WCAC Preview : Loyola, Pepperdine Have Nowhere to Go but Up This Season

Last season, the balance of power in the West Coast Athletic Conference swung conspicuously away from Los Angeles, where Loyola Marymount and Pepperdine brought up the rear.

The scoop this season is that the finish will reverse itself.

A preseason media poll conducted by the WCAC has decreed that Loyola, which ended up eighth in the eight-team league last winter, will win the title, followed by Pepperdine, which is coming off an unaccustomed seventh-place finish.

In two national publications, Pepperdine is picked to win its sixth WCAC title in eight years. The Sporting News tabs Loyola the favorite. Yet another picks Santa Clara.

Meanwhile, the University of San Diego, the defending regular-season champion, graduated the most starters and is picked seventh. San Diego Coach Hank Egan’s reaction to preseason predictions: “Not only don’t I know, I don’t care.”

Indeed, the WCAC has always been a put-up-or-shut-up conference when league play begins, and blowouts are rare, even when the best plays the worst.

Examples: Last season, first-place San Diego needed two overtimes to subdue Loyola, and second-place Gonzaga was beaten by Pepperdine in the WCAC tournament. Two of the three overtime games in the conference were played by Loyola--against the top two teams.

It may not be a conference that gets much notice in the top 20 polls or one that pops up in Dick Vitale’s conversation often, but fans are generally assured of seeing tight, competitive games. And the feeling this season is that the Southland teams will be on the winning end of more of them, perhaps emulating their 1-2 finish two years ago.

Pepperdine Coach Jim Harrick is probably on the mark when he predicts a wide-open race with four, possibly five, contenders.

Here’s how the league shapes up, in the order of the poll result: LOYOLA MARYMOUNT

1986-87 records: 12-16 overall, 4-10 in WCAC)

WCAC finish: Eighth

The Lions will run. The Lions will score. The Lions’ opponents’ tongues will be on the floor.

But will the Lions play defense? And will as good a collection of athletes as has ever been assembled at the little Westchester school mesh into a good team?

Those are questions that intrigue even Coach Paul Westhead, who says that he has the horses not only to outrun and outgun opponents, but to play a pressing defense as well.

Forwards Mike Yoest and Mark Armstrong are starting their fourth varsity seasons and led the WCAC in scoring, at 19.3, and rebounding, at 9.0, respectively, as juniors. Also back are athletic junior guard Enoch Simmons and sophomore guard Jeff Fryer, a three-point marksman.

They’ll be bolstered by the addition of transfers Hank Gathers, 6-7, and Bo Kimble, 6-5, from USC, both sophomores, and fleet senior point guard Corey Gaines from UCLA. Kimble is recovering from a knee injury but should be back by mid-December.

Freshman Marcus Slater, 6-9, and sophomore Marcellus Lee, 6-10, both red-shirted last season and are raw, but add size and promise. Junior John Veargason, 6-10, has been hampered by an ankle injury but is the team’s best outlet passer.

“We’re a good team,” Westhead said. “I don’t know how good. We’ll evolve as the older and newer players mesh together. . . . We can go eight (deep) without much of a change in ability. I think the guys sense they can be pretty good, and they sense it’s not just from one guy.

“The red-shirts (from last season) by themselves would make us a good team. Mark (Armstrong) and Mike (Yoest) would make us a good team. For the first time, we’re not entering into a season hoping for some new-found player to change our fates.”

The Lions will be tested early, opening against Tennessee Tech in the Lapchick Tournament at St. John’s Saturday night and traveling to Oregon State in early December. PEPPERDINE

1986-87 records: 12-18, 5-9

WCAC finish: Seventh

When asked if everything is fine at Pepperdine, Coach Jim Harrick forgoes the usual one-liners. The Waves should be better than last season, when they were beset by backcourt problems, but they are relatively small up front and are a team in search of a personality.

The schedule, however, doesn’t give them much time to experiment. They open at DePaul Saturday night, and the December schedule includes Arizona, McNeese State, Oklahoma State and Cal State Fullerton. They open the new year playing host to Connecticut of the Big East and Marshall, which is getting some top 20 votes.

“I kind of like our team,” Harrick said. “We’ve got a little quickness. We can shoot OK. I don’t know if we can get a rebound. The schedule is a little scary sometimes, but if we can get over the hump. . . . “

Harrick’s big man again is muscular 6-7 center-forward Levy Middlebrooks, who tied Loyola’s Armstrong for the conference rebounding lead, 9 a game, and averaged 13 points, but has yet to put together a consistent year.

“He’s got a lot of potential, and we’re still waiting for it to come out,” Harrick said. Dexter Howard, a 6-7 sophomore, should be smoother after a bumpy freshman year. Mike Cumberland, a physical 6-7 senior, adds muscle up front but is ineligible for the first semester.

The addition who has everyone in suspense is 6-7 sophomore Tom Lewis, the USC transfer who has a reputation as a scorer who never met a shot he didn’t like. Lewis averaged 17 points as a freshman at USC, and 18 a game last summer for the West in the U.S. Olympic Festival.

Harrick stresses that he prefers to spread out the scoring, and says that won’t be a problem with Lewis. “The best attribute he has is his ability to pass the ball,” Harrick said. “He’s very unselfish, at least now (in practice). He has the ability to score.”

Harrick will ask Lewis to do more inside, including rebound.

The other key player is point guard Marty Wilson, who sat out last season with a back injury. Production from 6-11 junior Casey Crawford would help but he remains a project. SANTA CLARA

1986-87 records: 18-14, 6-8

WCAC finish: Tied for fourth.

The Broncos were the surprise winner of the WCAC tournament, and Westhead likes their chances again. “They have the crown until somebody takes it away,” he said.

It doesn’t hurt that Coach Carroll Williams, the winningest coach in WCAC history--in conference games--has four starters and nine lettermen back and has a big, physical team. The Broncos will also play host to the WCAC tournament in March.

The top players are 6-9 forward Jens Gordon, who averaged 11 points; 6-9 center Dan Weiss, who averaged 10, and guard Chris Lane, who averaged 10.8. Mitch Burley and Osei Appiah, both part-time starters, return another 15 points. Gordon was the postseason tournament MVP last season. Lane had arthroscopic surgery on a knee last week and will miss several games. SAN FRANCISCO

1986-87 records: 16-12, 6-8

WCAC finish: Tied for fourth

USF is in Year 3 of its renewal, and Coach Jim Brovelli hopes to be back in a big way. He has six players 6-8 or taller, including returning starters Pat Clardy, Pat Giusti and Mark McCathrion, and 6-10 backup center Joe Seager. Also back are guards Rodney Tention and Robbie Grigsby. Brovelli managed to leap four places in the standings and triple his conference victories in the program’s second season back.

Clardy led USF’s scoring with a 13-point average last season, but McCathrion, who was second at 12.1, may be the key player. The junior earned all-conference honors as a sophomore and was a Pan Am team alternate last summer. As a sophomore he had a tendency to disappear as often as he dominated. A big year from him could put USF back in the hunt for the title the Dons used to consider their own. ST. MARY’S

1986-87 records: 17-13, 7-7

WCAC finish: Third

The Gaels, in their first season under Coach Lynn Nance, were the surprise of the conference last season, posting their best finish since 1961. Nance has four starters back, led by 6-7 all-conference forward Robert Haugen, who averaged 12.1 points a game while shooting 58%; 6-9 center Dan Curry and point guard David Carter, a junior from Crenshaw High who averaged 9 points and 4 assists. He is one of three 5-10 left-handed point guards on the team. The Gaels claim to lead the nation in that category.

Also back is guard Sly Hunter, who started 18 games but is likely to get off to a slow start because of a broken ankle he suffered over the summer. An addition to watch is guard Mike Vontoure from Diablo Valley College, where he led California community colleges in three-point shooting. Nance’s team was among the best in defense last season, holding opponents to fewer than 59 points a game. GONZAGA

1986-87 records: 18-10, 9-5

WCAC finish: Second

The Bulldogs figured to have a tough enough time matching last season’s second-place finish--their best ever--before their best player, junior forward Jim McPhee, went down with a knee injury that required surgery. McPhee, who averaged 15.8 points and ranked seventh in the nation in free-throw accuracy at 89%, is out until the new year, and possibly longer.

That leaves 6-7 forward Danny Roe and junior guard Doug Spradley as the top returners. Both may be asked to play several positions in McPhee’s absence. SAN DIEGO

1986-87 records: 24-6, 13-1

WCAC finish: First

The Toreros played some of the toughest defense in America last season, holding opponents to 60 points a game and a national-best 40% field-goal shooting.

Egan, however, will be working with a young group that includes seven freshmen. Junior guard Danny Means is the only returning starter. Forward Marty Munn, the top reserve last season, is nursing a broken cheekbone suffered on the second day of practice but is expected to be ready for the season opener. Big man Jim Pelton, a 6-9 senior, has a herniated disk.

Egan has his work cut out if he hopes to match his average of 20 victories a season since he took over three years ago. PORTLAND

1986-87 records: 14-14, 6-8

WCAC finish: Tied for fourth

Former Portland Trail Blazer Larry Steele takes over the Pilots, and nobody there will remind him of Bill Walton or Maurice Lucas. Or even Larry Steele. This is one group of Pilots that figures to hit a lot of turbulence.

Steele has two starters back, 6-9 center Jeff Webb--who started all 28 games and averaged 1.8 rebounds--and 6-7 forward-center Adam Simmons, 10.6 points and 7.8 rebounds. The Pilots’ best player last season, WCAC freshman of the year Greg Anthony, transferred to Nevada Las Vegas. That puts some pressure on top recruit Ron Deaton, a 6-5 guard who was Washington state player of the year and may start.

Steele is the only WCAC coach whose jersey has been retired by a National Basketball Assn. team, and there figure to be times this season when he will be tempted to put it back on.