NEW YORK — Perhaps more than anyone else on the St. John’s staff, Rico Hines feels a special bond with head coach Steve Lavin.
Lavin recruited Hines to UCLA, coached him to four Sweet 16s and later hired him as a player development coach when Lavin took over the St. John’s program in 2010.
“More than basketball, more than anything else I care about him as a person because he took a chance on me when I was 17 years old from North Carolina by way of Maryland and helped me come to UCLA and look at me now,” Hines said Oct. 14 during St. John’s Midnight Madness.
When the Johnnies open their exhibition season Tuesday night at home against C.W. Post, Lavin will be watching from his Manhattan home while recuperating from the prostate cancer surgery he underwent Oct. 6.
One year after reaching the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2002, the team is facing some daunting obstacles. Not only is their coach sidelined, but the Johnnies have only eight scholarship players after three were deemed academically ineligible by the NCAA.
Asked how the Johnnies manage five-on-five runs, Hines, who spent four years as a player development assistant with the Golden State Warriors, said, “I play a little bit with the guys. We have a lot of student managers.”
Hines said there was no timetable on when Lavin might return.
“He’s well, he’s getting better,” Hines said. “We want him to rest as long as possible and we’re going to hold the fort down for him.”
He added: “He’s a feel guy anyway. He’s not a guy that’s by the book. He’s a feel guy. He goes by how he feels. He coaches like that, too. He’s a feel type of person.”
Lavin, 48, has been running the show behind the scenes via texts and phone calls.
“We communicate with him a lot on texts and it’s still his practice plans,” Hines said. “It’s still his way and what he wants. We check in with him and this is his program so whatever he wants he gets.”
Assistant coach Mike Dunlap addressed the crowd on Midnight Madness and also met the media last Wednesday at Big East Media Day.
Dunlap told SNY.tv that he was somewhat accustomed to running things for a head coach because he was the associate head coach at Arizona when Lute Olson battled his own health problems during the 2008-9 season.
“I’m a little bit hardened to it in terms of knowing what coach would want,” Dunlap said.
“Day by day, obviously Mike is the head honcho as far as the older guy,” Hines said of Dunlap.
The rest of the staff includes assistant coach Tony Chiles, Director of Operations Moe Hicks and special assistant Gene Keady, the longtime Purdue coach.
“[Lavin] really assembled some good basketball heads so we all collaborate in the same way,” Hines said.
“But he kind of runs it and then as assistants we all have a role and our roles haven’t changed. Lav gives u a lot of freedom as assistant coaches, which is what makes him a really good coach.”
And Hines hopes the his old friend and coach is soon back on the sidelines.
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