Olive Will Become a Film Reviewer : Colleges: New Loyola Marymount basketball coach wants to grade players before settling on a style of play.

To run or not to run. That is the question facing John Olive, the new men’s basketball coach at Loyola Marymount.

Olive comes from a Villanova program that stressed defense and a walk-it-up offense. Loyola, of course, is known for the opposite.

So, does Olive intend to carry on Loyola’s run-and-gun ways, or will he introduce the slowdown game that he is more accustomed to coaching?

Olive says he’ll employ whatever style it takes to win.

“I’m not averse to playing whatever is good for the team,” he said. “If (the running game) is what we do best and that’s how we can win basketball games, then that’s what we’ll do. If what we do best is play zone and slow it down, then we’re going to win basketball games that way.”

Olive said he won’t know what the future holds until he sits down with assistants Dave Fehte and Bruce Woods and evaluates Loyola’s personnel.

“We’re going to watch film,” Olive said. “We’re going to break down every single (game from the 1991-92 season). I want to make sure that what we do is best for our kids. I don’t want to bring in a style and say, ‘This is what we’re going to do.’

“I want each and every kid to express himself in the style he is going to feel comfortable in. After our staff has sat down and evaluated films and I get a feeling for the talents of our kids and what they do best, that’s when we’ll formulate our offensive and defensive strategies.”

Loyola Athletic Director Brian Quinn is confident Olive can accomplish the goals of the university: win basketball games and graduate athletes.

“He fits what we stand for academically and athletically,” Quinn said. “I’ll tell you right now, he can coach. He knows how to win. I don’t want to lose. If we wanted to lose, we could have hired some Ph.D. who is great in academics. We want to do both. This man can do both.”

Olive served his coaching apprenticeship under Rollie Massimino, who in 19 years at Villanova graduated all of his players. Massimino was named coach at Nevada Las Vegas last week.

“(Massimino) stands for all the good things in college basketball,” Olive said. “If I can do half of what he’s done, I will judge myself a success.”

Quinn said a strong endorsement from Massimino was instrumental in Olive being chosen for the Loyola job over five other Division I assistants: Charles Bradley of Brigham Young, Brad Holland of UCLA, Ben Howland of UC Santa Barbara, Fehte from Loyola’s staff and Stan Stewart of San Jose State, a former Loyola player.

“That connection and togetherness was really important to me,” Quinn said. “(Massimino) put him at the very highest of all the assistants that have coached for him. It’s like a father-son relationship.”

Quinn said Massimino called him Monday night after the NCAA championship game to thank him for recommending that the school hire Olive.

“I’ve never had that happen before,” Quinn said.

In Olive’s seven seasons as Villanova’s top assistant, the Wildcats made four NCAA tournament appearances and three National Invitation Tournament appearances after playing in the competitive Big East Conference. He hopes to use that experience to help Loyola regain its stature in the West Coast Conference after two seasons in which the Lions were beaten in the first round of the WCC tournament.

“I’ve gained a lot from the Big East wars,” Olive said. “I think I know what it takes to coach in that kind of competition, to motivate athletes like that and to be in intense battles when things are on the line. I really relish those types of situations. I can’t wait to get started.”