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South Regional notebook

St. John's coach Jarvis nearly missed his latest calling

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Posted: Friday March 19, 1999 05:55 PM

St. John's has Mike Jarvis' wife, Connie, to thank for landing the coach who has led the Red Storm to the Elite Eight. AP

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Mike Jarvis had actually recommended someone else for the head coaching vacancy at St. John's.

But Lou Carnesecca, the former Red Storm coach who helped in the search last year, apparently wasn't listening when Jarvis talked about Bill Herrion, his former assistant who is the Drexel head coach.

"Lou wears a hearing aid ... I think he turned it off for an hour when I was talking to him about Bill," Jarvis said Friday.

"A couple of days later, he called me back, and said he didn't want to talk about Bill," Jarvis said. "He wanted to know if I was interested in the job."

Jarvis, who had been at George Washington for eight seasons, said he wasn't interested and hung up the phone. His wife Connie had different ideas, telling her husband to call Carnesecca back.

"We started to talk, one thing led to another and before you know it I'm at the press conference," Jarvis said. "I'm glad I listened to my wife."

The Red Storm (28-8) play in the NCAA South Regional final Saturday against Ohio State (26-8) for a spot in the Final Four.

"I still don't know how we are having this season," Jarvis said. "With a seven-year contract, you go into job with a different feeling ... I thought I'd be patient, try to teach the best I could and build a solid foundation. And I prayed for more patience."

Redd's good timing

Having lived in Columbus, Ohio, his entire life, Michael Redd has seen the good and bad of Ohio State basketball.

The sophomore guard is happy to be part of the current turnaround -- from an 8-22 season last year to within a victory of the Final Four. But he remembers when things weren't so good.

"It means a lot to have been in Columbus all of my life. It made me glad that I made the choice to go to Ohio State and see the turnaround the last two years," said Redd, who is averaging 21 points a game after 64 college games.

South's top failures

Since the NCAA tournament was expanded to 64 teams in 1985, no 1 seed from the South has won the national championship. And it won't happen this year.

Auburn became the first No. 1 seed to fall in this year's tourney after a 72-64 loss to Ohio State in a South Regional semifinal Thursday.

Of the 15 top seeds from the South (or Southeast Regional as it was known from 1985-97), only Kentucky and Oklahoma have reached the Final Four. The Wildcats lost in a 1993 national semifinal game and the Sooners lost to Kansas in the 1988 NCAA title game.

Seven other No. 1s from the South made it to the regional finals, but Auburn became the fifth to be stopped trying to get past the round of 16.

The only South No. 1 not to make it to the regional semifinals was Michigan, a second-round loser to eventual national champ Villanova in 1985.

 

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