Sports commentator to speak at IU

Former UCLA men’s basketball coach and current ESPN and ABC sports commentator Steve Lavin will speak tonight at 6:30 p.m. in the Ernie Pyle Auditorium. \n“I will be talking about my coaching and broadcast career and at the end, open it up for a question and answer portion,” Lavin said during a phone \ninterview.\nPamela C. Laucella, an assistant professor of sport communication in the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, was instrumental in bringing Lavin to IU because of her relationship with him and his father. \n“I chose to bring him here, students can benefit from his varied experiences in sports,” Laucella said in an e-mail. “Coach Lavin is a skilled and dynamic coach and basketball analyst and will share his expertise on coaching, college athletics and sport media.”\nBecause of his time as an assistant coach at Purdue and his current job as a college basketball broadcaster, Lavin is no stranger to Bloomington. His first visit to IU came in 1988 as an aspiring coach.\n“This is where it all began,” Lavin said. “As a student at Chapman University, I wrote letters to my four favorite coaches: Knight, Keady, Tarkanian, Krzyzewski.Both Knight and Keady got back with me and I was able to spend time observing both programs.” \nBefore coming to UCLA as an assistant coach in 1991, Lavin was a former Purdue assistant coach under Gene Keady. He then coached UCLA from 1996-2003 where he reached the NCAA tournament six consecutive years from 1997-2002. In Lavin’s first full year as the Bruins head coach, he was named the Basketball Times National Rookie Coach of the Year, and as a No. 2 seed, his team reached the elite eight before losing to No. 1 seed Minnesota in his inaugural season.