USD BASKETBALL : Toreros Hope to Build on Last Season’s Finish

From the outside, the task facing University of San Diego basketball Coach Hank Egan is relatively simple.

Beginning today--when college teams are permitted to begin practice--he must blend only two new players into a veteran-rich system that was running in high gear last year before it came to an abrupt halt.

USD won 13 of its last 18 games before its season came to an end when the West Coast Conference canceled the remainder of its postseason tournament after the death of Loyola Marymount center Hank Gathers. The Toreros felt they had a legitimate shot at winning the title, although they knew they probably would have had to beat Loyola to do it.

Now, with only two seniors gone and 12 upperclassman returning--by far the most in the WCC--many believe USD is the runaway choice in the conference this year.

But don’t be fooled. In essence, Egan knows it will be much tougher than that to build a championship-caliber team.

Of the favorite role--in which Egan does not see the Toreros or anyone else--he said: “There are two kinds of people that think that way. One’s called a fan. The other’s called a sports writer. Because of that, what coaches are forced to do is come up with those old cliches. ‘We’ve got to take it one game at a time,’ and so on.

“We finished pretty strong last year. We did lose a couple of guys, but we’ve added some new guys. We’re taking the standpoint: Let’s build on what we did last year and blend in some new kids.

“Sometimes it doesn’t work like that, sometimes it does. The basis of what you have to do, the core of what you do, comes from what made you successful.”

It’s a fine line, Egan said, between chemistry and disharmony. Last year, USD was 3-7 before the pieces began to fall into place.

This year, after 42 days and two exhibitions, Egan hopes things will be running smoothly when USD plays San Diego State in its season opener Nov. 27, but he realizes they may not be.

“We’ve got a chance to be pretty good, but we have to play as a team. There’s no guarantee on that happening any time you’re blending somebody new,” Egan said.

Seniors Pat Holbert, Dondi Bell and Anthony Thomas and juniors Wayman Strickland, Kelvin Woods and Gylan Dottin lead the returners. Holbert averaged 17.0 points in conference play and was an honorable mention All-WCC guard. Strickland, the point guard, had 169 assists, missing the Toreros’ single-season record by two.

Reed Watson, a 6-foot-8 forward, and Michael Brown, a 6-3 swing man, are the newcomers. Both are junior transfers from Mesa (Ariz.), the top community college in the nation last year.

Surely, USD will miss the scoring of John Jerome and Craig Cottrell. Jerome set a school record with 540 points and 19.3 average. Cottrell set a school career record with a .5803 field goal percentage. USD’s 79.1 points per game was also a school record.