Pepperdine Hopes It Hasn’t Played Finale
Instead of preparing for the West Coast Conference tournament final Monday, Pepperdine basketball players were back in class.
Instead of making a case for an NCAA berth and the opportunity to pull off an upset like they did last year against Indiana, the Waves are simply hoping the NIT deems them worthy.
Such is the cost of blowing a 19-point lead and getting upset by Santa Clara, 84-78, in a semifinal Sunday at Jenny Craig Pavilion.
The Waves (21-8) believe they belong among the nation’s top 65 teams, but at this point are in no position to NIT-pick.
“I think any chance of making the NCAA tournament was lost,” Coach Jan van Breda Kolff said. “Last year we won the regular-season championship and advanced to the conference tournament final. This year we did neither of those things.”
Neither Pepperdine nor van Breda Kolff is a stranger to the NIT, a once-prestigious tournament that now pits the fallen against the unfortunate, the unknown against the unappreciated.
The Waves have played in the NIT five times since 1980, most recently in 1999. They are 2-5 and have never advanced past the second round.
Van Breda Kolff has had more success. He took his previous team, Vanderbilt, to the NIT three times, advancing to the final in 1994 and to the third round in 1998.
“The main thing is the NIT would give us a chance to keep playing,” forward David Lalazarian said. “None of us wants the [Santa Clara] game to be the way we ended our season.”
Conference tournaments can be cruel and unusual. Nobody knows better than Lalazarian. One minute he’s having his best game of the season, the next he’s lying on the court, blood pouring from his forehead.
Lalazarian had 17 points in 21 minutes and Pepperdine led by 11 when he was pulled to the floor by Bronco Steve Ross after both players leaped for a loose ball.
The collision took Lalazarian out of the game and Pepperdine out of its rhythm. Santa Clara made five three-pointers in a row as the stunned Waves watched.
With Lalazarian getting stitches in the locker room and guard Craig Lewis having fouled out, the Broncos double-teamed Kelvin Gibbs in the low post and left Ross to handle Brandon Armstrong on the perimeter.
Armstrong, the WCC’s leading scorer, had 21 points but none in the last 7:30. He only took two shots down the stretch.
If Pepperdine is snubbed by the NIT, the careers of seniors Lalazarian, Gibbs and Derrick Anderson will be over. Armstrong might have played his last college game as well.
The junior guard is projected as a late first-round or second-round NBA pick. Armstrong’s parents want him to stay at Pepperdine and elevate his stock, but his academic standing is tenuous.
The spring semester will end before Armstrong must decide whether to make himself available for the NBA draft.
