Improved USD Needs to Win Three in WCC : Tournament: To get an NCAA berth, the Toreros must beat San Francisco, then the likes of Loyola Marymount and Pepperdine.
Near the end of January, University of San Diego Coach Hank Egan was asked to assess the West Coast Conference men’s basketball race.
His reply: “I think Pepperdine has an awful lot of talent and a lot of problems. Loyola’s got an awful lot of talent and no problems. The rest of us are trying to get it together.”
When Egan made his observations, Loyola Marymount led the WCC at 6-0. USD, Pepperdine, Portland, San Francisco and St. Mary’s were all 3-3.
Since then, Pepperdine (16-11) has won seven of eight. Loyola (22-5) and USD (15-12) have each won seven of nine.
Pepperdine appears to have cleared up its problems. And Loyola still doesn’t have any.
Meanwhile, USD has become pretty good because it has played consistently and learned to sustain its offense and defense.
USD will find out just how good when it plays San Francisco (8-19) in a first-round WCC Tournament game at 8 tonight at Loyola Marymount’s Gersten Pavilion. No. 22 Loyola is the consensus pick, followed by Pepperdine and USD. All others are considered long shots.
Because it plays the late game tonight, USD will need three victories--and probably more than 300 points--in fewer than 50 hours to win the championship and earn the WCC’s automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament. Should it win the opener, USD would play at 7 p.m. Sunday. The final Monday at 8:30 is to be televised by ESPN.
What are the Toreros’ chances?
Egan, as you might have guessed, likes them. But the players aren’t making any predictions.
In fact, they have been suspiciously mum about the whole thing, making one wonder if Egan has placed a gag order on his players, much like Georgetown’s John Thompson.
The answer is no. The players have been as accessible and candid as ever. It’s just this year, they are older, wiser and more realistic.
They realize they split with San Francisco this year and lost both games to Loyola and Pepperdine. They also realize talk is cheap.
That alone seems to be an indication that the team is coming of age. Players no longer haphazardly comment about winning the tournament. Rather, they will come prepared, play hard and let what happens happen.
Unlike last season and the one before that, when USD relied heavily on freshmen and sophomores, there is no nonsensical rhetoric. The starters are seniors Craig Cottrell and John Jerome, juniors Dondi Bell and Pat Holbert and sophomore Wayman Strickland.
Moreover, its bench plays a much more significant role than in the past. With juniors Anthony Thomas and Randy Thompson and sophomores Kelvin Woods and Gylan Dottin, Egan can substitute with confidence.
The Dons lost two tough games last weekend at home. Gonzaga (8-19) beat them, 76-75, with a free throw after the final buzzer, and Portland (10-17) won, 89-78, in overtime.
Tournament Notes
In his first and only season at USD, senior John Jerome was selected to the All-WCC team. Jerome, who played at Mesa (Arizona) Community College and Arizona State before transferring to USD, broke the school record for points in a season with 527. Jerome is also fifth in the WCC in rebounding at 8.1 per game. Pat Holbert, who also played at Mesa, was named honorable mention all-WCC. He was USD’s second-leading scorer in conference play with a 17.0 average and overall averaged 11.7 points. He is shooting 45% (49 of 109) from three-point range and 84% (52 of 62) from the free-throw line. . . . Loyola’s Bo Kimble was named WCC player of the year, and LMU’s Paul Westhead was coach of the year. Making the all-conference team along with Kimble and Jerome were Hank Gathers and Jeff Fryer of Loyola, Craig Davis, Dexter Howard and Geoff Lear of Pepperdine and Jeffty Connelly (Santa Clara), Joel DeBortoli (San Francisco), Josh Lowery (Portland) and Jim McPhee (Gonzaga).