Report: San Diego Close to Hiring Former UCLA, St. John’s Coach Steve Lavin

Steve Lavin is almost back in college basketball.

Jon Rothstein reports the former UCLA and St. John’s coach is closing in on an agreement to become the head coach of San Diego’s men’s basketball team.

While the move isn’t official, Rothstein found that Lavin changed his Twitter bio to acknowledge it.

Lavin’s head coaching career began at UCLA in 1996, and he spent seven seasons leading the Bruins. In that span, he won 65% of his games and made the NCAA Tournament every year but his last year. Of those six NCAA tournament appearances, Lavin led UCLA to at least a Sweet Sixteen five times.

UCLA fired Lavin after a 10-19 season in 2003, and Lavin transitioned to a college basketball TV analyst with ESPN before St. John’s hired Lavin as their new head coach in 2010.

With the Red Storm, Lavin couldn’t repeat the success he had in Los Angeles. While Lavin had an over .500 winning percentage with St. John’s, the program only made two NCAA tournaments in five years and never lost any less than 12 games in a season.

When St. John’s fired him, Lavin returned to TV, this time with Fox Sports, CBS Sports and the Pac-12 Networks over the past seven seasons.

Last year, San Diego finished seventh in the WCC with a 15-16 record, including 7-9 in conference. Additionally, the Torreros went a combined 12-34 with only four conference wins between 2019 and ’21.

San Diego hasn’t made an NCAA tournament since 2008, and have only made four tournaments over the last 43 years. Additionally, San Diego resides in the West Coast Conference, the same conference as Gonzaga, Saint Mary’s BYU and San Francisco, four strong basketball programs.

The Torreros are replacing Sam Scholl at head coach after four years with the program.