Chapman Might Prosper Under This Young Coach

Chapman University has tried it both ways now. It has tried the basketball coach on the fast track to UCLA . . . and it has tried the basketball coach on the slow road from USC. It has tried the coach who had to win because he needed to make a name for himself . . . and it has tried the coach who thought he could win because of his name.

Being an institution of higher education, Chapman, we take it, has learned from the experience.

Chapman caught Walt Hazzard and Bob Boyd coming and going, one revving up, one winding down.

Hazzard had everything to gain when he was hired to coach the Panthers in 1982. He viewed the job as a springboard, only the kind of leap he had in mind was Mike Powell’s. From head coach at Chapman to head coach at UCLA--could it be done? Yes, it could, although Hazzard’s methods left a trail of cringing deans and administrators in their wake.

In two seasons, Hazzard went 43-14 and reached the NCAA Division II playoffs twice. He was coaching to impress, so he coached to win, but the beast he dragged through the halls of enlightenment at Chapman drew less than universal admiration. Hazzard kicked and screamed, bent rules, twisted priorities. “Student-athlete?” To Hazzard, putting it that way was putting the cart ahead of the horse.

UCLA was more impressed than Chapman, but then Chapman never had to deal with the World’s Worst Hangover, otherwise known as Post-Wooden Depression. When UCLA looked at Hazzard, it saw not only the guard who ignited the Bruins’ first championship team, but also the kind of coach required to kick UCLA right in its mid-1980s doldrums.

So Hazzard left Chapman in 1984 and from there, for him, it was on to the NIT.

For Chapman, the destination has been somewhat less certain.

Hazzard was replaced by Kevin Wilson, who raised the GPA but lowered the victory total. Once again, Chapman players were hitting the books, but on the court, they were ardent pacifists. For three years, Wilson lost hair in search of the proper balance and by the time he got it right--the Panthers finished 16-11 in 1987-88--he was fed up, burned out and at odds with the athletic director, then Walt Bowman.

Wilson announced his plans to resign following the 1988-89 season, but Bowman beat him to it, firing him after the season opener.

At this point, Chapman basketball reached a crossroads, although Chapman hardly knew it at the time.

To get through the season, Bowman dumped the program into the lap of a walk-on assistant named Rich Prospero. If it was an interim gig, only Bowman treated it as such. Prospero won 17 games and reached the final of the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. tournament, where he lost to the nation’s top-ranked team in Division II, UC Riverside, by two baskets.

For his good work, Prospero got a pat on the back, a token interview and a job on the bench next to the next head coach, which would be Boyd, who possessed the one thing Prospero lacked: a name Bowman couldn’t resist.

And the thinking was: If Bowman couldn’t resist, how could an 18-year-old shooting guard from Foothill?

Boyd is no Wooden, but from 1966 through 1975, he was Wooden’s sparring partner. He coached some of the greatest basketball teams in the history of USC, but he coached them against the greatest dynasty in the history of basketball. Twice, Boyd’s teams at USC won 24 games--and all it got him was second place. He coached Paul Westphal, Gus Williams and Cliff Robinson. It wasn’t his fault he didn’t coach Lew Alcindor or Bill Walton.

Boyd had won more than 300 Division I games by the time he arrived at Chapman. Division II was going to be an intrasquad scrimmage. Most of all, Boyd was going to recruit. His reputation and his presence was going to give Chapman the edge in living rooms across Southern California for the first time. And for this reputation and presence, Chapman was prepared to pay--to the tune of $60,000 per year, plus the use of a nearby apartment, plus the use of a university car.

The recruiting bonanza never happened. After three seasons, the best player Boyd had was one he inherited, Rog Middleton. The best player he signed, Frantz Reyes, was felled by reconstructive knee surgery. Of the three desperately needed front-line players he recruited last summer, one (6-7 forward Richie Bethune) was never academically eligible, one (6-6 forward Leonard Rhodes) quickly became academically ineligible and the other (6-8 center Marcell Driver) got kicked off the team after six games for failing to show at practice.

Boyd’s overall won-lost records at Chapman: 11-16, 12-15 and 7-19.

Boyd’s CCAA records at Chapman: 3-11, 2-10 and 2-12.

Boyd’s CCAA finishes at Chapman: last, last and last.

In the meantime, Prospero has moved on to Santa Ana Valley High School, where, at last glance, he was a leading candidate for Orange County coach of the year. He took a 3-15 team and won the Century League co-championship. He went 13-11 and reached the second round of the Southern Section playoffs.

No, you don’t always get what you pay for. As names go, and basketball coaching positions go, bigger isn’t always better. Sometimes, the solution is right in your own gym, right on your own bench.

Now a new athletic director, Dave Currey, is commissioned with finding a new basketball coach for Chapman. A search committee will be formed, applications will be accepted and interviews will be scheduled, with a target date set for May 1.

It might be worth taking a look at that young guy at Valley. Just a hunch.