In 2003, Steve Lavin was coaching UCLA against Oregon in a second round game of the Pac 10 tournament. Down a point with only seconds remaining, UCLA called timeout to set up a play. Using all the tactical acumen accumlated in coaching the most storied program in college basketball history, he looks over to guard Ray Young and yells “Win me this game!!”.

The AP story captures what happened next: “Young shot an off-balance jumper from the right baseline in front of the Bruins’ bench with the clock winding down. The ball hit the rim and bounced away, along with UCLA’s hopes of turning around this forgettable season.” It was Steve Lavin’s last game as UCLA coach.

Lavin returned to coaching this year when St. John’s hired him as head coach. To combat the notion that his coaching style amounted to selecting 5 players for a pick up game, he convinced Gene Keady to join his staff as an assistant. Yes, the same Gene Keady who won 493 games as the head coach at Purdue. But old habits die hard. In Saturday’s game against Pittsburgh, St. John’s had the ball down a point with only seconds remaining. Dwight Hardy brings the ball up the court, completely ignores the teammate attempting to set a pick for him, dances down the right side of the lane and finally finishes an uncontested layup.

Lavin has led a resurgence with this senior laden team. St. John’s is 10-5 in a Big East conference that boasts 11 teams in the top 30 of The Power Rank. In addition wins over Pittsburgh, Georgetown and Connecticut in conference, they thumped Duke by 15 in the friendly confines of Madison Square Garden. But this same team also lost to Louisville and Georgetown by 25 points on the road as well as inexplicably losing to 275th (of 346) ranked Fordham.

It’s difficult to project how such a bipolar team will perform in the NCAA tournament. But we may get some clues from Lavin’s past. While the 2002-03 UCLA team got him fired, the previous three versions made the Sweet 16.

Rankings through Wednesday, February 23, 2011:
1. Ohio State, 26-2, 17.68
2. Duke, 26-2, 16.31
3. Kansas, 26-2, 15.78
4. Brigham Young, 25-2, 15.35
5. Texas, 24-4, 15.30
6. Pittsburgh, 24-3, 15.27
7. Purdue, 23-5, 14.93
8. Washington, 19-8, 14.38
9. Kentucky, 19-8, 14.12
10. Wisconsin, 21-6, 13.88
11. San Diego State, 25-1, 13.83
12. Georgetown, 21-7, 12.53
13. Connecticut, 20-6, 11.88
14. Villanova, 21-7, 11.75
15. West Virginia, 17-9, 11.64
16. Syracuse, 23-6, 11.58
17. Belmont, 25-4, 11.51
18. Notre Dame, 22-5, 11.42
19. George Mason, 23-5, 11.25
20. North Carolina, 21-6, 11.21
21. Louisville, 21-7, 11.15
22. Utah State, 24-3, 11.00
23. Marquette, 16-11, 10.82
24. Illinois, 17-11, 10.80
25. Vanderbilt, 20-7, 10.76
26. Cincinnati, 22-6, 10.72
27. Arizona, 23-4, 10.48
28. Missouri, 21-6, 10.31
29. St. John’s, 18-9, 10.26
30. Florida, 21-5, 9.94