He Put Loyola on the Basketball Map : Colleges: Paul Westhead brought a nonstop running game to Westchester to turn around a losing program.
He didn’t want a Wizard of Westchester tag, but Paul Westhead left Loyola Marymount with a legacy of victories and virtually every collegiate scoring record in five seasons as basketball coach.
Westhead, who was named coach of the Denver Nuggets of the NBA on Sept. 8, turned the Lions from perennial losers into NCAA championship contenders after taking the job before the 1985-86 season. The Lions made three consecutive NCAA tournament appearances and scored their first postseason victory in 25 years. They reached the final of the West Regional where they lost to eventual NCAA champion Nevada-Las Vegas. Westhead averaged 21 victories a season.
Westhead’s innovative nonstop running game and some unusual training methods captured the imagination of fans and made some coaches rethink their approach to basketball.
“I’m glad I had the years (here) I did,” said Westhead, who will be replaced by Jay Hillock. “They sure were five very productive, fulfilling seasons. I could easily have gone 10 years except for this (NBA) opportunity.”
Westhead is looking forward to testing his system at the NBA level, but he isn’t sure what to expect. The Westhead fast break working at peak efficiency looks as sleek and unstoppable as an Indy car in time trials.
But the system requires a maximum physical effort and commitment and took a couple of years to click at Loyola. Denver has always been one of the NBA’s runningest teams, but the trend in the wake of the Detroit Pistons’ success has been toward physical and defensive games.
Westhead once said of NBA offenses: “You post up your power forward and I’ll post up mine and whoever’s has the better game wins.”
At Loyola, Westhead said, the system “was an evolving thing. The first year, we had some terrific guys--Keith Smith and Forrest McKenzie and Mike Yoest. In their minds it was pretty fast and we were successful. But they were just scratching the surface of how fast we could play.”
That team averaged a little less than 90 points. Westhead’s second team--his only losing season at Loyola (12-16)--struggled as opponents successfully held the ball and out-rebounded the smaller Lions.
The next season, Westhead added transfers Hank Gathers, Bo Kimble and Corey Gaines and installed the full-court press that accelerated the pace of games.
In the last three seasons, the Lions led the nation in scoring at more than 110 points per game. Last season they peaked at 122.4 and once scored 181 points in a game that Westhead said they could have scored 240.
The team watchword became “Run the System.” The players began wearing T-shirts proclaiming the phrase, and Westhead did what he could to foster the image of a team playing on it own.
“The Corey Gaines team really tuned the pace of how we could play,” Westhead said. “(Last season) we even took it to another level. Even for me (watching) some of the continual playing-scoring playing-scoring became effortless, or appeared to be effortless.
“I think that swing (in early February) where we scored 150 on Thursday, then scored 148 on Saturday at LSU, then got on the plane, came back here and the next day scored 157--and weren’t even tired--even amazed me. Remember, it used to be an effort to score 100 points.
“When it’s going good it appears effortless, but it’s not. That’s always been the charm of the system. It looks fun and looks overwhelming when it works, but it’s difficult to do and demanding of the player. He really has to buy in.
“How long will it take to kick in in the NBA? I hope over a few months. That’s my goal. But who knows how my team, let alone the other teams, will adjust?”
Over the last three years, Westhead has been in demand to speak at clinics and he was surprised by how popular the Lions had become.
“We kind of created a style that began to get attention--and repeated it,” he said. “People around the country began to identify us. I had the sense our team became sort of a national figure.
“Over the last couple summers, from the people who came up to me and said things, it was evident Loyola Marymount had become a celebrity, and it wasn’t a passing thing in your hometown. People in small towns were aware something was going on here.”
There might be no better way to be remembered.