Steve Lavin has always recruited well, but can he win games with that talent?

Much has been made of Steve Lavin's first recruiting class at St. John's.

Yesterday, he landed two recruits -- high-scoring JuCo combo-guard Nurideen Lindsay and top 100 small forward Dominick Pointer. Those two joined a 2011 recruiting class that already includes top 100 players JaKarr Sampson, Maurice Harkless, and D'Angelo Harrison. Throw Dwayne Polee, a three-star recruit that will be eligible to play for the Johnnies this season, and Lavin's tenure as Norm Roberts replacement is already off to an impressive start. And he still hasn't coached a game.

But Lavin's ability to recruit has never really been questioned.

Steve Lavin has been on fire on the recruiting trail this summer.
(photo credit: AP)

During his tenure at UCLA, Lavin twice -- in 1998 and 2001 -- brought in the nation's No. 1 recruiting class. He brought in seven McDonald's all-americans in his seven years. Seven of his Bruin players made it to the NBA -- Trevor Ariza, Matt Barnes, Baron Davis, Dan Gadzuric, Ryan Hollins, Jason Kapono, and Earl Watson. He's no stranger to bringing in talent.

And while he is generally thought of as a west coast guy with connections throughout California, it shouldn't necessarily surprise people that someone with his personality is capable of landing top-flight recruits at a Big East school. "You can be one of the kids that helps rebuild the storied St. John's program" can be a pretty convincing pitch to make.

Lavin's problem at UCLA was that he couldn't turn that talent into wins.

Lavin backed into the head coaching job at UCLA. Jim Harrick was fired in November of 1996, and his two lead assistants -- Mark Gottfried and Lorenzo Romar -- had already taken other gigs. So the Bruins turned to Lavin, who at that point was an unproven assistant.

He wasn't terrible in his time at UCLA -- he made five Sweet 16's in seven years. But 1997 was the only year he brought a team to the Elite 8. It was also the only time UCLA finished better than third in the Pac-10. They were sixth in the conference his last two seasons, including a 10-19 debacle in 2003. That may be acceptable at other programs, but not at UCLA.

Not when he had as much talent as he had on his rosters.

The first step to building any kind of successful program at any level of college basketball is to line your roster with talent. Lavin is in the process of doing just that. He's proven that his success of the recruiting trail at UCLA was no fluke.

Now he has to prove that he can win games. He has to prove that he can be a game coach. A coach can have all the talent in the world on his roster, but if that coach cannot put together an effective game plan or make the necessary adjustments to that game plan while the game is being played, he won't beat many good teams.

That is where Lavin still needs to prove himself.

And while Gene Keady's hiring will certainly help, St. John's fans should keep that in mind in regards to their expectations for the Lavin era in Queens.