WCAC TOUCHED BY THE PAC-10 : Loyola and Pepperdine Get Boosts From Their USC and UCLA Transfers

This may be the season that UCLA and USC determine a conference basketball title.

The title in question, however, is in the West Coast Athletic Conference.

Loyola Marymount and Pepperdine are the favorites in the WCAC, thanks in large part to transfers from Pacific 10 schools. Santa Clara and San Francisco, who appear to be the WCAC’s other top contenders, also will benefit from Pac-10 defectors.

Those schools have never been thought of as havens for flocks of transfers--and their administrations would shudder to be thought of as renegade schools--but the sudden influx of big-time talent figures to be immediately noticeable on the court.

Most league observers suggest that they will make a major impact on the conference standings, as well. In some cases, teams’ best players were on the bench last season, sitting out the year after transferring, as required by the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. They hope to make, “Wait till next year,” ring prophetic.

WCAC Commissioner Michael Gilleran refers to “Our transfers, as everybody calls them.”

Loyola was certainly a major recipient. The Lions will open the season in the Lapchick tournament at St. John’s this weekend with Corey Gaines, who played three seasons for UCLA, at point guard, and Hank Gathers, who played as a freshman at USC, at power forward.

Another USC transfer, Bo Kimble, is recovering from a knee injury but is expected back as a starting guard for Loyola in a few weeks.

“The red-shirts by themselves would make us a good team,” Loyola Coach Paul Westhead said when practice began.

Pepperdine got the other player who started as a freshman at USC, high-scoring forward Tom Lewis.

Santa Clara’s lineup will have swing man Jeffty Connelly, another USC emigre. USF expects to start 6-foot 9-inch forward Pat Giusti, who transferred from Oregon State and played the second semester for the Dons last season.

Another player who left UCLA, forward Jerald Jones, was also headed to USF--he’s listed on the summer roster--but apparently didn’t have enough academic credits to qualify and is at a community college.

Still, that’s a bumper crop of Pac-10 talent for the WCAC, which is trying to outgrow its reputation as a coaches’ conference.

Two more transfers will be on display a year hence in Los Angeles. Shann Ferch, a standout swing man from Montana State, is sitting out this season at Pepperdine, and Tom Peabody, a former Santa Ana Mater Dei High School star who transferred from Rice, is red-shirting at Loyola.

Loyola Athletic Director Brian Quinn said that the flow of talent may continue, though neither he nor Westhead foresees a pattern.

Quinn said: “We play in the (Pac-10’s) shadow. Often, kids get to those universities and they find, ‘Hey, it’s not for me,’ for a variety of reasons. You’re seeing that across the country. Conferences like the WCAC are ideal for those kind of kids--smaller schools, good competition, good academics. It’s a situation where those kids can often step right in and make an impact.”

Westhead said: “Transferring is usually a pattern of large to smaller. It’s not unusual that a player who selected a top 20-type program like, say, Syracuse, doesn’t (transfer) to Kentucky. That’s not a knock against schools of this size. It just means we don’t have a major, front-line image.”

Westhead said he’s not sure how much influence the new players will have on the conference, but added: “They’re going to have an impact on Los Angeles . . . on what I call the Loyola-Pepperdine week of basketball.” The teams will play their showdown games back-to-back in February.

Gaines, at point guard, will be a key player for the Lions, directing Westhead’s full-throttle offense. The 6-4 fifth-year senior with Walt Frazier’s body had Frazier-like press clippings at St. Bernard High in Playa del Rey, virtually in the shadow of Loyola, but never seemed to be the right guy at UCLA. He averaged six points in his last season with the Bruins. Westhead said Gaines is the fastest point guard he has ever had, and that some of his untamed instincts were ironed out during his red-shirt year.

“He has the potential of being a great player,” Westhead said. “I think he’ll be very poised and relaxed here. I think he’s aware of his past pluses and minuses. That’s one of the advantages of sitting out a year. He is a very driven person. Between his desire and our system, I think he’ll be able to find the perfect (blend).”

There has been concern among Loyola followers that Gaines will be playing for himself, hoping for a shot at the National Basketball Assn. Gaines laughs off that suggestion.

“There’s not really that much pressure on me ‘cause in coach’s offense, it all seems to come out naturally,” he said. “I’m not going to come down and clear everybody out (go one-on-one). I’m going to concentrate on assists, steals and defense. The shots will come.”

In the Lions’ opening exhibition against an Australian team last Saturday, Gaines made 9 of 10 shots but also had 16 assists.

Gathers, a muscular 6-7 sophomore who will play all three front-line positions for Loyola, combines power with speed. He may be Loyola’s most noticeable inside force this season, but runs the break and has a nice shooting touch as well.

“He’s a strong, pure, hard-working athlete who does so many good physical things,” Westhead said.

Gathers started a dozen games at USC as a freshman and averaged 8.3 points and 5 rebounds.

Gathers, who scored 60 points in Loyola’s recent public scrimmage and 22 against the Australians, is looking forward to playing in Westhead’s system.

“I think we’ll surprise people how we run,” he said. “There won’t be too many teams playing a zone against us ‘cause they won’t have time. We’ll run it right down their throats.”

Kimble, a sweet-shooting 6-5 guard who can also play inside, averaged 12 points as a freshman at USC and made the Pac-10 all-freshman team. He’s the missing link right now for Loyola but has almost recovered from a broken kneecap suffered this summer. He’s confident he’ll fit right in the offense. So are his teammates

“Bo gives you that extra dimension,” Gaines said.

Team captain Mike Yoest said: “The first five or six games without Bo, people won’t be seeing the team we’ll be later. He just adds another dimension to worry about.”

Kimble is excited about showing what he can do in Westhead’s attack.

“The best chance I can get to go to the pros is Coach Westhead,” he said. “He lets you play loose. Open court is where I shine the most.”

Lewis, one of the leading scorers in Southern Section history as he led Mater Dei High to two 5-A titles, led USC in scoring in his first collegiate season with an average of 17.6 points. That was the national high among freshmen. He scored 28 points last week in an exhibition against the Bulgarian national team, but Pepperdine Coach Jim Harrick wants him to do more than score.

“Lewis is a sophomore who has the talent to do it all,” Harrick said. “He doesn’t do it all right now. He can defend. He’s an excellent passer. He can offensive rebound but he doesn’t do it at the other end. . . . He has the ability to score. You have to remember he’s a sophomore. He’ll make mistakes.”

Lewis was the leading scorer for the West in the Olympic Festival last summer and said he has been “really enjoying” himself at Malibu.

Lewis has long carried a reputation as a selfish player, but Harrick said he has been very unselfish in practice, adding, “The best attribute he has is his ability to pass the ball.”

Lewis said of his new teammates: “The seniors accepted me, and everybody else followed their lead. There’s been no problems.”

Giusti became eligible after the first nine games last season at USF and averaged 7.3 points. He had a season-high 11 rebounds against Loyola.

Connelly, who has been fighting a nagging ankle injury and will not open the season as a starter for Santa Clara, was so eager to stay there that he paid his own way last year because the school didn’t have an extra scholarship. He has three years of eligibility left.

Gaines’ transfer from UCLA to Loyola followed the usual plot line. He started for two years but began to get itchy feet when Coach Walt Hazzard signed high school All-American Jerome (Pooh) Richardson.

Gaines said he became friendly with Loyola star Keith Smith in a summer league that year and heard glowing things about Westhead’s high-paced offense. He decided to stay at UCLA and started the first eight games before Hazzard installed Richardson as the point guard and Gaines faded into the background. When he heard Gathers and Kimble were transferring to Loyola, Gaines decided to join them.

“I talked with Coach Hazzard,” Gaines said. “We’re still good friends. It’s hard to leave your friends, but sometimes you have to do what’s best for you. There was no argument or any big fight. Coach (Hazzard) felt Pooh would play a lot and I wouldn’t get enough (playing time) to make me happy.

“I decided to go to a school that really pushed the ball. I thought maybe Keith (Smith) was right. Maybe I should have left a year earlier. (But) If I don’t play well this year maybe I should’ve stayed at UCLA.”

The USC transfers took a more unusual route to the WCAC.

“Bizarre is the only word I can think of,” Pepperdine’s Harrick said.

Both Harrick and Westhead said that in a perfect world, Gathers, Kimble and Lewis would still be at USC.

They left after their freshmen season, when George Raveling was hired to replace Coach Stan Morrison. The three, along with fellow freshman Rich Grande--who were such a promising quartet that they came to be known as the Four Freshmen--met with Athletic Director Mike McGee to discuss coaching possibilities. One report said that they demanded a say in the hiring of the new coach--which they deny--or they would transfer.

When Raveling was hired, a sniping skirmish was waged through the media. It culminated in Raveling’s having letters delivered to the three at various sites on campus, advising them that their scholarships would not be renewed. They were, in effect, free agents.

Gathers and Kimble, who played together at Dobbins Tech in Philadelphia, wanted to stay in Southern California and were put in contact with Loyola by a priest in their hometown, Father Dave Hagan, who knew Westhead, also a Philadelphia native.

Lewis revisited such powers as Syracuse and Kentucky but finally decided to stay near home. At first he leaned toward UC Irvine, then chose Pepperdine.

Quinn said that getting Gathers and Kimble “was kind of a circumstantial thing. There were some positions open, we had a coach with Philadelphia connections. They fell into our lap. It wasn’t by design. Our design is still to go after the high school athlete.”

Westhead said of the USC situation: “None of the schools created any of that. That’s past business and that’s their business. But just from reading the papers it was obvious they were leaving USC.”

Harrick called it “one of the weirdest situations I’ve ever seen happen in college. It wasn’t a normal transfer situation.”

Harrick said a player who wants to transfer to Pepperdine has to contact him first.

“I won’t recruit them,” he said. “I’ve never spent 10 cents on a transfer. I don’t want to get into a recruiting battle for kids who’ve already been through it.”

Gathers and Kimble actually decided to part company before Raveling’s fateful letters. Gathers decided to stay. Kimble was leaving. Both had the impression Lewis was gone.

“I didn’t want to leave SC (but) I didn’t feel comfortable with Coach Raveling,” Kimble said. “I didn’t get an instinct I still had a promising career. He said he wanted me to stay but his actions didn’t say that. . . . I kept hearing rumors.

“I think the media made him do what he did. I think without the media, we’d still be at USC. I still have great respect for Coach Raveling. The media made him react negatively. We were never really on the same wave length.”

Gathers said: “It was a big mess. I had decided to stay. Bo wanted to leave. My decision was final, Bo’s was final. I was in a training room when one of the managers brought me the letter from Coach Raveling. I was shocked. Hurt and shocked.

“I wanted to get into a school and get over this mess. I sort of got the impression (Raveling) didn’t care if we stayed or not. Until this day I’ve got nothing against Coach Raveling.”

Both said they blended in quickly at Loyola. They liked Westhead’s offense immediately. In last year’s intra-squad scrimmage, Kimble scored 46 points. This year, with Kimble sidelined, Gathers scored 60.

“There was probably some negative feedback, when all that was going on, that Bo and I were nasty guys, that I was a snob or anything like that,” Gathers said. “The guys saw it wasn’t like that.”

Kimble said: “The people knew who we were when we got here. They were very enthusiastic about having us here. Everyone accepted us. Right now I’m glad I left.”

Lewis said he is comfortable and feels supported at Pepperdine. He won’t discuss the USC situation other than to say, “I’m not regretting any of it. If I had it to do over again, I probably would’ve gone to SC again.”

Lewis said he decided on Pepperdine over UC Irvine because “I felt Pepperdine would give me a better opportunity to reach an NCAA tournament.”

He called the school while Harrick was on vacation in the mountains.

“I called the office, they said, ‘Tom Lewis called,’ ” Harrick said. “I said, ‘I won’t call him. If he wants to talk he can call me.’ He called me at the cabin. I said I’d be in the office one day the next week, be there if he wanted to see me. He came to the office. We talked. In September, I said, ‘School’s starting. If you want to come, come tomorrow,’ and he was here. I didn’t do one thing.”

Neither Loyola nor Pepperdine is looking for a reputation as a magnet for transfers. Westhead said he’s not worried about that tag. “The proof of that is in the doing,” he said. “The fact we have a smattering of transfers is not indicative.”

Still, it’s a smattering that could send the rest of the conference scattering this season.