Westphal Is Off to a Quick Start at Pepperdine

Talk about a transition game.

Go from the NBA to college basketball, the way Paul Westphal has, and one of the first things you’re confronted with is the labyrinthine NCAA rulebook.

When Westphal took the Pepperdine job in April, five months after having been fired as coach of the Seattle SuperSonics, he was familiar with the ability of only one player on this season’s team.

His son, Michael, is a walk-on junior guard.

Had it not been for a quick study of the rules, Westphal would be seeing the rest of his team on the court for the first time tonight when the NCAA allows basketball practice to begin with Midnight Madness sessions.

As it is, he has worked with the players for three weeks--and taken them to France, Monaco and Switzerland as well.

Westphal took advantage of the “foreign tour exception,” which allows teams to prepare for and take an international trip once every four years, a legal way around the ban on summer practices.

The idea came to him quickly.

“As soon as I started opening up that rulebook,” Westphal said. “The rules are so restrictive as to what you can do in the summer.”

Without the tour, he’d have spent his time watching tapes of the team that went 22-9 and made the National Invitation Tournament last season under Jan van Breda Kolff.

“But there’s very little to see, because the guys who played the bulk of the time are all gone,” Westphal said.

Brandon Armstrong, for instance, became a first-round NBA draft pick after leaving Pepperdine in his junior year.

“Yeah, wish we had that guy,” Westphal said with a little laugh.

Westphal is on what many will consider his second sabbatical from the NBA.

Fired by the Phoenix Suns in 1996, only three seasons after reaching the NBA Finals, Westphal spent a season as an assistant coach for his son’s high school team in Scottsdale, Ariz.

“I just loved it,” Westphal said. “I was an assistant coach at Chaparral High School for one year and the next year I was a parent in the stands. I got to see all his games his junior and senior year.”

He was hired at Seattle in 1998, then fired in November, victim of a player uprising. In one of the most volatile moments, he and guard Gary Payton got into a shouting match during a game at Dallas.

The public saw only a small part of the turmoil, Westphal said, holding his thumb and forefinger about a quarter-inch apart.

Westphal clashed with Vin Baker about Baker’s weight and performance, and Payton, never one to hold his tongue, sided with his buddy Baker.

“It was an ongoing soap opera that had no possibility of a good conclusion,” Westphal said. “I actually told [General Manager] Wally Walker he should fire me before he did.”

Westphal was planning to take this year off, write a book and live in Southern California full-time for the first time since he starred at USC after growing up in Redondo Beach.

But Pepperdine pursued him, and he said yes.

“I almost didn’t take the job because my son was on the team,” he said. “I have a very strong opinion that it almost never works for a father to coach a son, particularly in basketball.

“My son was insistent that it wouldn’t reflect our relationship at all. Basically he said, ‘Look, I was on the team last year, and I hardly ever played. So if I don’t play this year, what’s the difference?”’

Westphal worries whether he can be fair, laughing at the memory of Al McGuire coaching his son, Allie, at Marquette.

“There was a point guard who went to the coach and said, ‘I’m better than your son.’ And Al said, ‘I know, but I love him.”’

It seems reasonable to expect Westphal to coach in the NBA again. But he is a little different breed, less driven by ego than most.

“I’ve been involved in basketball at a lot of different levels, and loved it,” he said. (He won an NAIA title at Grand Canyon College in 1988.) “The greatest years don’t always come at the highest level.”

Most people ask how refreshing it is to deal with college players again.

“I know what most people are getting at when they ask that question,” Westphal said. “I never generalize about players. I’ve seen incredible egos at all different levels--high school, college, pros. They’re not confined to the NBA.”

Besides, this is a coach who got along great with Charles Barkley in Phoenix.

“Loved him,” Westphal said. “There were two things about Charles that always stood out. One, he was a ferocious competitor. The bigger the moment, the more he would rise to the occasion. And the other thing is, he’s a clown. He just can’t help going for the laugh.”

Nor, occasionally, can Westphal.

Pepperdine will play USC Dec. 6 in a doubleheader at the Forum, on the bill with Fresno State and Gonzaga.

USC Athletic Director Mike Garrett once approached him about coaching the Trojans with an offer Westphal didn’t consider very serious, but Westphal remains disappointed the program has never really gone big-time, despite last season’s trip to the final eight.

“When I was getting recruited in 1967 , they showed me the plans for a new on-campus arena,” Westphal said. “I’ve said that publicly before, so it’s not some new shot fired across the bow from Malibu.

“Just as an SC alum, I’m disappointed they haven’t stepped forward.”

Instead of USC, it turned out to be Pepperdine. For however long, Westphal is back in town. He signed a five-year contract.

“I think this is a wonderful job,” he said. “A lot of coaches have left here because they can make more money someplace else. That’s not really why I’m coaching right now. I wouldn’t leave here to get a raise.”

The tediousness of some NCAA rules doesn’t seem likely to get him either.

“Recruiting-wise, there are a lot of different things you can do at different times. I think they’re probably on the right track there,” he said.

Not being able to work with players during the summer is a little more frustrating to him.

Then there are the contact rules--things like one phone call a week to a prospect.

Or you can e-mail, but not send your voice through the computer.

Or you can call, but can you call back?

“I had a call from a kid’s parents. They called my home number and talked to my wife,” Westphal said. “My wife said, ‘I’ll have him call you.’ But I couldn’t because I’d already called that week. So I had to wait a week and say, ‘Hey, I didn’t mean to be rude.’ Those are the kinds that are just silly.’

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Local Openers

Season openers for Southland college basketball teams:

UCLA: vs. Houston, Nov. 19, 7:30 p.m., ESPN2.

USC: vs. Wyoming in Preseason NIT, Nov. 13, 6:30 p.m., ESPN.

Long Beach State: Alabama State in America’s Tooth Classic, Eugene Ore., Nov. 15, 6 p.m.

Cal-State Fullerton: at Pepperdine, Nov. 7, 2 p.m.

Cal-State Northridge: vs. Nevada, Nov. 17, 7 p.m.

UC Irvine: vs. St. Mary’s, Nov. 16, 7 p.m.

Pepperdine: vs. Cal State Fullerton, Nov. 7, 2 p.m.

Loyola Marymount: Samford in Guardian’s Classic in Tuscaloosa, Ala., Nov. 13, 4 p.m., ESPN or FSN

UC Riverside: at Portland, Nov. 17, 7 p.m.

UC Santa Barbara: vs. Westmont College, Nov. 17, 7 p.m.