Notebook : Wave Coach Inks Player and Two Assistants

Tom Asbury, new head coach of Pepperdine’s men’s basketball, has signed a junior college basketball player and hired two assistant coaches.

The letter signer is 6-7, 220-pound Rex Manu of Skyline Junior College in Northern California who averaged 17 points and 9 rebounds a game last season.

The assistants are Robert Williams, head coach at Menlo College in Menlo Park for five years, and David Campbell, an assistant at Weber State last season.

Williams, a 1976 graduate of San Jose State who holds a master’s degree in athletic administration from St. Mary’s College, also served as head coach at Cabrillo Junior College and Lincoln High School, both in the San Jose area.

Campbell was an assistant coach for five years at St. Mary’s, his alma mater. A 1980 graduate, he majored in business administration and played basketball at St. Mary’s.

Members of the Sato family could almost field an entire all-star volleyball lineup for Friday’s 7:30 p.m. match with the Santa Monica High School boys, the top-ranked 4-A team in the Southern Section, at the school’s boys gymnasium.

The Satos who will play for the Santa Monica alumni include Gary, assistant coach of the U.S. national men’s team; Eric, a national team member; Liane, a member of the U.S. women’s team; Glenn, a former Loyola Marymount player, and Scott, who played for San Diego State.

Other alumni who have played in the Olympics, at the World University Games or for national teams include Bill Griebenow, Liz Masakayan, Jim McLaughlin, Larry Milliken, Jim Menges, Mike O’Hara, Pat Powers, Larry Rundle, Elaine Rogue, Dick Templeman and Jeff Williams.

Santa Monica High Coach Bob Clarke, an international referee who will be going to the 1988 Olympics, probably has his best team since he became Santa Monica’s walk-on coach in 1982.

“You can be a good team year after year,” Clarke said. “But you go from good to great when, instead of two or three good players, you have four or five. And I think that’s what happened to us this year.”

Starters for the Vikings are 6-6 junior setter Mike Sealy, 6-5 senior outside hitter Ryan Moos, 6-1 outside hitter Ian Williamson, 6-6 senior middle blocker Sean Clark, 6-4 senior middle blocker Greg Dyer and 6-1 junior outside hitter Morgan McKenzie.

The game is a benefit for the high school team. Tickets are $3 at the door.

The UCLA football team will end spring practice with a free day for fans at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Spaulding Field on campus. Coach Terry Donahue and his staff will introduce team members.

Quarterback Troy Aikman and linebacker Carnell Lake will be on hand so that fans may take pictures and get their autographs, and everyone who attends will receive a free team photo. There will also be entertainment by cheerleaders and an alumni band.

Croquet in Beverly Hills used to mean that stars such as Harpo Marx, George Sanders and Louis Jordan would run over to Sam Goldwyn’s place to wield their trusty mallets.

No more. Croquet has gone big time, say members of the Beverly Hills Croquet Club, who will inaugurate their first singles invitational tournament with a purse ($5,000) starting today at Roxbury Park. Competition begins at 8 a.m. today through Sunday.

A field of 24 world-class men and women players will compete against each other in the tournament, sanctioned by the U.S. Croquet Assn. They include Australian champions Neil Spooner and Damon Bidencope; Reid Fleming, 1986 USCA singles champion, and Garth Eliassen, winner of last year’s California Challenge Cup. Peyton Ballenger is one of the top-flight women.

Corporate sponsors are Forester Manufacturing and JMB Property Management.