Scratch that, Keady may not fill the St. John's assistant role for Lavin

Per NY Post's Zach Braziller, Gene Keady is NOT necessarily the likely candidate to take the vacant assistant spot with St. John's.

His report tonight indicates that while Keady is a candidate, as per Jon Rothstein's report, Steve Lavin will look at some other names in the next two or three weeks, including his brother-in-law John Moore, who visited St. John's with his NAIA Westmont College for Lavin's debut exhibition game (Westmont lost, 100-42).

Also named in Braziller's report is Keady, two graduate assistants, Frank Allocco, and on Twitter, Lane Odom. Odom is a scout with the Phoenix Suns, the son of longtime South Carolina Gamecocks coach Dave Odom, and worked under Quin Snyder at Missouri, in the middle of the last decade, along with stints at East Carolina, Alabama, and UNC-Charlotte, among others.

St. John's lost assistant Mike Dunlap to a head coaching job with the NBA's Charlotte Bobcats. Dunlap's precision and tactical skill kept last year's young Red Storm competitive despite only playing six scholarship athletes; often the team would be within striking distance, only to struggle when foul trouble hampered stars D`Angelo Harrison or Moe Harkless.

Dunlap's role will be difficult to replace - he was a second head coach, filled with experience and a noted teacher of the game. The young sophomore class of Johnnies benefited from his knowledge, but with an eight-man class coming in, including JaKarr Sampson, Chris Obekpa, Orlando Sanchez, Jamal Branch, and Marco Bourgault, a strong teacher is needed to meld the two classes into a cohesive attacking unit on the floor of the Garden.

Gene Keady agreed to take the Special Advisor role to Lavin's St. John's team with the stipulation that he would work six months out of the year with his former assistant (Lavin), and be free of the offseason burdens of recruiting that a full-time assistant would be expected to do. It makes sense that St. John's would continue to inquire about other coaches; bringing in the right coach to complement the staff skill-wise and personality-wise is a big recruiting job.

Steve Lavin and the St. John's staff is currently in Hawai'i celebrating assistant coach Rico Hines' wedding to Tichina Arnold (yes, one of the stars of the sitcom Martin and Everybody Hates Chris. Yes, she's from Queens.)

The Rumble will have more on this story as it develops.

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