Waves Are So Deep, Pepperdine Basketball Coach Is Swimming in Talent

In his second year as Pepperdine’s head basketball coach, Tom Asbury can sympathize with the old woman who lived in a shoe.

He has so many players that he’s not quite sure what to do.

“This is as deep a team as we’ve had in the 11 years I’ve been here,” said Asbury, who spent nine years as an assistant to Jim Harrick before Harrick became UCLA’s head coach.

The Waves are so deep that Asbury is contemplating using All-West Coast Conference seniors Tom Lewis and Dexter Howard at small forward and making sophomore Geoff Lear his top power forward.

He said at press day that he doesn’t know who his starters will be and may not have a starting five--but a first eight or nine. He said he told his players, “It’s not me who determines who starts, but you guys, which gets me off the hook.”

The competition at small forward doesn’t seem to be bothering Lewis or Howard, who were one-two in scoring for the 20-13 Waves last season. Lewis, who averaged 16.2 points a game, can also play off guard. Howard, who averaged 15.9, has also played power forward and center.

Both all-conference players said they first heard that they were competing for the same spot at press day. But Lewis said, “It’s not a problem for me.” Howard said that competing for playing time is nothing new to him and that he would just have to keep working on his game.

In any case, Lewis and Howard should see a lot of action, and, as Asbury said, “It’s not so much who starts, but who finishes.”

Asbury seems to think that Lear will be around at the finish of many games. He said that the 6-foot, 8-inch, 235-pound sophomore is “a guy who anybody in America would like to have. He’s real strong and physical.”

Most observers have picked Loyola Marymount to win the WCC championship. Asbury agrees but said the Waves will be “a little bit more versatile offensively” than they were last year.