COLLEGE BASKETBALL: 1994-95 PREVIEW : PEPPERDINE : A Banner Campaign Could Be Tall Order

Tony Fuller, Pepperdine’s new basketball coach and a former player and assistant at the school, won’t incorporate everything taught him by predecessors Jim Harrick and Tom Asbury.

“But I hope one thing stays the same,” said Fuller, who was 20-37 in two seasons at San Diego State after 10 seasons as an assistant under Harrick at Pepperdine and UCLA. “I hope to put some (championship) banners up on the wall.”

It might be too much to ask of the Waves this season.

Only one starter is back from a Pepperdine team that was 19-11, won the West Coast Conference tournament for the third time in four years and pushed heavily favored Michigan to overtime before losing in the first round of the NCAA tournament, 78-74.

Pepperdine--which made Fuller, 36, its first African American head coach in any sport last May after Asbury was hired at Kansas State--is the only team in the WCC that does not have a returning player who averaged more than 10 points last season. None of the four returning lettermen played more than 20 minutes a game.

And the Waves are young, with four freshmen, three sophomores and only two seniors among the 11 players on scholarship who will not be redshirted this season.

Pepperdine has been picked by most preseason college basketball publications to finish in the bottom half of the WCC standings for only the second time since the 1979-80 season, but optimism dies hard among the Waves, who have made 12 postseason appearances in the last 16 seasons.

“I think this team can be as good as last year’s, if not better,” said senior captain Clark James, a 6-foot-5 forward who averaged seven points and 3.6 rebounds as the Waves’ top front-line reserve last season. “We don’t have as many veterans, but we’ve got a lot of young talent.”

Center Gavin Vanderputten, a 7-foot junior from Perth, Australia, is Pepperdine’s only returning starter, but he averaged only four points and 3.2 rebounds last season.

The other returning lettermen are Gerald Brown, a 6-3 sophomore guard who scored eight points against San Diego in the final game of the WCC tournament; and Leroi O’Brien, a 6-7 senior forward who started six games last season.

Three players practiced with the Waves all last season but were redshirted: Kirk Goehring, a 6-6 sophomore forward who transferred from Louisiana State; 6-2 sophomore guard Khary Hervey, a transfer from Compton College; and 7-1 center Jamar Holcomb, a freshman.

The most celebrated of the newcomers is Monte Marcaccini, a 6-5 freshman swingman from Sherman Oaks Notre Dame High. Marcaccini signed with Indiana two years ago before changing his mind and playing last season for a junior team in Treviso, Italy, where he averaged 24.8 points.

He is expected to start, as is junior guard Joey Ramirez, who averaged 15.3 points and 5.5 assists last season in helping Ventura College to a 36-3 record.

Marcaccini and Ramirez will be joined in the starting lineup by Vanderputten, James and Brown, with Goehring expected to provide spark as the top reserve.

The other freshmen are Josh Merrill, a 6-5 forward and three-sport standout at University San Diego High who was the CIF San Diego Section player of the year in basketball last season, and R.J. Powell, a 6-2 guard from Carmel.

“I don’t really have any expectations,” Fuller said. “I just want us to play hard. We set standards as opposed to expectations: play hard, play together, play smart, play defense.”

Even if they do all that, the Waves might be a year away.

Pepperdine Facts and Figures

1994-95 ROSTER

No Player Pos Hgt Wgt Yr 3 Josh Merrill F 6-8 210 Fr 5 *Clark James F 6-5 195 Sr 11 R.J. Powell G 6-2 185 Fr 13 Joey Ramirez G 5-10 170 Jr 22 Khary Hervey G 6-2 210 So 31 Monte Marcaccini G-F 6-5 200 Fr 32 *LeRoi O’Brien F 6-7 215 Sr 33 Jamar Holcomb C 7-1 220 Fr 34 *Gerald Brown G 6-3 205 So 44 Kirk Goehring F 6-6 210 So 50 *Gavin Vanderputten C 7-0 220 Jr

No Hometown (HS/College) 3 San Diego (San Diego) 5 San Diego (West Valley) 11 Seaside (Carmel) 13 Santa Paula (Ventura JC) 22 Carson (Compton JC) 31 Tarzana (Notre Dame) 32 Los Angeles (Westchester) 33 Northbrook, Ill. (Glenbrook North) 34 Phoenix (Carl Hayden) 44 Jackson, Tenn. (LSU) 50 Perth, Australia (Trabuco Hills)

*Lettermen returning (4)

Coach: Tony Fuller.

Assistants: Bob Mandeville, Marty Wilson, Carl Strong.

1993-94 STATISTICS

Player G FGM-FGA Pct. FTM-FTA Pct. Reb Ast Pts D. Jones 30 234-416 .563 83-130 .638 9.7 2.1 18.4 D. Lopez 30 136-319 .426 69-83 .831 2.2 3.8 14.7 D. Noether 29 108-238 .454 70-133 .526 6.2 1.2 9.9 B. Parker 30 92-237 .388 44-62 .710 3.3 5.1 9.0 C. James 30 73-138 .529 55-70 .786 3.6 1.2 7.0 G. Vanderputten 30 45-90 .500 30-50 .600 3.2 0.4 4.0 L. O’Brien 29 41-86 .477 20-31 .645 2.1 0.4 3.5 G. Brown 30 43-108 .398 14-31 .452 1.5 1.5 3.4 B. Hill 20 29-63 .460 7-19 .368 2.9 0.3 3.3 S. Clover 10 9-15 .600 2-4 .500 0.1 0.0 2.9 Pepperdine Totals 30 810-1710 .474 394-613 .643 37.0 15.9 72.5 Opponents 30 660-1647 .401 449-625 .718 33.2 11.7 64.5

Three-point goals: Clover 9-13; James 8-16; Lopez 100-243; Parker 43-136; Brown 1-11; Jones 0-4. Pepperdine 161-423, 38.1%; Opponents 85-278, 30.6%.

1994-95 SCHEDULE

Date Opponent Time Nov. 26 CS Dominguez Hills 1:00 Nov. 28 at Fresno St. 7:30 Dec. 2 *Iowa 6:00 Dec. 3 Hawkeye Classic TBA Dec. 6 UC Santa Barbara 5:00 Dec. 10 at Boise St. 6:00 Dec. 15 S. Utah 7:00 Dec. 20 South Florida 5:00 Dec. 22 at San Diego St. 7:00 Dec. 28 **Ark.-Little Rock 6:30 Dec. 29 Hoosier Classic TBA Jan. 3 CS Northridge 7:30 Jan. 13 at Santa Clara 7:30 Jan. 14 at St. Mary’ 7:30 Jan. 20 San Diego 7:00 Jan. 21 San Francisco 5:00 Jan. 25 at Loyola Marymount 7:00 Jan. 28 Loyola Marymount 5:00 Feb. 2 at Portland 7:00 Feb. 4 at Gonzaga 7:00 Feb. 10 Gonzaga 7:00 Feb. 11 Portland 7:00 Feb. 16 at San Francisco 7:00 Feb. 18 at San Diego 7:00 Feb. 24 St. Mary’s 7:00 Feb. 25 Santa Clara 5:00 Mar. 4-6 ***WCC Tournament

All Times are p.m. and PST

*Hawkeye Classic at Iowa City.

**Hoosier Classic at Indianapolis.

***at Santa Clara

1993-94 RESULTS

W-L, Rec. Opponent Score W, 1-0 *San Francisco St. 86-49 W, 2-0 *Fresno St. 70-65 W, 3-0 *San Diego St. 89-61 L, 3-1 Weber St. 66-63 W, 4-1 Stephen F. Austin 77-53 W, 5-1 *CS San Bernardino 85-67 L, 5-2 George Washington 66-59 W, 6-2 UC Santa Barbara 70-57 L, 6-3 Texas El Paso 60-58 L, 6-4 Iowa St. 71-64 W, 7-4 *UNC Charlotte 72-61 W, 8-4 Oral Roberts 76-73 L, 8-5 *Santa Clara 54-51 W, 9-5 *St. Mary’s 81-61 W, 10-5 San Diego 85-75 L, 10-6 at San Francisco 82-80 L, 10-7 *Loyola Marymount 76-74 W, 11-7 Loyola Marymount 86-56 W, 12-7 *Portland 77-64 L, 12-8 *Gonzaga 70-48 L, 12-9 Gonzaga 66-56 L, 12-10 Portland 74-64 W, 13-10 *San Francisco 84-62 W, 14-10 *San Diego 76-57 W, 15-10 St. Mary’s 88-65 W, 16-10 Santa Clara 65-52 W, 17-10 St. Mary’s 79-62 W, 18-10 San Francisco 82-79 W, 19-10 San Diego 56-53

NCAA Tournament

W-L, Rec. Opponent Score L, 19-11 Michigan 78-74 (OT)

*Home: 9-3. Away: 6-5. Neutral: 4-3

Conference: 8-6