SAN DIEGO — In a horseshoe-shaped booth at bustling Manhattan of La Jolla, Steve Lavin used the better part of 3 1/2 hours to explore the people who have influenced his life, being a 32-year-old college basketball coach under the withering spotlight at UCLA, the prostate cancer that reconfigured perspective and the television chapters that kicked open the locker room doors of sideline-walking legends Mike Krzyzewski, Lute Olson, Jay Wright and more.
Then Lavin outlines the seven days — with an estimated 2 1/2 hours of sleep each night — that made him the new coach at the University of San Diego.
The "whys" of a man who coached in the Pac-12 and Big East with lucrative on-air contracts in between joining the West Coast Conference remained in the wings until dessert.
