Lavin Signs $2.3-Million UCLA Pact

After prolonged negotiations, UCLA basketball Coach Steve Lavin signed a five-year contract Tuesday worth $2.375 million. It binds him to UCLA through the 2001-02 season and lifts him near the top of the salary structure in the Pacific 10.

Last February, Lavin agreed to a four-year deal the day he was elevated from interim coach, replacing the fired Jim Harrick. But more money, better guarantees and the extra year were added over the summer, after the Bruins had reached the Midwest Regional final last March.

According to a statement released by UCLA and Lavin, the 33-year-old coach will receive an average annual salary of $475,000--$435,000 in the first year of the deal, $460,000 in the second, $485,000 in the third and fourth years, and $510,000 in the fifth.

He was making $16,000 a little more than two years ago.

“It’s never been frustrating, because all the terms and the years and all that was really agreed to months ago,” said Lavin, who was assisted by Santa Monica agent Arn Tellem during the talks.

“They know they wanted me here, and I knew I wanted to be here. It was just working out the language.

“It’s good to get it done, especially for recruiting. It’s great in terms of stability for the future.”

Among Pac-10 coaches, only Arizona’s Lute Olson, who won last year’s national championship and has been to the Final Four four times, and California’s Ben Braun, who has taken two schools to the Sweet 16 and recently renegotiated his contract after drawing interest from Michigan, are believed to earn more than Lavin. Stanford’s Mike Montgomery is believed to earn about the same.

Athletic Director Peter T. Dalis conceded that Lavin’s deal pays him a yearly salary that is “slightly more” than football Coach Bob Toledo’s, a four-year deal worth about $300,000 annually.

Dalis, who has been careful to keep the football and basketball coaches on par financially, would not say if he would seek to adjust Toledo’s contract, which runs through the 1999 season.

Harrick, who led UCLA to the 1995 national title and is now at Rhode Island, was in the middle of a package that was worth about $440,000 a year before he was fired.