-11) shot 12-of-18 from behind the arc.
Still, with about two minutes left the Johnnies had a chance. Burrell grabbed an offensive rebound and Edwin was called for a foul. But the officials changed it to a jump ball and Seton Hall had the possession arrow.
Seton Hall was leading 75-68. Edwin scored on a layup and whistles sounded. Lavin walked onto the court and used language becoming a Marine.
“He came out onto the court in an unsportsmanlike manner, which got him the first technical foul, and then he continued to carry on in a manner that was unsportsmanlike and was assessed the technical foul,” said ref John Cahill.
“I was surprised but right after that happened he brought us into the huddle and said, ‘That was for us,’ “ senior guard Malik Boothe said. “He wanted us to know that he had our back.”
Instead he hung them out to dry. Hazell made his free throws and now the Johnnies had their coach in the locker.
“We were used to seeing Coach Lav up on the sidelines giving us directions and then he was gone,” Hardy said. “Coach [Mike] Dunlap did a good job of giving us direction out there, but it’s kind of different because it’s a new voice and we’re not accustomed to seeing him out there.”
He wasn’t there. The rock had cracked.
lenn.robbins@nypost.com