Colleges / Alan Drooz : WCAC Teams Seem to Be Winning National Respect

The West Coast Athletic Conference appears to be earning some grudging respect from the National Collegiate Athletic Assn., if the basketball tournament pairings are any indication.

St. Mary’s, the WCAC regular-season champ, was seeded eighth in the 16-team West Regional, the highest placement ever for the WCAC. And Loyola, the WCAC tournament winner, was placed 12th in the Midwest, not much worse than Loyola’s No. 10 seed last year when the Lions had a 27-3 record and a Top 20 ranking entering the tournament.

The WCAC had more teams selected than the rival Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. and as many as the Western Athletic Conference.

It appears that Loyola’s high-scoring exploits over the last two seasons and the Lions’ convincing victory over Wyoming in the NCAA opening round last year made an impression.

Lions Coach Paul Westhead thinks Loyola’s 1988 performance “definitely” helped both WCAC teams this year. “Once you win, it helps the prestige of your league,” Westhead said. “I think the thing is winning a game, or more. If you make the tournament and lose, everybody says you were in because you had to be (as an automatic selection). Only when you win does it demonstrate your conference matches up with other conferences, or above others. It’s a building effect.”

There was some surprise that Loyola--the official WCAC representative--was sent out of the West while St. Mary’s stayed, but the NCAA selection committee was apparently intent on breaking up the regionals, making them competitive and providing intriguing match-ups. Loyola and Arkansas, two of the highest-scoring teams in the nation, hadn’t met in 10 years. St. Mary’s, making its first tournament appearance in 30 years, was sent to Boise to play Clemson out of the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Gaels lost Thursday by a 83-700 count.

Teams in the regionals are seeded one through 16, with the top seed playing No. 16, presumably giving the top seeds the easiest early games. WCAC teams generally have been seeded low and drawn highly ranked opening opponents.

“The seeding doesn’t matter immensely except if you’re one, two or three and maybe four, and 14-15-16,” Westhead said. “(Places) five through 12 is a push; maybe it makes you feel better (to be seeded higher).

“I could care less where we were placed. Indiana is a mecca of basketball. That’s great basketball country,” said Westhead, who visited Indianapolis regularly while coaching the Lakers and Chicago Bulls but had never played in the new Hoosier Dome before the first-round 120-101 Thursday loss to Arkansas.

NCAA Notes--Loyola’s last NCAA appearance was in May when the Lions qualified for the baseball regionals. The Lions were sent to the Midwest and faced Arkansas. Loyola won on the diamond, 8-3.

Loyola and Arkansas had met twice previously in basketball. In 1979, the Ron Jacobs-coached Lions faced Eddie Sutton’s Razorbacks in Fayetteville and lost a competitive season opener, 76-66. The schools first met in the 1947-48 season, with Arkansas winning in Los Angeles, 61-47, at the old Olympic Auditorium.

The Westhead Connection--The Westhead touch lingers on. Maybe it’s just coincidence, but the two college teams Paul Westhead has coached, LaSalle in his hometown Philadelphia in the 1970s and now Loyola, won their conference tournaments to qualify for the NCAAs on the same night for the second straight year.

Not so coincidentally, Loyola and LaSalle are trying to set up a game next season in Philly, possibly for television. Each has a star junior forward from Philly--Loyola’s Hank Gathers and LaSalle’s Lionel Simmons. Gathers leads the nation in scoring (32.9 average) and rebounding (13.6). Simmons is third in scoring (28.5) and sixth in rebounding (11.3). It would be a great match-up if both return to school. Westhead is also trying to set up a game with his alma mater, St. Joseph’s, where he was one of several future coaches who played for Jack Ramsay.

Hot Hurler--Cal State Dominguez Hills senior pitcher Rick Davis continues to baffle opponents, holding them to a batting average of .093. In recording a 5-1 record and 1.72 earned-run average, Davis has struck out 84 batters in 62.2 innings. Batters have 30 hits in 216 at-bats against him. Last week the right-hander threw a one-hit shutout against fifth-ranked Cal State Northridge.

College Notes

The Dominguez Hills basketball team has been snakebit in postseason play. Going into tonight’s Division II regional at Bakersfield, Coach Dave Yanai’s Toros are 1-4 in NCAA regionals and 0-1 when the team played on the NAIA level. . . . The Toros’ last NCAA appearance was in 1987. They lost their opener to Alaska-Anchorage, 68-64, in double overtime, then lost a consolation game to Cal State Hayward, 71-55. . . . Toros sophomore guard Robert Barksdale has a 120 to 62 assist-to-turnover ratio. . . . Michael Bell and Kevin Shaw, the first players off the bench for the Toros, are both shooting 61%. . . . Center Anthony Blackmon has played in more games than any other Toro, 112. . . . The Lady Toros women’s softball team, 8-4, plays in the Cal State Bakersfield Spring Classic today through Sunday. Bakersfield is defending national champion. . . . Toros pitchers have an ERA of 0.43, allowing just five earned runs.