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Reactions Should UCLA's Steve Lavin resign?Posted: Tuesday January 14, 2003 5:21 PMCNNSI.com’s Stewart Mandel and Mark Button went Head2Head over whether Steve Lavin should pack it in at UCLA and resign. Here what some of our users had to say:
I definitely think Lavin should go. I never thought he was a good coach, as exemplified by his undisciplined teams whose players show no improvement under his tutelage as they mature, and when they move on to the NBA (if they do- when was the last time UCLA had an impact NBA player?). He will always be outcoached by any coach worth his salt. He has run the greatest program into the ground. I read somewhere that Larry Brown was interested, and would take him any day.
Button is right -- as a die-hard UCLA fan for 20+ years -- we do have unreasonable expectations for our team. And those expectations are always met in March.
What Mark Button forgets to mention is the fact that Lavin is a terrible coach. He frequently has problems teaching his players proper basketball fundamentals and discipline. Those five Sweet 16s came as a result of sheer natural talent, not teamwork or coaching brilliance. Last year Lavin had one of the few true centers in the NCAA in Gadzuric and a hot shooter in Kapono. Had they been properly coached, that inside-outside combination would have led to much more than a Sweet 16, and no one denies this either. UCLA needs a disciplinarian coach like a Bibby or Knight, not a smooth talking, slick haired sorry excuse for a coach. For now, all we UCLA fans want is a team that plays with HEART like Cal or USC, not quotes such as "I think Kapono has a hangover" or "What's Cummings doing shooting those 3s?"
He's gone at the end of the season. As a season ticket holder and UCLA grad, it makes me sick to see a basketball coach who apparently doesn't know much about basketball. He's the annoying guy in the bar that says, "We need to rebound and play better defense,” but has no idea how you do those things. See ya later, Lav.
Coach Lavin is a good coach and should stay with the school. Tough times are there, but look at those previous years results.
I couldn't be more unimpressed by the "five Sweet Sixteens in six years" argument. Who cares? Arizona, Duke, UNC, Indiana ... these schools compete for national championships and you're telling me mighty UCLA should be proud of winning two games in row in March? TWO GAMES! Lavin doesn't get it done. It's time to move on.
Mandel should go! He is super critical of everyone but himself. It is criminal that a sports writer should be allowed to make a career out of being inept. He never uses logic or data; simply emotions. Without knowledge he is merely a guy at the bar complaining. He gets paid too much to be so uninformed. Fire him!
Lavin should be fired immediately. It is frustrating as a fan to watch highly acclaimed prospects not improve under Lavin's coaching. He ruins promising basketball careers of young kids.
Please don't resign, Coach Lavin. Please don't fire him, UCLA. We Arizona Wildcat fans love him. If they get a good coach, it won't be so easy for us to win the Pac-10.
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