**Click the Video Player at right for the Steve Lavin and Kevin Willard press conferences from Wednesday**
NEW YORK — Steve Lavin was introduced as the 19th head coach in St. John’s history at a press conference on Wednesday that included about 300 people, including former St. John’s star Walter Berry and various clergy, boosters, St. John’s employees and members of the New York media.
Flanked by athletic director Chris Monasch, school president Father Donald J. Harrington and former St. John’s coach Lou Carnesecca, Lavin said St. John’s was one of “two or three schools in the country” for which he would have left his broadcasting career at ESPN.
“What St. John’s represents, it’s unique,” Lavin said. “St. John’s has distinction.”
**Jerry Carino has the complete rundown from the big double-press conference in South Orange introducing new Seton Hall coaches Kevin Willard and Anne Donovan.
Quote of the Day from either presser goes to Willard on Herb Pope, Jeremy Hazell and Jeff Robinson declaring for the NBA Draft.
“This is the first team that hasn’t won a national championship that has three guys going into the pros off a team,” Willard said. “But I’m a big believer in kids reaching their dreams. So if those three guys can get drafted in the first round, we’re going to do everything as a staff, as a university, to make sure that can happen. If that can’t happen, of course we’re going to bring them back.”
**Willard also got his first recruit today when 6-8 Anali Okoloji committed. Gotham Hoops broke the story.
**Elsewhere in the Big East, Pitt extended Jamie Dixon through the 2017-18 season. Dixon already had a contract through the 2015-16 season at a salary of $1.6 million.
**At Kentucky, freshman big man Daniel Orton will test the NBA Waters. Jerry Tipton says a recent mock draft by the L.A. Times projected five Wildcats in the top 13 picks.
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