After 'Special' Game, Steve Lavin Relishes Moment With Mentor, Gene Keady

NEW YORK -- Inside the twisting hallway bowels of Madison Square Garden -- with the crowd still buzzing over St. John's guard Dwight Hardy's winning, last-seconds, underhanded, scoop-and-flip-under-the-basket shot -- two men embraced on a red carpet. The coach and the coach's coach.

Steve Lavin was brought to St. John's to orchestrate a resurrection. Lavin like Lazarus for a languishing basketball program that once reveled in moments like this. St. John's beat the nation's No. 4 team, Pittsburgh, 60-59, here on Saturday afternoon. It was an old-fashioned, stare-the-bully-down game, the kind that this city's astute basketball fans, with exaltation, ogle and gobble.

It was a moment for Lavin to relish with his coach.

"You know, it's good to reflect for a moment, savor this,'' Lavin said. "In our business, it's always the next game, on to the next challenge. But I'm not sure if this moment right here isn't one of the most special ever for St. John's and maybe even for the Garden. That was a very special basketball game. I was sharing that with Gene. He knows.''

Gene is Gene Keady, Lavin's basketball mentor -- the coach's coach.

Keady is 74. Lavin is 46.

Keady coached in college basketball from 1965 through 2005, with the final 27 of those years in Division I basketball. He won 550 games at that level, most of them at Purdue. Keady was an assistant coach and gold medal winner with the 2000 U.S. Olympic Dream Team.

Lavin calls Keady his "oracle ... my buddha.''

You can call this St. John's team -- 17-9 now, 9-6 in the Big East -- fun to watch and misery to play. They have crunched teams ranked 13th (Georgetown), 9th (Notre Dame), 3rd (Duke) and 10th (Connecticut) in that order this season. Now add Pittsburgh, a team that had lost only two of 26 games this season, a ferocious club that entered 12-1 in Beast East play. A team that had manhandled St. John's in winning eight of the last 10 games in this series including the last five consecutively.

PLAY HARD! PLAY TEAM DEFENSE! TAKE SMART SHOTS!

Keady used to plaster those messages everywhere around his teams, even on the rears of their practice shorts.

His imprint is all over the way these St. John's Red Storm play basketball. Lavin is not too proud to admit it.

Keady's Influence on Lavin Comes Full Circle

Lavin wrote Keady a letter 23 years ago when Keady was Purdue's coach. Lavin was looking to crack into coaching. Keady hired him as a Purdue graduate assistant.

So, when Lavin, after a seven-season stint as UCLA coach followed by a seven-year run as a TV basketball analyst, was hired by St. John's last March, he reached out to Keady. Makes sense.

"Other than my parents, Gene has been the most influential person in my life,'' Lavin said. "Twenty-three years ago he opened the door for me for what would prove to be a magic carpet ride. He shaped my basketball philosophy and he has helped me apply those types of principles across my life. His loyalty and humility inspire us.''

Those are key words -- loyalty and humility -- because without those traits, this set-up would never work. Lavin is the coach, it's his show, and Keady, big personality and stature and all, blends in, sits back, stays in reserve.

During games, Keady files notes on every play, every game sequence, for Lavin and the rest of his staff. Keady does this for St. John's practices, too.

"So, that's 61 practices thus far this season and 25 games,'' Keady said. "I've got four full legal note pads full. I guess it's really good I have it in the games. It keeps me on the bench and out of the officials' hair.''

Keady knows that every coach needs a coach. Eddie Sutton, the former Arkansas and Kentucky coach, used to be that for him, a person he could call with questions and gain honest answers. But Lavin has that resource nearer, by his side.

Lavin and Keady watch film together. They talk on plane rides together. They talk plays and personnel and people and tactics. They talk basketball. They talk life.

Former St. John's basketball coaching legend Lou Carnesecca said: "What a treat to have someone near who knows exactly what you are going through. Someone able to give you support beyond X's and O's. Someone who knows it's your show, you run it, I'm here to help. It's a wonderful source of information and relationship that you just can't buy.''

St. John's Evolving Under Lavin

And the translation from coach to coach, from Lavin to his team, is taking root. St. John's is tougher, meaner, scrappier and smarter. Just like Keady's teams usually developed during a season. Just like Lavin teaches to a group that features eight seniors.

St. John's has not been ranked since Nov. 28, 2000.

That wickedly dry spell will end next week.

"Steve is a great teacher, a great personality, great charisma and he treats people and his players right,'' Keady said. "That's all I ever want, to see coaches do things the right way. He has treated me more than right. He gives me more credit than I deserve.

"I think what you're seeing with this team right now is it has developed some resiliency. It's coming together. It's got hungry seniors. Those are things that can win you games.''

This team has muscle and fight. The fact that St. John's matched Pittsburgh in rebounding with 31 speaks to that: Pittsburgh entered this week ranked the nation's No. 1 team in rebounding margin, averaging 12 more than its opponents.

"Coach Keady puts passion into his coaching,'' Lavin said. "It is a unique window that allows us to work together again.''

Side by side, the coach and his coach, kicking up a storm.