Lavin a smart guy, maybe a good salesman, not a coach

Vytas Mazeika Mazeika served as a 2001-2002
Sports assistant editor.  

Tired of reading wanna-be sentimental columns thanking parents,
friends, etc.? Then welcome to my “Let’s fire Steve
Lavin” tirade. I have never been a fan of Lavin. I am old
school (How old? In my freshman year, Jim Harrick led UCLA to its
11th NCAA title). I want more titles and Lavin will not deliver
them ““ at least not any time soon. Do not blame Lavin for
accepting the job. He would have been stupid to turn it down. But
with new athletic director Dan Guerrero, it’s time to make
changes. Lavin is not a good coach. He would make a tremendous car
salesman. The best recruiting job Lavin ever did was to get Pete
Dalis, the departing athletic director, on his side. According to
everyone I talk to, Lavin is a great guy. He treats every media
member like his new best friend. This is pure genius. Why would you
want to make enemies with those in charge of witch hunts to get
coaches fired? I will never accuse Lavin of being dumb, only of
being a mediocre basketball coach. It has been well publicized that
Lavin is a huge fan of Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski. This must
be why UCLA feels like the poor man’s Duke. No one questions
that Duke is the best program in the country right now, and it
looks like Lavin is trying to emulate them in every way, from the
aggressive point guard (Cedric Bozeman to Jason Williams) to the
slashing two guard (Dijon Thompson to Chris Duhon). Jason Kapono,
Matt Barnes and T.J. Cummings are a lesser combination of Mike
Dunleavy, Daniel Ewing and Dahntay Jones. And then there is Dan
Gadzuric versus Carlos Boozer. Do you want to know why UCLA has no
identity? It’s because we stole Duke’s and the pieces,
though similar, just do not fit. Lavin has built a taller and
longer squad, but that has not translated into better defense or
offense while it does comes at the sacrifice of talent. But there
is the Sweet 16 argument. It states Lavin is the only
coach along with Krzyzewski to lead his school to five Sweet
16’s in the last six years. Lavin is a gimmicky coach. He
knows he will get outcoached, as he did versus Missouri. So Lavin
waits until the last couple of weeks to unveil a press defense or a
motion offense. Opposing teams cannot scout UCLA correctly using
tapes from earlier in the season and Lavin takes advantage in
the first two rounds. Again, the guy is smart. But after the first
weekend, nothing will surprise the teams in the Sweet 16. That is
why Lavin has advanced only once into the Elite 8, and that was
when he had Harrick’s leftover team of Toby Bailey and J.R.
Henderson ““ a team that really did not need to be coached. In
the end, Lavin gets outcoached, and UCLA suffers for it. There will
be no national championship in the near future unless Guerrero
takes matters into his own hands and hires something more
than a car salesman and a mediocre coach.