Pepperdine’s Big Moment Shouldn’t Be a Big Shock

So Pepperdine added USC to its list of victims? To twist a line from LL Cool J, don’t call it an upset.

People get too hung up on the names on the uniforms instead of the players.

If you took away the jersey colors and the rankings and the TV graphics, it’s tough to tell which team is the favorite. All of these schools have guys who can play. Serious athletes.

That’s why Hampton and Davidson can roll into the Dean Dome and get Ws over North Carolina, just as easy as a group coming down to the playground calling out, “Next!” and then holding the court.

It’s why the lower-seeded team won 13 times in the first round of the NCAA tournament last March.

Now it’s why the crown atop the head of Pepperdine’s mascot, King Neptune, also stands for the reigning champions of the city.

When Craig Lewis banked in a three-pointer against the Trojans on Thursday night, it meant the Waves own L.A..

Now UCLA doesn’t have to feel so bad. Here’s one thing the Bruins can say about their two losses (to Pepperdine and Ball State): both teams beat other schools ranked in the preseason top 25.

Just as Ball State showed it more than belonged on the court with Kansas and UCLA during the Maui Invitational, the Waves shouldn’t be taken lightly.

No team should when it has an athletic shot-blocker like Cedric Suitt in the middle, and players who can find shots and knock them down, like Lewis and Terrance Johnson. Especially when it’s willing to hustle, as most of these lesser-known schools are when they get their chance to go against the big boys.

That little extra energy eliminates whatever gap remains between the supposed elite and the rest of the field. But the gap gets smaller all the time.

Pure numbers, baby. The talent pool is deeper. In the early 1970s, the number of babies born in the United States had dipped to about 3.1 million a year. In the early 1980s, when the Baby Boomers became baby factories, it was up to about 3.6 million a year. Those are today’s college students.

Now think about when those kids started playing organized sports: the late 1980s, right during the climax of the Magic-Bird Era and the ascent of Michael Jordan. The NBA was at its peak, a natural invitation for kids across the country to pick up a basketball and head to the playground.

No one has turned into the next Jordan so far, but all you need to do is get halfway there and you’re a pretty good player.

Some of the advantages of going to a big school, such as television exposure, have been nullified by the spread of cable channels and their desire to fill air time. They will create games and tournaments and invite any old league to play in front of the cameras, just to generate programming.

Credit the academic initial eligibility requirements for spreading the wealth as well. Prop. 48 went into effect in 1986, and now there’s the more restrictive Prop. 16.

Many of the traditional basketball powerhouses got image-conscious and didn’t want to be associated with a kid stuck with a Prop. 48 label. (It’s the schools’ loss; one of the first Prop. 48 kids, Rumeal Robinson, made the winning free throws in Michigan’s 1989 championship victory. And he got his degree).

So now they go to smaller schools or stop by junior college before turning to the NCAA ranks. When they get on the court, their games are as tight as ever. Pepperdine, for instance, has four junior college transfers.

And let’s give some credit to the coaching too. When you have a Mike Krzyzewski, Roy Williams or Lute Olson locking up coveted jobs for years and years, the up-and-coming coaches have to go somewhere.

They have fanned out around the country, making names for themselves.

Pepperdine’s Paul Westphal already has a name, of course. He’s a former NBA star, a guy who coached against Phil Jackson in the NBA finals. He gave the Zen Master a pretty good run too. Westphal is creative, and now he doesn’t have to deal with the NBA egos that sank him in the pros.

So why hasn’t Pepperdine, Gonzaga or Ball State cracked through to the Final Four?

Because that’s the time when the best players take over. The separation comes in late March and early April. When the pressure’s on and every possession is magnified, it pays to have some lottery-pick talent on hand. Each of the last seven NCAA champions had at least one player who currently starts in the NBA. (That streak ends, interestingly enough, with UCLA’s 1995 championship team). Even if their stars aren’t destined for long pro careers, NCAA champions usually have very, very good college players, such as Bobby Hurley or Mateen Cleaves.

But from November through early March, it’s anybody’s ballgame. Ask USC. Or UCLA. Or Kansas, or North Carolina or ...

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J.A. Adande can be reached at: j.a.adande@latimes.com.