Loyola Needs Tourney Win to Cinch NCAA Bid

It’s been eight years since Loyola Marymount made an appearance in the NCAA basketball tournament and 27 years since the Lions represented the West Coast Athletic Conference as champion.

But that’s likely to change this year, regardless of what happens to the Lions in this weekend’s WCAC tournament at Santa Clara.

The Lions have the best record in their history, 24-3; they have won 21 straight--the longest streak in Division I this season--lead the nation in scoring and have made an impact on the national media in the last month.

That last factor is probably what makes Loyola an odds-on bet for selection to the 64-team NCAA field, even if the Lions are upset in the WCAC tournament.

Coach Paul Westhead takes the practical approach--that about a half dozen teams won more than 20 games and were passed over last year, so it’s incumbent on the Lions to win the tournament and the automatic bid.

The Lions have not only cracked the Top 20 polls but have moved up in recent weeks and are recognized as a quality team. “The rating has to help, the fact we got in a couple of weeks ago and were able to sustain,” Westhead said. “Had we lost, we’d have been out real fast.”

Westhead said it would be “very naive of us” to think the team has a lock on an NCAA berth, but he said the Lions have reached a level of eminence “where any loss would legitimately be considered an upset. It seems like upsets are accepted in a playoff situation--they understand that anyone can lose. My preference is not to have those kinds of dilemmas. I would rather not sit around a week and wonder what the NCAA (selection) committee is thinking.”

Certainly, it would be in Loyola’s interest to win the WCAC tournament. The Lions would probably stay in the West and get a good placement in the 16-team regional. They have received more respect--in terms of media coverage and national interest--than WCAC teams generally have in the past.

Last year, regular-season champion San Diego, winner of 24 regular-season games, was upset in the WCAC tournament and was sent to the NCAA Midwest regional and lost to Auburn on a last-second tip-in. Santa Clara, which won the conference tournament, was seeded 14th in the West regional and was blasted in the first round by Iowa, 99-76. In previous years, Pepperdine drew openers against three strong Atlantic Coast Conference teams.

Pepperdine Coach Jim Harrick thinks that will change if the Lions win the WCAC tourney. After the Lions beat his team in back-to-back games, Harrick predicted: “They’ll be seeded somewhere from 8 to 12 and draw another 8 to 12 team--and beat their brains in.”

Privately, some of the players are speculating on where they might be seeded, but Westhead said an emerging program like Loyola’s is not in a position to worry about pairings.

“I would be very happy to be in the tournament and go from there,” he said. “We’ve been a pretty good road team, and the way we play, who we play is no big deal.”

California Collegiate Athletic Assn. sports publicists put together an informal preseason basketball poll last summer and defending champion Cal State Dominguez Hills was named the favorite.

Then it was learned that starters (and returning high scorers) Tony Akins and Vico Nomaaea had left school, and in the official preseason poll the Toros were picked to be near the basement in the eight-team league.

When the season came to a close last weekend, the Toros were in-between, tying for fourth place but bumped through a series of tie-breakers from the CCAA tournament, which involves the top four.

Given the unexpected loss of much of his offense--Akins transferred to UC Santa Barbara and Nomaaea went on a two-year Mormon mission--and the fact that the Toros lacked a dominant post-up player for the first time in years, Coach Dave Yanai did another solid coaching job, though it may not be reflected in the 13-13 record.

The young Toros finished strongly, winning 7 of their last 10 games. At the start of the season, only junior center Anthony Blackmon had started at the college level.

Blackmon, who doubled his scoring, was an all-district selection and should be the focus of the team next season. Yanai should have an outstanding back-court with the return of junior Derrick Clark and freshmen Robert Barksdale and Bryan Dell’Amico. Only guard Barry Johnson and forward Roger Coleman graduate.

Some Loyola observers have wondered why Corey Gaines has continued to play on an injured ankle when the last two games had no bearing on the conference standings and the team has to play three games in three days to win the WCAC tournament.

But at a press luncheon this week, Gaines and Westhead said sitting out would hurt as much as help the point guard, who plays a key position in Westhead’s system. Gaines has continued to play effectively but has been missing his quick lateral moves on defense and his normally explosive step to the basket since he injured ligaments above the left ankle three weeks ago.

Westhead said resting him “did not cross my mind. You sit out more than a day or two and you’re out of the sequence. Every day he stays out, that (Gaines’ explosive) step gets further away.”

Westhead said that because the players run so hard for so long in his system, missing games and practices hurts their conditioning and disrupts Westhead’s substitution patterns. He pointed out that when Bo Kimble was hurt and missed the first six games--which the Lions split--the team ran out of gas and needed one more healthy body. And, he said, Kimble needed about five weeks of practice and games to work into shape after getting medical clearance to play.

He added: “It may be a weakness but we can’t afford to protect (rest) a valuable player. We have the exact numbers we need.”

Gaines said the ankle feels better, and Westhead said he had “his best practice since he was injured.”

Top of the Pops: When Loyola clinched the WCAC basketball title a few weeks ago, players gleefully cut down the nets while the public address system blared James Brown’s “I Feel Good” and the Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction.” How long had it been since Loyola had won a title? Westhead said: “They were playing all that funky stuff, and an alumnus told me after the game that the last time we won they played ‘Moon River.’ ”

Hank Gathers’ real name is Eric, but the high-scoring sophomore said he was tagged Hank by his father as an infant. “The only time I’m called Eric is when someone is mad at me, specifically my mother,” he said.

College Notes

For the umpteenth year, El Camino College basketball Coach Paul Landreaux has been named conference coach of the year. He’s two for two since El Camino joined the South Coast Conference. His two forwards, Charles White and Kirkland Howling, shared the player of the year honor. . . . Dominguez Hills center Anthony Blackmon was named to the Division II all-district basketball first team. The center averaged 16.7 points and 7.3 rebounds. . . . In an amazing coincidence, Loyola’s Hank Gathers and Pepperdine’s Tom Lewis, former teammates at USC, each scored 610 points in 27 games to share the WCAC scoring lead at 22.6 points per game. The other USC transfer, Bo Kimble, averaged 22.5. . . . A year ago, Loyola’s Mike Yoest and Pepperdine’s Eric White also scored the same number of points and matched averages exactly. . . . Ken Horton closed out the Cal State Los Angeles basketball season with a career-high 24 points. The sophomore out of Westchester High finished second on the team in scoring with a 14.8 average. . . . Cal State L.A. senior Dave Kastigar recently lowered his school record in the 100-yard backstroke to 55.28. The El Segundo native also broke into the school’s top 10 in the 100-yard backstroke, making him the only swimmer in school history to rank in the top 10 in every individual event.