Pepperdine Steps Up to the Hall

On Pepperdine’s itinerary for the NCAA West Regional, someone had typed: “Beat Seton Hall,” “Beat (a second-round opponent)” and “Seattle, Here We Come!”

It will take some doing for the Waves, champions of the West Coast Conference, to get to the Kingdome, site of the West Regional semifinals and finals.

It will take more than a little doing to beat Big East Conference tournament champion Seton Hall (22-8), Pepperdine’s first-round opponent at 11:30 a.m. PST today at the University of Utah’s Jon Huntsman Center.

The Waves (22-8), winners of 16 consecutive games, will be playing without Doug Christie, the WCC’s most valuable player, and will have only nine players in uniform, including two seldom-used freshmen.

Christie, an off-guard who was averaging a team-high 19.1 points, suffered torn cartilage in his right knee in Pepperdine’s victory over Portland on March 2 in the first round of the WCC tournament. He had arthroscopic surgery last week, and his recuperation is expected to take more than six weeks.

Christie’s absence and a thin bench won’t be Pepperdine’s only handicaps.

There are seven Big East teams in the NCAA tournament. The WCC has only Pepperdine, which should speak volumes about the relative strengths of those conferences and the difficulties the Waves might face against the Pirates. Seton Hall is the No. 3-seeded team in the West Regional; Pepperdine is No. 14.

“Seton Hall is probably wondering who is Pepperdine?” Pepperdine Coach Tom Asbury said, “but I don’t mind being in that position. We are somewhat of an unknown entity.

“However, we are 22-8, have won 16 games in a row and managed to win the final two games of our league tournament without having Doug Christie on the floor.”

Seton Hall Coach P.J. Carlesimo said he is not unaware of Pepperdine: “I know some of their players. I’m familiar with their coach. They won the regular-season (WCC championship), and they won the postseason tournament.”

Carlesimo may know of Wave power forward Geoff Lear, who scored a career-high 32 points and had 14 rebounds in his team’s 75-72 overtime victory over St. Mary’s in the WCC tournament final. Lear, a 6-foot-8 junior, is averaging 18.6 points and 9.9 rebounds and was twice named to all-conference teams.

But he cannot have heard much about the lineup that Asbury has been using since Christie was injured.

It includes two point guards, junior starter Rick Welch and reserve Damin Lopez, a redshirt freshman. It also has two players who are in their first year of college basketball but have been starting most of the season: redshirt freshman center Derek Noether and freshman small forward Dana Jones. Jones, who averages 10 points and 8.1 rebounds, was named the WCC freshman of the year.

Pepperdine reserves are senior center Rex Manu, sophomore forward Steve Guild and freshmen guards Rodney Sanders and Steve Clover, who have played little behind Christie.

Both Welch and Noether are said to have recovered from sprained right ankles, injured in the WCC tournament.

Asbury knows a good deal about Seton Hall:

He knows:

--That 6-10 power forward Anthony Avent, who averages 18.3 points and 10.3 rebounds, “is a solid front-line player, so that figures to be a natural matchup for Lear.”

--That guard Oliver Taylor “played extremely well last weekend at the Big East tournament,” when he made two last-second baskets to win Seton Hall’s first two tournament games.

--That guard Terry Dehere, who averages a team-high 19.2 points, “is their big scorer, and he likes to shoot it from three-point range. I would anticipate (that) Dana Jones would draw him as a defensive assignment.”

Neither coach is predicting a victory, but neither is saying his team won’t win.

Carlesimo might have said it best: “There’s no one in this field that’s not good enough to beat us. We told the kids that we think we could beat anyone in the field, and we’re very sure that anyone in the field can beat us. You just have to go out and play.”

TODAY’S GAME: at Salt Lake City, 11:30 a.m.

Seton Hall (22-8) vs. Pepperdine (22-8)