USD Counts Itself into WCC Chase : College basketball: Pepperdine is favored in league tournament, but Toreros, who open against today Gonzaga, hope for a strong finish.

You almost expect the players to show up in battle fatigues and start digging foxholes, and the coaches to strap on pearl-handled revolvers. The West Coast Conference is girding for battle.

The sixth WCC Tournament opens today in Portland. The winner will have to survive three games in three days to win the WCC’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Open warfare is expected: In a conference call with the eight coaches, five used the term “war.”

Not even regular-season champion Pepperdine, winner of 30 consecutive WCC games, is assured a bid without winning the tournament. And Wave Coach Tom Asbury says his team didn’t waltz through the WCC as easily as the record might indicate.

“We had some absolute wars--a bunch of ‘em,” he said.

Is it a war the University of San Diego can win?

“Yes,” says USD Coach Hank Egan. “We have to play wired, and we have to sustain it for three days.”

“Definitely,” says Toreros scoring leader Kelvin Woods. “Realistically, if anybody has a chance (to upset Pepperdine), we do. We have the best defense in the league and we’re used to playing that defense everyday.

“Yes,” says Torero guard Wayman Strickland. “If we play well, execute and stay in the game defensively 40 minutes every game. We’re not intimidated by any team.”

“Anybody can (win),” says forward Gylan Dottin, the Toreros’ steadiest player all season. “Everybody’s beatable. We have as good a chance as anybody.”

USD goes into today’s 11:30 a.m. opener against Gonzaga as the fifth-seeded team, winner of three games in a row after losing the previous seven. Win or lose, most games have been struggles--”It’s what we do,” Egan said. “We always kinda play the way the other team plays. We’re not a physical team so we can’t dictate tempo.”

Egan sees several positive signs entering the tournament: The Toreros, who were hit hard by the flu much of February, are healthy and apparently on an upswing. And they drew fourth-seeded Gonzaga instead of run-and-gun Loyola Marymount, which tied Gonzaga but is considered the third seed by tiebreaker rules.

“We have no excuses,” Egan said. “I think we’re coming together at the right time. We’re fortunate we didn’t get Loyola Marymount the first time out. They take your legs away even if you win.”

In fact, if the Toreros can win this morning’s game, they’ll have a distinct advantage in recovery time for Sunday’s semifinals, which will be played at 5 and 7:30 p.m.

“We’ll have a lot of rest Saturday, that’s one advantage we have,” Dottin said. “Getting up early (today) is the tough part.”

Woods said the Toreros’ problems have often been self-induced, stemming from brief breakdowns that put them in a hole. “A lot of our games we fell apart as a team,” he said. “Most of our games we’ve been playing well 36, 37 minutes. It’s those three minutes that kill us. We just need to execute, and we’ve gotta keep running a variety of stuff. I think lately we were running the same things and we became predictable.”

Strickland said, “We’re very confident. We have to execute on the offensive end and keep the defensive intensity up.”

Although Egan has no go-to guy as does Pepperdine in Doug Christie and Geoff Lear or Loyola in Terrell Lowery, he says that can work to USD’s advantage. “We play the game by committee at certain positions,” he said. “There’s no dominating player for us. When we play well, we use a lot of people in a positive sense--we have to substitute ‘cause they’re playing so hard. We have depth and a lot of people who can contribute.”

Whether Pepperdine is on the NCAA bubble or not, the tournament path to the bid is certainly manned by the Waves, who today can tie the WCC record of 31 consecutive conference victories set by the great San Francisco teams of the mid-1950s, which won two consecutive NCAA titles and featured Bill Russell and K.C. Jones.

For a team approaching that stature, Pepperdine is being accorded scant respect. USD lost its two matchups with the Waves, 71-58, and 79-67.

“To beat them you have to play awfully good (but) they can be beaten,” Egan said. “They’re not physically dominant. They had enough close games that they’re not that far away. We felt we had a chance against Pepperdine--that makes their accomplishment the more remarkable.

“They do play well, they have the two best players at their positions (Christie at guard, Lear in low post) and they have good role people who know their jobs. They’re damn fun to watch--unless you’re involved (against them).”

Dottin noted, “Pepperdine is very beatable. They beat people by four, by six--that’s one turnover. You have to play very good against them ‘cause they capitalize on mistakes.”

Portland Coach Larry Steele, who opens against the Waves today, said, “We know exactly what they’ll do. They’re very predictable. The problem is their predictability is at a very high level of play.”

It’s a consistency most of the WCC hasn’t shown this season, USD included.

“You keep saying somebody’s gotta step up to the plate and beat ‘em,” Gonzaga Coach Dan Fitzgerald said. “You keep saying they’re beatable. I don’t think they’re as intimidating as some teams that’ve won the conference, but give ‘em all the credit.”

Egan: “Somebody could get ‘em, for sure.”

If it’s to be USD, it will mean a consistent, intense effort. “I don’t think any team can walk on the floor and (intimidate us),” Woods said. “We just have to execute.”