St. John's fires basketball coach

[NT80]

St. John's Fires Basketball Coach

By JIM O'CONNELL, AP Basketball Writer

NEW YORK - Mike Jarvis became the first basketball coach fired during the season in the 25-year history of the Big East Conference, dismissed by St. John's on Friday after six games.

The Red Storm opened the season by losing four of five, which hadn't happened since 1922-23, and they were beaten at home by Fairfield and Hofstra, drawing boos from fans and chants of "Fire Jarvis!"

A victory over St. Francis, N.Y., last week improved the team to 2-4, but it wasn't nearly enough to save the coach's job. The Red Storm also lost to Marquette and Duke.

Associate head coach Kevin Clark takes over the program on an interim basis. St. John's plays at No. 5 Georgia Tech on Sunday.

"This wasn't my choice, but you must respect the decision an employer makes," said Jarvis, 110-61 in his five-plus seasons.

Jarvis still had next year remaining on his contract, which is thought to be in the $725,000-a-year range. His son, assistant coach Mike Jarvis II, also was let go.

The timing of the firing was "the best thing for all parties," St. John's athletic director Dave Wegrzyn said.

"We feel it is in the best interest of everyone to make this decision," he said.

He refused to discuss financial arrangements.

While Jarvis' players struggled on the court this season, they had problems away from it, too.

Senior guard Willie Shaw was arrested on marijuana possession charges last month and kicked off the team. Shaw also was suspended for four games at the end of his sophomore season after testing positive for marijuana.

Junior college transfer Grady Reynolds was arrested just days before the 2002-03 season on charges he attacked a female student in a dormitory. This summer, Reynolds was ordered to perform community service and undergo anger management counseling to settle the charges, which would be dismissed in six months if he was not arrested again.

Jarvis replaced Fran Fraschilla, who was fired after the 1997-98 season. Jarvis spent the previous eight seasons at George Washington and was at Boston University for five seasons before that. His career record for 18-plus seasons is 364-201. He took Boston University to the NCAA (news - web sites) tournament twice and George Washington three times.

Jarvis led the Red Storm to the regional finals of the NCAA tournament his first season and they lost in the second round the next year. St. John's also went to the tournament in 2002, losing in the first round, and the Red Storm won the NIT last season, finishing with a 21-13 record by closing with a 7-1 run after going 2-6 in February.

Jarvis first came to national prominence as Patrick Ewing's high school coach at Rindge and Latin School in Cambridge, Mass.

"I have no regrets at all for coming to St. John's," Jarvis said. "I would come again in a minute."

He also was quick to talk of his future.

"I want to coach college basketball next year," he said.