Pepperdine, LMU sink lower
Things have been far from fine at the ‘Dine lately, and Loyola Marymount’s bittersweet run to the Elite Eight in 1990 feels like all of the nearly 18 years ago that it was.
These days, the once-prominent programs at Pepperdine and Loyola are the dregs of the West Coast Conference, tied for last with Portland and San Francisco.
The longing for better times in Malibu is strong enough that Pepperdine has courted Tom Asbury, 62, the retired coach who took the Waves to three NCAA tournaments in the early 1990s.
The Waves are 8-17 as they await their next coach after Vance Walberg quit for personal reasons last month amid team tension and his own frustration over losing. Even Paul Westphal didn’t make much of a dent at Pepperdine, despite his success as an NBA coach.
At Loyola Marymount, the Lions are 5-20 and coming off a 33-point loss to Gonzaga -- with No. 25 St. Mary’s up next, stopping at Gersten Pavilion on Saturday before heading to Pepperdine on Monday.
Lions Coach Rodney Tention, a former assistant to Lute Olson at Arizona, is safe despite a 30-56 record in his third season, Athletic Director Bill Husak said, indicating he isn’t inclined to add to the coaching churn that has seen half of the WCC’s eight schools make a change in the past year.
“I really believe a way to go ahead and establish a solid program is not to make coaching changes drastically or frequently,” Husak said. “I think Rodney Tention is a great fit for our institution and a good coach who will only get better and better, and we are prepared to grow with him.”
Tention’s tenure had a chance to go very differently than it has. Two years ago, in his first season, the Lions’ Chris Ayer missed a layup at the buzzer of the WCC tournament title game that would have put Loyola Marymount in the NCAA tournament.
Last season, leading scorer Brandon Worthy suffered a season-ending knee injury in December. This season, with much of their experience gone, the Lions are losing by an average of more than 16 points and have won only two of their last 15 games.
That would be about enough to spell a change at many schools, and coaches -- no surprise here -- say that is part of the problem.
“That’s been a real challenge for both of those programs,” said Brad Holland, who coached against Loyola Marymount and Pepperdine in the WCC for 13 seasons at San Diego. Holland was replaced after last season by former Gonzaga assistant Bill Grier in one of two moves -- Coach Dick Davey being nudged aside at Santa Clara was the other -- widely perceived to be brought on by WCC schools trying to compete with Gonzaga’s success.
“What I saw, from the outside looking in, was that they went through a lot of coaching changes,” Holland said. “There was not a lot of stability there in terms of building the programs through the continuity of coaches. It seemed like every three years there was a new coach. When you have programs like San Diego and Gonzaga and Santa Clara, where the coaching tenures were much longer, it stabilizes the program and gives you a chance to have not only continuity of coaching, but of recruiting philosophy and assistant coaches.”
What’s easy to forget is that Loyola Marymount -- other than the high-flying Paul Westhead era, with his up-tempo style fueled by the abilities of Bo Kimble and the tragically fated Hank Gathers -- hasn’t had much success over the years.
There were only two NCAA tournament appearances in school history before Westhead’s run of three in a row, and there hasn’t been another since Loyola lost to eventual champion Nevada Las Vegas in a regional final in the weeks after Gathers’ death in 1990.
Westhead left for the NBA and was replaced by assistant Jay Hillock, who was fired after two barely above .500 seasons.
It went downhill from there.
John Olive, a Villanova assistant, came west and had one winning season in five. Charles Bradley’s three seasons ended with a 2-26 record in 2000 when Loyola Marymount ranked among the worst teams in the nation.
The record improved under Steve Aggers, but he had only one winning season in five before Husak made the decision to replace him after a 11-17 finish in 2005, the final blow coming when the Lions blew a 12-point halftime lead against Pepperdine in the WCC tournament and lost by 12.
By contrast, Pepperdine has a storied history. Gary Colson’s success in the 1970s was followed by Jim Harrick’s four NCAA tournament trips in the 1980s -- there’s far too much baggage from his later stops to bring him back, though knowing him he might be game -- and then Asbury. There was a rough patch under Tony Fuller, who was followed by Lorenzo Romar, Jan van Breda Kolff, and Westphal.
Romar left for St. Louis and went on to his current job at Washington. Van Breda Kolff left for St. Bonaventure for family reasons only to become embroiled in a scandal. But before he left Pepperdine had two 20-win seasons and upset Indiana in the 2000 NCAA tournament in what proved to be Bob Knight’s last game with the Hoosiers.
“We would have never left. I loved it there, but my wife’s father passed away during the season and we moved back,” van Breda Kolff said, adding that he believed the keys to his staff’s success were an up-tempo and defensive style of play, local recruiting and players who stayed in the program.
Westphal, after taking his first team to the NCAA tournament, slipped back and lasted five seasons before he and the school parted ways after a 7-20 finish to an injury-plagued season in 2006.
Westphal, now an assistant with the Dallas Mavericks, declined to comment about his departure. But Athletic Director John Watson, despite praising him, said he didn’t think Westphal adapted to a Division I coaching mentality from an NBA approach, and others questioned Westphal’s approach and dedication to recruiting.
Walberg was brought in from Fresno City College with his own offensive scheme, one that has been adapted by John Calipari at Memphis. But his players didn’t take to it universally, and amid defections and the unexpected loss of Kingsley Costain, who was dismissed from school before the season for a violation of university policy, the roots of yet another coaching change were born.
Watson, who earlier thought he might name a coach this week, now expects it to be next week. While trying to analyze the program’s history and create some stability, he has spoken to Harrick, Asbury, Romar and van Breda Kolff.
It might be easier if only the list of experts weren’t quite so long.
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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)
Times’ rankings
ROBYN NORWOOD’S RANKINGS AND COMMENTS:
*--* Rk. Team (Rec.) Comment (last week’s rank) 1 MEMPHIS (23-0) Huge in-state showdown against Tennessee looms on Feb. 23 (1) 2 DUKE (21-1) Hide your face if you said Coach K had lost his touch last season. (2) 3 KANSAS (23-2) Only Kansas State and Texas have gotten the better of the Jayhawks. (3) 4 TENNESSEE (21-2) The Volunteers lost to Texas too, but also to Kentucky. (4) 5 N. CAROLINA (23-2) Until Ty Lawson is back, this team is a notch below. (5) 6 UCLA (21-3) Bruins need to worry about the way they played, not play against Aboya. (4) 7 TEXAS (20-4) Four losses, but Longhorns have wins over UCLA, Tennessee, Kansas. (10) 8 STANFORD (20-3) Maybe Trent Johnson will end up the Pac-10 coach of the year. (9) 9 GEORGETOWN (20-3) Looks like the Hoyas have some competition in the Big East. (6) 10 INDIANA (20-3) Hoosiers get their second chance against Wisconsin tonight. (11) 11 PURDUE (20-5) Boilermakers have beaten Wisconsin and split with Michigan State. (24) 12 BUTLER (22-2) It took OT, but Bulldogs have won 14 of their last 15 games. (14) 13 XAVIER (20-4) Yes, the argument for ranking Xavier ahead of Indiana is a good one. (15) 14 LOUISVILLE (19-6) With injuries healed and a win over Georgetown, U of L is hot. (Unranked) 15 TEXAS A&M (20-4) The Aggies have won their last five games. (13) 16 WISCONSIN (19-4) The list of Big Ten teams that have fallen to Purdue keeps growing. (8) 17 MICH. STATE (20-4) And Spartans are latest Big Ten team to join that list. (12) 18 KANSAS STATE (17-5) Wildcats will try to make Texas Tech’s Pat Knight 0-3 tonight. (16) 19 CONNECTICUT (18-5) Huskies and Notre Dame sort things out tonight. (20) 20 NOTRE DAME (18-4) The Irish have to play at UConn this time. (19) 21 WASH. STATE (18-5) Is there any coach who wouldn’t like to have Kyle Weaver? (17) 22 ST. MARY’S (21-3) The Gaels are headed to Southern California for a nice break. (21) 23 DRAKE (22-1) Drake is ranked here because its loss was to St. Mary’s. (22) 24 VANDERBILT (21-4) Commodores had a staggering performance against Kentucky. (NR) 25 PITTSBURGH (19-5) Game against Marquette on Friday decides who is ranked next week. (18) *--*