Chapman’s Wilson Making Big Plans : Despite Last Season, Coach Tries to Stress Winning Attitude for Rebuilding Team

Ordinarily, when a basketball team is coming off of a 7-20 season, the coach talks of another rebuilding season and hopes for, at best, a winning record.

Not so Kevin Wilson, Chapman College coach. Wilson speaks of, among other things, conference championships--an unmentionable for many a coach with a winning season behind him.

“In the preseason poll of (California Collegiate Athletic Assn.) sports information directors, we were picked to finish last, and you know what? I loved it,” Wilson said. “Gives us the element of surprise.”

Wilson’s hopes are built around former pivotman Jon Samuelson, the 6-foot 6-inch senior who, after losing 25 pounds during the summer, is down to 205. Samuelson, who has also played at Fullerton College and Cal State Fullerton, will play point guard for the Panthers this season.

“Samuelson could be one of the best players in the league,” Wilson said. “We don’t have any 6-10 or 6-11 guys--they all seem to go Division I. A 6-6 point guard should give us some decent size in the backcourt, though.”

The Panthers also will count on 6-8 forward Karl Tompkins and 6-3 guard Chris Perine, a transfer from Santa Rosa Community College, for scoring. Freshman David Roth from Orange High School is expected to see action off the bench.

Wilson envisions big things for his Division II program, not all of which have to do with the Panthers’ record.

Besides this weekend’s three-game Hawaii trip, which starts Friday against BYU-Hawaii and includes Chaminade and Hawaii Pacific, Wilson has scheduled games against schools with much larger programs and budgets including Minnesota, Loyola Marymount and UC Davis.

He has also started a variety of plans designed to bring out more fans--such as giving the player with the lowest free-throw percentage after a given practice a sandwich board to wear on campus at lunchtime announcing that day’s game.

Wilson also instituted a mandatory study period following each day’s practice, an idea suggested by the players. And he also has urged that none of his players room together on campus but must have a roommate from the general student body.

Wilson said that he knows that promotions aside, the very best way to fill any gym is to put a winning team on the court.

“My goal here at Chapman is to unite the campus with excitement and enthusiasm generated by the basketball team,” Wilson said.

Wilson explained that creating an exciting environment helps get his players excited, and enthusiastic players, he hopes, will generate more wins down the road.

If all of this seems a little extravagant for a Division II school, well, Wilson notes that there is precedent.

Wilson played for Bill Musselman, one of basketball’s all-time hucksters, at Ashland College in Ohio in the late 1960s and later was his assistant at the University of Minnesota.

At Minnesota, Wilson coached future NBA players Mychal Thompson, Mark Olberding, and Mark Landsberger, as well as current New York Yankee Dave Winfield. Despite helping Minnesota win the Big-Ten title in 1972, Wilson found the big campus impersonal, which helps explain why he feels so at home at Chapman.

“I saw what basketball could do for campus unity when I was at Ashland and that’s what I’m trying to make happen here,” Wilson said.

After the Hawaii trip, which includes a day off for deep sea fishing, the Panthers play host to the Chapman Doubletree Tournament Nov. 28-29.