Pepperdine Backs Westphal After 20-Loss Season

After only the fourth 20-loss season in Pepperdine history, Athletic Director John Watson expressed support Saturday for Coach Paul Westphal, the former NBA coach whose fifth season ended with a 7-20 mark.

“I have a great deal of confidence in Paul and hope Paul will be with us the rest [of the time] he chooses to be involved in basketball. I think he’s the right coach for Pepperdine University,” Watson said.

Westphal has one year remaining on a contract that was renegotiated after he guided Pepperdine to a 22-9 record and an NCAA tournament bid in his first season.

Since then, his teams have gone 15-13, 15-16 and 17-14 before falling to 7-20 this season, a year after losing Alex Acker early to the NBA draft.

“I think the season’s totally different this year if Alex Acker chose not to go pro,” Watson said. However, he called next season an important one.

“I think it is. I think Pepperdine has an expectation, and I think Paul Westphal has an expectation, that we are going to compete very strongly in our conference, and we didn’t do that this year. I think both Paul and the university expect that to turn around. I think Paul’s the right guy to do that. I really do.”

-- Robyn Norwood