Dalis: Lavin Will Be Back Next Year
Athletic Director Peter Dalis answered questions from reporters for about 20 minutes Tuesday. A sampling of his responses:
On whether he will guarantee Coach Steve Lavin will be back next season: “You want a guarantee? I don’t have any guarantees. I mean, Steve’s going to be the coach next year. How would you prefer I state it?”
On whether the uncertainty surrounding Lavin’s job status affects recruiting, as Lavin has claimed: “There’s no correlation between recruiting and pronouncements by athletic directors about coaches. I’ve been here 18 years, and I keep hearing that argument--when Jim Harrick was here, and earlier on with Steve Lavin. Somehow, they still manage to sign recruits.”
On how Lavin is doing with the non-basketball part of his job, his off-the-court responsibilities such as keeping his players in line academically: “I don’t want to do a critique of Steve Lavin at this point. And if I do, I’m going to do it with him privately, certainly not with the media. I’m not going to grade people.”
On ESPN announcer Dick Vitale, who has publicly chided Dalis for not giving Lavin a vote of confidence sooner: “Dick Vitale’s a bootlicker, and you can put that in the paper. Dick Vitale does not construct the environment that I live in, nor the culture.”
Vitale was puzzled when informed of that comment.
“A bootlicker? That’s a new one,” he said. “Tell Peter he’s made a good decision to keep Steve Lavin because the kid deserves to come back. To work under that pressure and scrutiny? Lavin deserves to come back.”
