At St. John's, a Course in Improvisation Jessica Hill/Associated Press The junior guard Malik Stith with Mike Dunlap, who has been coaching the Red Storm while Steve Lavin is recovering from cancer surgery. Steve Lavin watched St. John's defeat Cincinnati, 57-55, last Saturday from his SoHo apartment in Manhattan, sending text messages to his assistants and coaching his team from the couch as best he could. It is all he can do. Lavin is still recuperating from having surgery in October for prostate cancer. He keeps a yellow pad of notes about the team, attends practices and travels on the road to recruit. He calls his iPhone "the Johnnies" satellite command center." But since coaching four games in November, he has had to step back from the sideline as one of the most unusual circumstances in college basketball unfolds. "It's truly baptism by fire," Lavin said of the Red Storm (8-8, 2-3 Big East), which will host No. 11 Georgetown on Sunday with only seven recruited scholarship players. Five of the seven are freshmen. Last season, Lavin's first with St. John's, 10 seniors led the Red Storm to 21 victories and their first N.C.A.A. tournament appearance since 2002. Lavin refilled the roster with a highly regarded nine-player recruiting class. But the overhaul has been accompanied by some obstacles. In September, three of the recruits - JaKarr Sampson, Norvel Pelle and Amir Garrett - were declared academically ineligible. Then, in October, Lavin had surgery and the assistant Rico Hines, an important fixture on the practice court, tore his Achilles" tendon. In early December, Nurideen Lindsey, a talented junior-college transfer, left the program. What has resulted has been some flashes of potential from a deeply depleted roster, but also more than a few youthful mistakes. "We knew from the jump that we inherited one of the more unique situations in the history of college basketball," Lavin said. I don't know if it will ever happen again. What are the odds that there would ever be 10 seniors at one time? This season, the Red Storm lost early games to Northeastern and to Detroit and had to come back from 12 points behind to beat Texas-Pan American. Since the team began its Big East schedule, the assistant Mike Dunlap has had to balance teaching new players the system, monitoring their fatigue and preparing them mentally for playing in perhaps the most competitive league in the country. "I've never seen anything like this," said the special assistant Gene Keady, who started coaching in N.C.A.A. Division I in 1975. You've got to find a way to be patient and just keep working with them. They are pretty talented. That raw talent was certainly on display in the team's first conference game against Providence, which the Red Storm won, 91-67, with a parade of high-flying dunks, sharp shooting and stealthy defense. Forward Moe Harkless scored 32 points to set a record for a freshman playing his first Big East game. Afterward, Providence Coach Ed Cooley called Harkless a "face of the Big East." But the ineligibility of Sampson, Pelle and Garrett - who has since qualified and joined the team - tempered some of the Red Storm's preseason hype. It also drew attention to Lavin's pursuit of some high-risk prospects who, at least initially, did not work out. Sampson and Pelle enrolled in prep schools and withdrew their commitments to St. John's. Sampson is being recruited by Kansas, Baylor and Providence, among others. Evan Daniels, a national recruiting analyst for Scout.com, said it was doubtful that Sampson would return to play for the Red Storm. "Sometimes, you have to roll the dice," Tim Welsh, a former Providence coach and current SNY analyst, said in a telephone interview. When they're not in your program, it's a setback. But those things happen. Lavin did not quite agree. "I don't see it as rolling the dice," he said. We evaluate prospects and recognize that some may not make it. We're very thorough in evaluating talent and character. He added: "What's inherent at this level of college basketball is you're not going to bat 1.000. We inherited a situation where we have the task of signing 12 basketball players in two years on the job. That's an anomaly. Lindsey averaged 11.8 points in 29.6 minutes a game as the team's starting point guard. His departure Dec. 8 left the team with six scholarship players, and Garrett's arrival from Bridgton Academy in Maine on Dec. 20 only illustrated how desperately they needed him. He played 15 minutes in his first game shortly after being declared eligible and a week later had still not unpacked all his belongings. "It's crazy," Garrett said. I was just up in Maine and all of a sudden, I'm here and playing already. St. John's employs an energetic 1-1-3 zone on defense and prefers to get out in transition. Dunlap's practices have actually increased in intensity. To battle fatigue, the strength and conditioning coach Patrick Dixon monitors everything from the players" body weight to their sleep cycles, keeping their lockers stocked with multivitamins, protein shakes and packets of a vitamin drink mix. The team also does yoga at least twice a week. Lavin said he was taking advantage of his "general manager" role, but would wait until he regained the stamina required to coach before returning. It may not be this season. "I think the first thing in terms of moving ahead is Steve Lavin," the longtime New York recruiting analyst Tom Konchalski said in a telephone interview regarding what the effect could be on recruits. He has got to demonstrate that he's healthy, that he will be the coach of St. John's and that he's all in, he's totally committed to it. For now, St. John's will have to grow up in a hurry. "There's been a degree of tumultuous unknown to this group," Dunlap said. The players have handled it as business as usual.