USD fires Steve Lavin, seeks ‘new course of excellence’ for basketball program

Last week, USD’s basketball team parted ways with its leading scorer.

Now its head coach is gone, too.

Steve Lavin was fired Wednesday with three games left in the regular season plus at least one in the West Coast Conference Tournament. Players were summoned to an afternoon meeting with athletic director Kimya Massey, where they were told Lavin would remain through the end of the season instead of USD appointing an interim coach.

“Steve Lavin always conducted himself in alignment with the values of the university and has been a wonderful ambassador,” USD President James T. Harris III was quoted in a release issued a few hours after word leaked out of his dismissal. “I am grateful for his service to USD, especially his commitment to the health and well-being of our student-athletes. Steve will remain a vital part of our Torero basketball community.”

Lavin posted his own statement that said, in part:

“The future of USD is full of promise as the essential elements of funding, facilities, and continuity are now in place to build a sustainable, winning program. In closing, with three regular-season games remaining, our players and staff remain committed to the task of preparing for the postseason WCC Tournament.”

The eventuality isn’t a surprise considering his 46-79 record and the dwindling fan support at Jenny Craig Pavilion, but the timing is, given that athletic directors typically wait until the end of the season to announce a move.

This is a different era in college sports, though, and dismissing Lavin now gives Massey more time to install a replacement ahead of the impending transfer portal and an expected mass overhaul of the roster.

It also gives him a head start on what is expected to be an active coaching market before other programs have openings. Massey has retained a national search firm with the intent of hiring a new coach within a month.

Several potential candidates have already emerged:

David Fizdale, an USD alum and NBA coaching veteran; Rick Croy, the respected longtime coach at Cal Baptist; Craig Smith, a former Utah and Utah State coach; Larry Krystkowiak, another former Utah coach and current San Diego County resident; Matt Logie, who was at Division II Point Loma Nazarene before being hired by Montana State; and assistants from top Southern California programs like UCLA and San Diego State.

The 61-year-old Lavin is in the fourth season of what is believed to be a six-year contract that paid him $989,057 in 2023, according to the university’s most recently available federal tax records. Massey is known to have considered firing Lavin after last season, but it proved too expensive with the unprecedented length and salary of the contract bestowed by previous AD Bill McGillis.

The coach best known for his seven seasons at UCLA had one winning record in four years at USD, going 18-15 in 2023-24. He finished ninth, fifth and 11th in the WCC; the Toreros (11-17) are 10th this season at 5-10 following Sunday’s 92-79 home loss to USF.

In terms of computer metrics, it turns out, this was Lavin’s best season. The Toreros rank 217th in Kenpom, compared to 297, 256 and 224 in the previous three years.

Lavin reached the NCAA Tournament in eight of 11 seasons as a head coach at UCLA and St. John’s. He had no postseason appearances with USD, a job he took after seven years as a television analyst.

Lavin’s tenure at Alcala Park was marked by different approaches to roster construction. In his early years, he tried to collect veteran transfers with a single year of eligibility left. Then he went young. This year, he had a modest NIL budget and brought in mercenary transfers plus a pair of European pros.

None of it worked, with an annual exodus of players that required regular roster rebuilds. The signs of things unravelling behind the scenes came last week, when leading scorer Ty-Laur Johnson was removed from the program amid what sources said were disciplinary issues.

“College athletics is evolving rapidly, and this is a pivotal moment for USD basketball,” Massey said in the university release. “This is a moment for us to set our expectations even higher and chart a new course of excellence for our program. Competing in the upper tier of the West Coast Conference and being a regular participant in the NCAA Tournament should be the expectation for this program.

“We are committed to providing the leadership, NIL and revenue-sharing investment, and student-athlete support necessary to recruit and sustain a roster that makes both USD and the community proud. … We will confront these challenges directly and build competitive rosters while embracing NIL and revenue-sharing opportunities.”

The Toreros last reached the NCAA Tournament in 2008 and have finished with a winning record only once in the last seven seasons.