Character Key for Pepperdine
John Watson has heard about the problems Jan van Breda Kolff had with the Vanderbilt athletic department while he coached its men’s basketball team the last six years. He also knows about the decline in interest in the program during van Breda Kolff’s tenure.
Nevertheless, the Pepperdine director of athletics feels he has found the man to replace Lorenzo Romar as the Waves’ coach, and will announce it today at a news conference.
Romar left to coach Saint Louis March 26.
Watson said it was character, not victories, that led him to choose van Breda Kolff, 47, over five other finalists--Pepperdine assistant Randy Bennett, UCLA assistants Jim Saia and Michael Holton, Biola Coach Dave Holmquist and Lipscomb of Tennessee Coach Don Meyer.
“He has a strong commitment to academics and to athletics,” said Watson, who is in his first year at his position and said he wanted to take his time making his first major hire. “He has a strong Christian belief, and that fits with Pepperdine’s mission.”
In six years at Vanderbilt, van Breda Kolff, the son of former Laker coach Butch van Breda Kolff, led the Commodores to a 104-81 record and four postseason appearances. This last season, the Commodores were 14-15 and didn’t make the postseason.
But dwindling attendance and a drop in community excitement and enthusiasm in part cost him his job.
“Ticket sales slacked over the last couple of years, and people’s expectations were very high,” Vanderbilt director of athletics Todd Turner said. “We needed a sense of excitement to revitalize the program. My hope was the team’s performance last season could generate that. But it fell short.”
Other sources in Nashville said there is no doubting van Breda Kolff’s commitment to family and to his student athletes, and that he is good in terms of the technical aspects of coaching.
But they added that he had run-ins with the athletic department, including being late or missing dates with several groups, including alumni.
“Relationships weren’t his strength,” Turner said. “Relationships with all kinds of constituents, whether it be players, alumni or the media.
“Jan is a hard worker on Xs and O’s. But he spent most of his time on his strengths. Other parts of the job weren’t prioritized as high. Our expectations at this time are for a coach to be exceptional at both.”
The Waves return four starters from a team that finished 19-13 and in second place in the West Coast Conference.
“Everybody in the coaching community I talked to said he works hard in pregame preparation and is good with Xs and O’s,” said Watson, who added that he thinks Pepperdine will keep all of its recruits for next year. “He has Division I experience and NBA experience, and that was hard to overlook.”
After a stellar career at Vanderbilt in which he earned Southeastern Conference player of the year honors in 1974, van Breda Kolff played nine years in the NBA, seven with New Jersey.
He served six seasons as an assistant under Pete Carril at Princeton from 1985-91. He received his first head coaching job at Cornell in 1991, where he had a 23-29 record in two seasons.