St. John’s Steve Lavin returns to ‘the gladiator pit of sports’ at UCLA

Steve Lavin was searching for a lunch spot near his TriBeCa loft one frigid morning a few months ago when a St. John’s athletics official walking alongside the coach mentioned a few details about his remodeled basketball office.

As Lavin had requested, the wall facing an adjacent hallway had been replaced by floor-to-ceiling glass to provide an increased sense of accessibility. There was also something Lavin hadn’t asked for: a cross bearing a likeness of Jesus that had been left behind by the previous occupants.

“Big footsteps to follow,” Lavin said, chuckling. “I thought John Wooden was tough.”

In the minds of some UCLA fans, Lavin couldn’t live up to Bruins coaching predecessors Walt Hazzard or Larry Farmer, nevermind Wooden.

The criticism still seems wet-paint fresh nearly eight years after Lavin was fired in the wake of seven herky-jerky seasons in Westwood:

He’s all slick-backed-hair style over substance.

Great recruiter. Too bad he can’t coach.

Don’t like the way the Bruins are playing? Just wait for the next game because they never look the same from one night to the next.

As he nibbled on a plate of rigatoni at a cozy Italian restaurant in Lower Manhattan, Lavin was asked which critique stung most.

“Wow,” he said, a smile forming on one side of his mouth. “It’s like a See’s candy box. Take your pick.”

Lavin went on to explain that he wouldn’t trade his time at UCLA for anything. How could he? He had risen from graduate assistant to Jim Harrick’s successor, taking over one of the most storied programs in college basketball at age 32.

So what if the Final Four runs and national titles needed to keep the job didn’t follow. Lavin called it a “magic carpet ride” that led to his seven years at ESPN and his latest opportunity at St. John’s, where he is in his first season.

That journey comes full circle Saturday morning, when Lavin’s Red Storm will play UCLA on the same Pauley Pavilion floor where Lavin guided the Bruins to six 20-win seasons.

“I’m not sure I’ve been in the opposing locker room,” Lavin said.

Lavin will be in enemy territory the moment he steps off the team bus if UCLA message board posts referencing his return are any indication.

“We gotta beat him,” one message read. “Nothing I would like better.”

“Losing to St. John’s in what is supposed to be a rebuilding year,” read another, “would be a huge slap in the face for UCLA.”

Actually, the Red Storm (13-8) might be having a better season than the Bruins (15-7). St. John’s has an NCAA Ratings Percentage Index figure of 24, as opposed to UCLA’s 47, and is only six days removed from a 93-78 victory over then-No. 3 Duke.

But there have also been defeats to Fordham and St. Bonaventure, something reminiscent of Lavin’s all-over-the-place tenure with the Bruins. Lavin ascribed the losses to a senior-laden team adapting to a new coaching staff and a faster style of play.

The adjustments have been easier for Rico Hines. The former UCLA standout, Lavin’s first Bruins recruit and one of his assistants at St. John’s, said Lavin hasn’t changed much over the years.

“He still preaches the same things that he was to us when he was recruiting me: Treat people right, get a degree,” Hines said. “Basketball-wise, the only thing he’s changed is he takes his time a little bit more now as far as decision-making, thinking things through.”

Lavin, 46, still carries the Armani look he was known for while at UCLA, and his recruiting tactics remain equally hip. Trips to Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills or to Gladstone’s overlooking the beach in Malibu have been replaced by outings to Central Park or to Harlem’s Cotton Club.

Former Westchester High standout Dwayne Polee Jr., a starter for St. John’s as a freshman, was treated to lunch at rapper Jay-Z’s 40/40 Club. Los Angeles Price forward Norvel Pelle, an art enthusiast who has signed with the Red Storm for next season, got a trip to SoHo.

“It’s basically taking a page out of that playbook and bringing it to St. John’s,” Lavin said.

Lavin also imported something even more meaningful: Gene Keady, his former boss at Purdue and now a special advisor at St. John’s. Lavin described Keady, 74, as “my own personal Mr. Miyagi,” a reference to the martial arts sensei from “The Karate Kid.”

Keady walked into the Italian restaurant where Lavin dined recently, a New York Yankees cap pulled snugly over his head. The coaching legend apologized for being late and mumbled something about having a bad hair day before sitting down to soup and a veal chop.

“Whoever let him go didn’t know what the hell they were doing because nobody else had that good of record,” Keady said of Lavin, who went 145-78 at UCLA. “The problem was, he followed Wooden and wasn’t good enough. We all would have been fired no matter who coached there.”

Indeed, Lavin said he realized the rules of engagement when he took the Bruins job, that he would be out as soon as he failed to make the NCAA tournament. So when his team finished 10-19 following a loss to Oregon in the 2003 Pacific 10 Conference tournament, Lavin knew his fate.

When the dreaded call came to meet Athletic Director Dan Guerrero, Lavin suggested they grab lunch at Junior’s Deli in Westwood.

“He never really fired me,” Lavin said. “It was already a foregone conclusion, so we just talked about the future of the program.”

Lavin did the same with his replacement, Ben Howland, over margaritas at Baja Cantina in Marina del Rey the following month. Lavin remained in his Venice home in the years after his dismissal and has returned to Pauley Pavilion seven or eight times as a broadcaster.

This, of course, will be different.

What will Lavin think if he is booed by fans who don’t seem to share his affinity for his time in Westwood?

“It will be a chuckle,” Lavin said, “because you understand that’s the gladiator pit of sports. You can’t take that personally.”

ben.bolch@latimes.com