USD Buoyed by Improved Play : Toreros Don’t Believe WCAC Title Is Out of Reach

There’s something about a conference postseason college basketball tournament that seems to get everybody involved feeling up-beat, revived, unbeatable and, maybe best of all, somewhat forgetful.

Take the University of San Diego’s players, for instance, who meet St. Mary’s in the first round of the West Coast Athletic Conference tournament in Toso Pavilion at noon today.

They offer an interesting case of before-and-after, each seemingly having forgotten about the agonies of a 3-11 conference record (11-16 overall). Instead, thoughts have turned to possible post-season glory and a return trip to the NCAA Tournament. It is, after all, only three victories away.

“We think we can win this whole thing,” said Efrem Leonard, a junior guard.

“If we play like we’ve been playing lately, there’s no reason we can’t come out of this thing and go to the tournament,” said Danny Means, the Toreros’ junior team captain.

Wait a minute.

All of this is well and good, but this is a seventh-place team. And it wasn’t long ago that USD’s appearance in the WCAC Tournament would have just meant extending a sorry season.

“There’s been some times this season where there’s been sort of a feeling of helplessness on this team,” center Jim Pelton said. “For a while there, the thought among some of us was, ‘God, I wish this (season) was all over.’ ”

Without the tournament, it would be. But now there is new life and it’s not all born out of the dream that on Monday night, USD could walk out of town with the championship.

The truth is, USD has been playing pretty well lately, especially last week when it defeated Pepperdine, 76-74, and gave conference champion Loyola Marymount a run for its money before losing, 141-126.

“In the last few weeks, our kids have finally learned what the effort they must put in for us to have a chance to win,” USD coach Hank Egan said. “At times this season, I thought they may never get to this point, but now they have.”

USD’s turnaround started after a 78-73 loss to Gonzaga in San Diego three weeks ago. The Toreros had a solid second half after trailing by 17 at the intermission.

“After that game, the kids were upset that they wasted a great second half,” Egan said. “Since then, they’ve put forth the effort.”

Since then, though, USD has gone only 1-3. Two losses were a result of poor shooting rather than a poor effort, and the victory was over Pepperdine, a team that few, including the players, thought USD could beat.

“We came in at halftime of the Pepperdine game (leading 42-40), and said, ‘Wow, we can play with them,’ ” Means said. “We knew if we played a good second half, too, we could win.”

“After we won that one, we knew it what it was going to take,” Leonard said. “Now, we’re feeling pretty confident about things.”

USD is feeling even more confidence because of its first-round tournament draw. Even though St. Mary’s (18-8, 9-5) finished second in the conference, the Toreros beat the Gaels, 66-60, in Moraga and lost by only 41-40 in San Diego.

St. Mary’s is led by its front line of 6-foot 9-inch center Dan Curry, 6-7 forward Robert Haugen and 6-4 forward Erick Newman. Haugen leads St. Mary’s in scoring with a 14.4 average and Newman is second at 13.1. Curry can cause problems, too, as he proved last week with a triple-double (26 points, 16 rebounds, 11 assists) against Loyola.

USD has been inconsistent up front, even though its leading scorer, senior Marty Munn (14.8), plays forward. Munn does most of his scoring outside, leaving the inside to Pelton (6.7), who has been inconsistent, and improving freshman Dondi Bell, who came on late and gave the Toreros some inspired play at the post.

Mostly, USD relies on its guards for offense, and that means Leonard and Means will have to play well. Means was at his best last year in the NCAA Tournament when he scored 18 points in USD’s 62-61 loss to Auburn.

“This is our chance to make up for a bad season,” Means said. “I knew what we were capable of all season, but it got frustrating because we just weren’t doing it. Now we’re playing better, and everybody recognizes that. I just hope we don’t get satisfied with the improvement we’ve made. We’ve got to keep going.”

If USD does beat St. Mary’s, it will most likely meet Loyola Marymount in the quarterfinals Sunday. Loyola, ranked No. 18 in the nation and undefeated in the conference, would have only to beat last-place Portland to set up such a meeting.

Loyola beat USD by 40 and 15 points this season.

“We’ll worry about them when we come to them,” Pelton said. “But I’m sure we can beat them (Loyola) if we play a bit better than we did against them last week.”

Oh, those tournament dreams can run deep.

WCAC TOURNAMENT

(At Santa Clara, Toso Pavilion)

First Round (Today)

7 USD (11-16) vs. 2 St. Mary’s (18-8), noon

8 Portland (6-21) vs. 1 Loyola Marymount (24-3), 2 p.m.

5 Gonzaga (16-11) vs. 4 Pepperdine (16-11), 6 p.m.

6 USF (13-14) vs. 3 Santa Clara (18-9), 8 p.m.

Semifinals (Sunday)

Game 1, 5 p.m.

Game 2, 7 p.m.

Championship (Monday)

Semifinal winners, 8:30 p.m.