As UCLA gets ready to host St. John’s in a nationally televised game Saturday afternoon, Bruins coach Ben Howland has more to worry about than the game itself.
He needs to watch out for Steve Lavin coming into his backyard and making off with top California recruits.
“I think it’s a major factor,” Jerry Meyer, national recruiting analyst for Rivals.com, said Friday by phone.
“UCLA and USC haven’t necessarily been killing it recruiting lately. Now here comes another major player with the capability of luring top talent off the West Coast. I think it’s a major concern.”
Lavin learned about the UCLA game after he took the St. John’s job last spring, and immediately saw it as a recruiting opportunity.
“I knew of the positive of returning to Southern California because naturally it’s going to be an area that we recruit from after the 20 years I’ve spent here,” he said Thursday. “As you guys know, I have such an affinity for the school here in Westwood. To me, it was a real plus.”
After taking the St. John’s gig, Lavin immediately pointed out the similarities between his old job at UCLA, where he spent seven seasons as coach before getting fired in 2003, and his new one in the Big Apple.
“St. John’s and UCLA, which I can speak to more specifically, the two programs have more similarities than differences in terms of tradition, heritage and fan bases passionate about basketball,” Lavin said.
“They are located in fertile recruiting territories and major media markets. Los Angeles and New York are opposite ends of the country, but have similarities in media aspects.”
As head coach at UCLA, Lavin and his staff recruited and signed the No. 1 rated recruiting class in the country in 1998 and 2001. Lavin signed seven McDonald’s High School All-Americans.
Lavin’s first recruit at St. John’s was elastic wing Dwayne Polee II of Los Angeles Westchester High, the California State Player of the Year and the Los Angeles City Section Player of the Year.
Lavin also nearly landed Remi Barry, a French national from Loomis (Calif.) Del Oro High who is said to have NBA potential.
Barry considered St. John’s, UCLA and Arizona State before landing at New Mexico State.
After Lavin went to work on the Class of 2011, he landed California natives Norvel Pelle of Los Angeles Price and Amir Garrett of Lawndale, now at Henderson (Nev.) Findlay Prep.
The 6-10 Pelle is the No. 2 center in the Class of 2011, according to Rivals, and Lavin has compared him to a young Kevin Garnett. The 6-7 Garrett is the No. 15 small forward in the class.
Overall, Lavin’s nine-man class is ranked second nationally by ESPN.com and Rivals.
Mike Lynch, Pelle’s coach at Los Angeles Price, said Howland and UCLA didn’t recruit Pelle as hard as St. John’s and Washington, his second option.
“They came down to the school several times for workouts,” Lynch said Friday by phone. “I had been in communication somewhat. I can’t say they were recruiting him like Washington was. Washington was really, really on him real strong.”
In the end, though, Pelle chose the Johnnies because of his relationship with Lavin and the appeal of playing in New York and at Madison Square Garden.
“It feels like a home away from home,” Pelle told ESPNU in November. “Coach Lavin is a very smart guy. He’s a very smart coach. I just loved the way he approached the situation.
“He was calm and cool. He knew other schools wanted me and he gave me space and also made sure I knew they wanted me.”
Lynch said Polee, Pelle and Garrett could end up being Pied Pipers for still more Golden State players if they have a positive experience at the Queens school.
“They’re going to be the ones that really tell the story,” Lynch said. “‘Hey man, it’s good out here. It works. It’s OK.’
“Now that you got a sample of West Coast guys going out here all they have to do is like it and it could end up being a place where they could recruit big.”
Howland tried to downplay the significance of the rivalry during a conference call Thursday.
“Obviously last week they just knocked off Duke pretty handily,” Howland said. “They’ve had some big wins, some Top 20 wins. We need to play well and win the game. It has nothing to do with the fact that I’m the coach now or Steve was the coach before.”
But from a recruiting standpoint, Howland and his colleagues on the West Coast have reason to be concerned.
“I’m sure UCLA wishes the game wasn’t scheduled because of St. John’s and their presence,” Meyer said.
“I don’t think there’s any other way to look at it than Steve Lavin is a major factor on the West Coast in recruiting.”
