We caught up with Steve Lavin recently as a guest on "Gold and Black LIVE." Lavin talks about the 2020-21 Boilermakers and shares his memories of being a poor graduate assistant under coach Gene Keady.

GoldandBlack.com: The Big Ten is as loaded as ever. Have you ever seen it like this?

Lavin: It's the strongest conference in terms of the depth and the potential NCAA Tournament bids that we've seen in college basketball since 2010-11. Matter of fact, that was my first year in the Big East at St. John's and we sent a record 11 teams to the NCAA Tournament. Connecticut finished 9-9 in league play, and then won the Big East championship and went on to win the national championship.

GoldandBlack.com: You were around as an assistant coach Purdue in the days of Stephen Scheffler. (1988-91) How does Trevion Williams compare to the great Boilermaker big men you have seen over the years.

Lavin: . You think of Jim Rowinski, Steve Scheffler, Brian Cardinal, Brad Miller, Melvin McCants, let's give Kip Jones some love. There’s something special about Trevion Williams. His poise and composure on his catches, his decision making, he really enjoys the thrill of the pass and takes pride in his passing. That’s what makes him a tough matchup. Some big men you throw the ball to, and it's a black hole, it's never coming out. They don't see a cutter diving off the top of the floor. They don't know how to position themselves through their footwork or bounce to throw a skip pass over the top of the defense. Trevion Williams is such an excellent playmaker. So he's ideal as the hub of the wheel for Purdue’s offense on his catches.

GoldandBlack.com: You were around Matt Painter during his college playing days. What makes him special?

Lavin: Yeah, I think it's a combination of gifts, talents, traits, attributes, qualities, characteristics, whatever we want to call them. He had an interest in coaching at a young age and he was a student of the game as a player, so he was taking mental notes. He wasn't thinking about playing in the NBA. He was thinking about coaching. He grew up around Pat Knight and Bob Knight, grew up around Big Ten basketball. And of course, some good coaches at Ball State like Rick Majerus.

But Matt is his own man. He's different than Gene Keady. That’s a good thing. That's why Coach Keady is so proud of him, because he always encouraged his assistants to be ourselves.

I think Matt is doing the best job of his coaching career with this team. He’s had some banner seasons in my book, National Coach-of-the-Year worthy seasons. He's as good as it gets. With his generation of coaches, I put him right at the top.

This year, he's maximized and getting the most out of his personnel. Some of those late game sets with dribble handoffs, they do some excellent misdirection within their offense, and really has a good feel and seems to be enjoying coaching this team, because he sees their upside.

He's trending to the Hall of Fame, in terms of his numbers. If he's the coach of Purdue another decade, or more, which I think he will, he's going to go down as one of the all time greats in Big Ten history.

GoldandBlack.com: Yeah, Matt Painter is a unique skill set.

Lavin: Like a John Wooden, Matt has also demonstrated that same flexibility curiosity. He's still interested in the game and refining and improving his coaching methods. It's a craft. Teaching and coaching is a craft like other industries.

GoldandBlack.com: Why do people like you and Urban Meyer trade good jobs in television and get back into coaching?

Lavin: Everyone is different. But in my situation, I really enjoy working with young people. I enjoy the mentoring, the relationship building, the camaraderie with the players and your staff, and pursuing goals trying to win a championship together and that journey, each season, the reset of a new beginning and being on a college campus. My father was an educator; he was an English teacher and an author. He taught at Cal-Berkeley and Dominican College (both in San Francisco area), a career in high school at Drake High School, and my mom and dad raised six children on an educator salary. So I grew up on college campuses, and around a community of people that were educators. So that's just in my DNA and my blood.

So if there was a good fit, I'd go back to coaching. But I'm also fully aware, that if you go back in, you've got to have your armor, and be ready, because it's a 24/7 365 proposition. It deserves all of your energy.

Where in broadcasting, there's a little more work life balance, as they say. I enjoy being away because I see things through a wider angle lens. Being out of coaching allowed me to spend time with my mother before she passed, and spend time with my father before he passed. So it's interesting how the timing, or the arc of your career, really presents different gifts.

I'm not in a rush to do it. But if it was the right fit, I would consider a return.

GoldandBlack.com: When you wake up, what keeps you with a smile on your face and keeps you optimistic?

Lavin: Well, I think some of it goes back to my mother and father because the way they led their life was such a powerful example. As influential as anyone in my life outside of my mother and father was Gene Keady, and he was incredibly optimistic. He would always reframe situations to see the possibilities to aspire to get back on track.

And yes, we might be battered, but we can still be beautiful if we're resilient and if we continue to fight back, and I'm borrowing from the beautiful poem from The Inauguration the other day. Also, I think it's just the best way to go.

I went to a college, Chapman University, where the enrollment was 2500 when I was a student there, and to think that I could coach at Purdue with Gene Keady and coach at UCLA and be able to spend 12 wonderful years in Westwood, and then to be able to go to New York and coach at St. John's. In between, yes, there was some hardship. Losing my mother and father, I missed a year of coaching with cancer. But I've been cancer free now for 11 years. So just gratitude and grace and graciousness is really, in my view, the way to go in terms of setting the right example, and also the way to kind of reframe every situation in your own life to see the goodness and the possibilities.

GoldandBlack.com: Give us the cliff notes version of the story of when you were at Purdue and your visit to Yonuts.

Lavin: I just recently purchased, I believe it was 1990, (Purdue assistant coach Bruce Weber's) a metallic gold Pontiac Grand Am. It had the cool chrome, mag wheels and sunroof. So I was in heaven, because it was my first car, and to be able to drive to work, drive to Mackey Arena and whatnot. It was also the first time I could really go on a date because I had a car. So I go on a date and pull up to Yonuts and (senior point guard) Tony Jones happened to be driving by and he saw the car, recognized it because Coach Weber had driven the car prior.

While we were inside getting some yogurt with some nice little toppings. Next thing I know the car is being driven away. I turn around, put the yogurt down and start running after my own car. Well, it turned out Tony Jones had slipped into the backseat of the Pontiac Grand Am and initially was just going to try and scare me when I got back in the car. But then he saw that I'd left the keys in the ignition.

I'm thinking we’re in West Lafayette (it is safe to leave the keys in the car). So once he saw the keys, he jumps in starts to drive that car away. So I'm getting ready to call 911 and call the cops to report a stolen car. And before I was able to get inside to make that call, Tony Jones pulls back up. So it was kind of a legendary epic date night.

My choice to go to Yonuts on a date is something that guys rip me on. Then to leave the keys in the ignition, they even rip me more on that. Thank God it was Tony Jones and not someone else because he's one of our players, one of my favorite people, and obviously he's gone on to a successful career as an airline pilot represented Purdue in a first class manner, but he'll always have that one on me. No doubt.

GoldandBlack.com: Bruce also sold you a lemon, right?

Lavin: No doubt. That car within a month or two was done. And I forget what kind of value I got on the trade in for I think a Honda Civic before I ended up making the trek to California. So I kid Bruce about that as well. He says it was sold to me at blue book value and claims that he gave me a fair shake, but that car was done within a couple months.

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