College Division : The End Comes Too Quickly for Azusa Pacific

An era ended when the Azusa Pacific University men’s basketball team was defeated by Westmont in the first round of the District III playoffs last week in the National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics.

The loss signaled a disappointing end to the long and successful coaching career of Azusa Pacific’s Cliff Hamlow, who had announced earlier in the week that he was retiring after coaching the Cougars for 32 years.

Hamlow, 53, will leave a long list of accomplishments.

He finished the season at No. 6 in victories among active college coaches--just ahead of Abe Lemons of Oklahoma City and behind Norm Sloan of Florida. His record of 570-414 also includes 16 seasons with 20 or more victories.

“I realize their success (Lemons and Sloan) has come at the Division I level and mine has come at the NAIA level, but you work with the talent you have,” he said. “It’s an honor to be mentioned in a group with those people.”

Hamlow says he has mixed emotions about leaving but wants to devote more time to his two other jobs. He is Azusa Pacific’s athletic director and vice president of alumni.

“I’m at a place where either I need to go more into administration or out of it altogether and go into teaching and coaching, which is fine with me,” Hamlow said. “But I was like a rubber band. I was stretched in both places.”

Not that he doesn’t enjoy coaching. Hamlow simply decided that the school needed him more in other areas.

“I don’t think it’s the coaching that’s gotten me down,” he said. “It’s just that I’ve been doing three jobs. I knew it would be very demanding when I took the new job (as vice president) and I knew it would be stressful. So I knew I might have to eventually make a choice.”

Hamlow thinks he made the right decision.

“I love coaching but sometimes more is expected of you, and at this university my role with the alumni and administration is very important,” he said.

There are aspects of coaching that Hamlow says he will not miss, most notably recruiting.

“It’s probably the most difficult part of the job,” he said. “It’s so time consuming, and the time you spend is almost unlimited as to how much you need to do a good job. I will miss meeting all the parents, players and coaches, but I won’t miss all those hours in the gym. It takes its toll.”

He said he will probably miss his relationship with the athletes most.

“I know I’ll miss that a lot. I suppose some coaches miss the technical stuff--the coaching and the strategy. But my main interest is with my players and watching them grow, both as players and in a spiritual sense.”

Hamlow realizes, though, that as athletic director he will not be far from the athletes. He also expects to stay close to the basketball program by helping Terry Layton, the new coach, with scouting.

Three teams from the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. have earned berths in the National Collegiate Athletic Assn.’s Division II basketball playoffs starting Friday.

Cal Poly Pomona will be making its seventh straight trip to the women’s playoffs, and Cal State Bakersfield and UC Riverside will compete in the men’s.

Pomona will be host of its own regional. The Broncos, 26-3 overall and ranked No. 2 in Division II, will play UC Davis (18-10) in the first round of the West Regional at 8:05 p.m. Friday.

The Broncos could get their strongest test from 14th-ranked Alaska Anchorage (23-4), which will face Cal State Chico (19-9) in the first game at 5:45. The title game is set for Saturday night.

Bakersfield (20-9), which won the CCAA postseason tournament in the men’s division Saturday, will play in the West Regional Friday and Saturday at Cal State Hayward. The second-seeded Roadrunners will face Alaska Anchorage (20-9) in the opener at 7 and Hayward will play 12th-ranked Cal State Sacramento (22-6) in the second game at 9.

Riverside appears to have the toughest task of the three CCAA teams. The Highlanders, 21-7 and ranked No. 17 in the last Division II poll, must play second-ranked St. Cloud.

It is no surprise that Biola and Westmont will be meeting for the NAIA District III men’s basketball championship at 8 tonight at Whittier College.

That’s because both teams always seem to contend for the title, and Biola has won the district title five times in the 1980s.

Biola, which has a 28-3 record and is ranked No. 9 in the NAIA, is favored to take its sixth title. But the Eagles could have problems against Westmont, which has a 22-8 record and has won 10 in a row, among them a 58-56 decision over Biola Feb. 13.