COLLEGE BASKETBALL 1992-93 : LOYOLA MARYMOUNT PREVIEW : New Coach on Defensive With Lions

John Olive recognizes the problems he faces in his first season as Loyola Marymount’s basketball coach. He says the Lions don’t have a true post player, point guard or proven scorer. His search for a team leader has mostly been an exercise in futility.

Yet the 37-year-old rookie remains undaunted in his belief that prosperity awaits any team committed to hard work and a positive attitude.

“I want our kids, year in and year out, to believe on any individual night that they are as good as any team in the country,” Olive said. “Obviously we’re not going to be as talented as the Indianas, the Georgetowns, the Dukes. We don’t have the ability to get the same caliber of athletes as those schools, that’s no big surprise.

“But basketball is a funny game. You only have to be as good one night. That’s the thing we’re shooting for.”

You gotta believe. It’s a message Olive brings with him from Villanova, where he was the top assistant under Rollie Massimino for the last seven seasons. During that time, the Wildcats went to the NCAA tournament four times and the National Invitation Tournament the three other years after holding their own in the Big East Conference.

Olive’s relationship with Massimino, now the coach at Nevada Las Vegas, has been described as that of son and father. Olive, who played briefly in the NBA for the San Diego Clippers, was Massimino’s first recruit at Villanova. The two have remained close ever since.

When Olive became Loyola’s coach in April, he caught a plane that night for Las Vegas to celebrate with Massimino. They dined on pasta.

Olive intends to borrow from Massimino’s playbook in the hope that opponents won’t feast on Loyola. The Lions’ demanding nonconference schedule includes games against 22nd-ranked UNLV, Southwestern Louisiana, DePaul and a possible meeting with 20th-ranked Michigan State in the four-team L.A. Classic at Loyola. The UNLV game, Dec. 5 at Loyola, will be the Rebels’ debut under Massimino.

“I got a lot of my basic philosophies from Coach Massimino,” Olive said. “He tried to analyze what each of his kids could do and come up with a system offensively and defensively to put them in the best situations.”

Under previous coaches Jay Hillock and Paul Westhead, the emphasis at Loyola was on up-tempo, free-wheeling offense. Under Olive, the emphasis figures to change to a more fundamental style, although Olive isn’t ready to scrap the running game. Loyola’s preponderance of athletic players and lack of height probably won’t permit that.

But Olive said he intends to establish an intense defensive philosophy that was missing on recent Lion teams. He wants to discourage, rather than encourage, scoring, which was evident in Loyola’s recent intrasquad game. The teams combined for fewer than 100 points. Last year, they totaled nearly 400.

“The thing I saw more than anything at Villanova was Villanova teams win games they weren’t supposed to win,” Olive said. “Everyone would always ask, ‘How did (Massimino) do it? How did he do it?’ He did it because his defenses were tough on people. It confused offenses and got them out of their rhythm. It created situations where better athletes and better offensive players were reduced to marginal players.

“If we’re going to play a difficult schedule, we’re going to be playing against teams that are better than us. We better be able to do something. We can’t run up and down the floor and expect to beat them. We’re going to have to do something either to elevate us or bring them down.”

Olive knows something about bringing teams down. After reviewing films of Loyola’s 1991-92 season, he concluded that the Lions underachieved by finishing with a 15-13 record and losing in the first round of the West Coast Conference tournament for the second year in a row, after tying Gonzaga for third place with an 8-6 mark.

He let the players know his feelings at the first team meeting.

“I told them I was very disappointed in their season last year,” Olive said. “They underachieved as a team. Many of them underachieved personally. They didn’t defend a lick. There was no team chemistry, no togetherness.

“It doesn’t all reflect on poor Jay (Hillock) either. I told each and every one of (the players) that they have to look at themselves.”

Three seasons removed from Loyola’s final-eight appearance in the NCAA tournament, Olive faces a considerable rebuilding task.

The Lions lost three starters from last season’s team, including the starting backcourt of Terrell Lowery and point guard Tony Walker. Lowery, who finished as the second-leading scorer in Loyola history with 2,201 points, led the conference with a 26-point average.

Only two other Loyola players had double-figure scoring averages last season--Walker at 10 points and returning forward Rahim Harris, a 6-foot-4 junior who averaged 10.9.

So who will carry the Lions’ scoring load?

“I don’t know, I’m waiting for the kids,” Olive said. “I can’t put the ball in the basket anymore. They’ve got to go out and produce.”

One of the players Olive expects to carry the load, both in scoring and rebounding, is UCLA transfer Zan Mason. The 6-7, 200-pound junior, who redshirted last season after playing a limited role in his two seasons with the Bruins, was a heavily recruited player at Westchester High.

“Zan is the most talented, most physical, most gifted player we have,” Olive said. “He has to carry our basketball team in a lot of ways.”

Others being counted on to contribute in the front court are 6-8 seniors Christian Scott and Brian McCloskey, and 6-7 sophomore Wyking Jones. Scott was a starter last season, averaging 8.8 points and 5.6 rebounds.

Olive hopes his big men can help shore up what was one of the Loyola’s weakest areas last season--rebounding. In the Lions’ 100-85 defeat in the first round of the WCC tournament, they were outrebounded by a smaller University of San Francisco team, 47-28.

“Rebounding is very important because I don’t think we’re an overly aggressive team,” Olive said. “I don’t think we’re an overly physical team, so we have to keep emphasizing that part of the game.”

Harris and 6-5 sophomore Robin Kirksey give Loyola two wing players who thrive on the transition game. Ross Richardson, a 6-6 junior whose playing time was drastically cut last season after a promising freshman campaign, also will contend for a starting spot.

Richardson and freshman guard Tom Airey, who set various Orange County prep records for three-point shots at Capistrano Valley High, are considered Loyola’s best outside shooters.

Another scoring threat is 6-3 junior Bill Mazurie, a transfer from Cerritos College, who is expected to start at point guard. Mazurie, a former teammate of Airey’s at Capistrano Valley, was voted most valuable player of the state community college tournament and averaged 17.3 points last season.

Loyola will open the season Dec. 1 at 4,156-seat Gersten Pavilion against College of Notre Dame, a Bay Area NCAA Division II school.