Mr. Block Well

Cedric Suitt came to Pepperdine five years ago, a self-described “mama’s boy” who soon became homesick for his native Atlanta.

He will leave the Malibu campus a husband, father, scholar and one of the best defensive players in the history of the school’s men’s basketball team.

That’s a lot of growing up in five years, but the personable Suitt has managed his remarkable makeover through patience, persistence and perseverance.

He laughs now about his nightly phone conversations with his mother, Sylvia, during his freshman year:

Cedric: “Man, I’m coming home.”

Sylvia: “Are you sure you want to come home?”

Cedric: “Yeah.”

Sylvia: “Well, OK, we’ll talk about it tomorrow.”

His mother’s sign-off prompted Suitt to put off packing his bags.

“She’d say that every day until my freshman year was over,” he says with a smile.

Pepperdine is glad he stuck around. Suitt, a 6-foot-11 senior, is a big reason the Waves (22-8) are in the NCAA tournament and playing Wake Forest (20-12) in the first round of the Midwest Regional on Thursday at Arco Arena in Sacramento.

As the Waves’ last line of defense, Suitt has been a tsunami of swat this season, setting school records for blocked shots in a career (178), season (92) and game (10). And those numbers don’t take into account the countless shots Suitt--it’s pronounced Sue-it--has altered.

“You can make an argument that he’s been the most valuable player on our team,” Coach Paul Westphal said. “We’re able to press and gamble a lot on defense and create the tempo we want, and actually be a high-scoring team, because we know that [teams are] not going to get very many layups when Cedric is in the game.

“He’s just been a very valuable player as a leader and as a defensive specialist. We never would have had the success we’ve had without him.”

In fact, the Waves might not be in the NCAA tournament had it not been for the last of Suitt’s 10 blocked shots against San Diego on Jan. 26. With the score tied in the closing seconds of regulation, San Diego guard Andre Laws drove to the basket for what would have been a game-winning layup.

Except Suitt went up and cleanly swatted the ball out of bounds as the buzzer sounded.

“My eyes just focused on [Laws],” Suitt recalled. “When he kept coming, I said, ‘Just don’t call a foul,’ because I knew I was going to jump with him, regardless.”

Pepperdine went on to win in double overtime, 96-91. Had the Waves lost, they wouldn’t have tied Gonzaga for the West Coast Conference regular-season title and their RPI certainly would have dropped dangerously close to the cutoff point for gaining entry into the 65-team NCAA field.

After someone handed Suitt the score sheet from the game, showing he had set the school record and tied the conference mark for blocks in a game, he took it home and put it in his scrapbook.

“That was a moment to remember,” he said.

Suitt has experienced many memorable moments in the last 12 months. He graduated last spring with a bachelor’s degree in public relations, got married in May, became a father in August and started graduate school last fall, all before the first jump ball of his most successful basketball season.

More recently, he was named WCC defensive player of the year and was among six players selected to the WCC all-academic team, the only Wave so honored. He has a 3.3 grade-point average in communications, working toward a master’s degree.

“The past fiscal year has been very wonderful for me,” said Suitt, who lives in a Calabasas apartment with his wife, Danielle, and daughter, Nia.

Suitt and Danielle, a Pepperdine junior and former cheerleader, met at school and began dating despite a nearly 2-foot difference in height. Suitt claims Danielle told him she was 5-3 when they met, but a visit to the doctor’s office revealed his bride to be 5-1, just as he had suspected all along.

That means Suitt has a long way to bend down for a kiss, but, he said, “It’s worth it. That’s my best friend and the love of my life.... It’s wonderful to find someone who accepts me. I’m a big kid at heart.”

Suitt said his family will most likely settle in Atlanta--Danielle is from Nashville--and he’ll try to play professional basketball overseas if he isn’t drafted by an NBA team.

Being surrounded by women is nothing new for Suitt. He was raised by Sylvia, a single mother, and his grandmother, Sarah Bernice Suitt, who died when he was a senior at Atlanta’s Mays High. Suitt said he has never met his father, who left when Cedric was 2 months old.

“The women in my life have always been significant,” he said. “I have a lot of love and compassion for all of them.”

Coaches have been his father figures.

Suitt said he has benefited greatly on the basketball court from the influence of Westphal, who took over the Pepperdine program this season.

Though Suitt was a contributor for the Waves under previous coaches Lorenzo Romar and Jan van Breda Kolff, he didn’t become a regular starter until this season.

“I believe I have always had the ability to block shots, but Coach Westphal has given me the opportunity,” Suitt said. “He’s had confidence in me. Even though the season started out a little bumpy, and there were one or two games where I didn’t have any blocks, he kept on me and believed in me.

“At the beginning of the season, I was getting in a lot of foul trouble. He told me just don’t try to block everything. Once I took on that state of mind, I started playing a lot more minutes.”

Suitt said he began to hit his stride in the Waves’ game against West Virginia on Jan. 30 in the Fiesta Bowl Classic at Arizona.

After making life miserable in the first half for forward Chris Moss, Suitt said West Virginia’s leading scorer approached him during warmups for the second half with a request:

“Stop blocking all my shots,” Moss said.

But there has been no stopping Suitt, who took over Pepperdine’s 68-47 victory over St. Mary’s in a WCC tournament semifinal March 3 by recording eight of the Waves’ school-record 14 blocked shots.

“He’s come up real big in some crucial games at crucial times,” said Wave forward Boomer Brazzle. “It’s a luxury to have a big shot blocker like that who can protect the basket.”

Despite his success, Suitt still struggles at times. He has a tendency to pick up early fouls, and his offensive game has been nearly nonexistent. He averages only 3.1 points, compared to his 3.3 blocked shots, and his career high is eight points.

“I have a big offensive game deep down in me somewhere,” he said. “After I got out of high school, I kind of buried it.”

If Suitt can unearth it for Pepperdine’s game Thursday, you know he’ll find a place for the score sheet in his rapidly expanding scrapbook.