Men's Hoops Hosts Santa Clara, San Diego
2/10/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
UPCOMING — The Pepperdine men’s basketball team, which began the second half of West Coast Conference play with a victory at rival Loyola Marymount last weekend, plays four of its final six regular-season games at home. This week, the Waves host Santa Clara and San Diego and they will be looking avenge road defeats from last month. Underclassmen are dominating the young Pepperdine lineup, as freshmen and sophomores are scoring nearly 85% of the points. Kenpom.com rates the Waves as having the eighth least-experienced team in the country.
GAME #25 — Thursday (Feb. 12) at Firestone Fieldhouse: Pepperdine (6-18, 3-5, sixth place) vs. Santa Clara (13-13, 5-4, tied for fourth place) at 7:30 p.m.
GAME #26 — Saturday (Feb. 14) at Firestone Fieldhouse: Pepperdine vs. San Diego (13-11, 5-4, tied for fourth place) at 5 p.m. This is Pepperdine’s Homecoming contest.
TICKETS — Men’s basketball single-game tickets cost $15 (lower reserved), $12 (upper reserved), $10 (adult general admission) or $5 (children general admission). Call (866) WAVE-TIX to purchase tickets.
ON THE WEB — Subscribers to "Wave Casts" can catch all Pepperdine men’s basketball games on the internet at www.pepperdinesports.com. Veteran play-by-play man Al Epstein, now in his 24th season with the Waves, is behind the microphone. Non-televised home games will have live audio and video, while road games will be audio only. Go to the Pepperdine Athletics website and look for the WaveCasts link. An annual pass costs $69.95 and monthly subscriptions are also available. Live statistics will be available for all home matches free of charge, and links are provided to the home team’s website when the Waves are on the road.
ON TELEVISION — The Pepperdine-San Diego game will be televised live by FSN West. Ron Pitts and former Pepperdine Coach Jim Harrick will call the game.
SANTA CLARA — Pepperdine is 52-65 all-time against Santa Clara and lost this season’s first meeting on the road. Over the last 10 meetings, the schools are 5-5 against each other. The Waves have won three straight and 11 of the last 12 in Firestone Fieldhouse. Tom Asbury went 8-5 against the Broncos in his first go-round as head coach.
LAST TIME VS. SANTA CLARA — Back on Jan. 31 ... The inside-outside play of Santa Clara proved to be a little too much as the visiting Waves fell 64-52 at the Leavey Center. Keion Bell had a team-high 12 points and Mychel Thompson added 10, but Santa Clara big man John Bryant had 19 points and 17 rebounds and the Broncos made 12 three-pointers. Pepperdine trailed 33-26 at halftime and was outshot 37.0% to 47.8%.
SAN DIEGO — Pepperdine is 52-32 all-time against San Diego. However, the Toreros have won nine straight in the series, including one earlier this season. USD has ended Pepperdine’s season at the WCC Tournament in each of the last four seasons. The Waves last won at home in 2006. Tom Asbury went 13-1 against San Diego in his first stint as head coach.
LAST TIME VS. SAN DIEGO — Back on Jan. 15 ... San Diego’s WCC-leading defense clamped down on Pepperdine, holding the Waves to 35.2% shooting and a 62-47 loss at the Jenny Craig Pavilion. The Waves scored a season-low 17 points in the first half and the Toreros went up 30-17 at the break before leading by as many as 21 in the second half. Mychel Thompson was the only Wave in double-figures with 15 points. Corbin Moore added eight points and nine rebounds. The duo shot 9-for-16 from the field, while the rest of the team went 10-for-38 and no one else had more than five points. One bright spot for the Waves was a +12 rebounding margin (37-25), which included 14 offensive rebounds (five by Moore).
LAST GAME — Senior guard Ryan Holmes had 18 points and a tremendous defensive effort lifted Pepperdine to a 58-43 win over local rival Loyola Marymount at Gersten Pavilion on Saturday (Feb. 7). The Waves swept the season series from the Lions for the third straight year and now have won six straight and 22 of the last 24 meetings. Keion Bell collected his second double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds. The Waves held the Lions to opponent season lows for total points, first-half points (19), second-half points (24) and field goal percentage (25.8%). The Waves shot 43.5% from the field. Pepperdine led 26-19 at halftime, but LMU took a brief second-half lead and the game was tied 37-37 with eight minutes to go. The Waves then went on an 11-0 run and outscored LMU 21-6 over the final eight minutes.
KEION BELL — As Pepperdine’s leading scorer, Keion Bell has shown that he is a strong candidate for WCC All-Freshman team honors. He is averaging 12.4 points overall (14th in the WCC and third among conference freshmen) and 16.1 points in conference play (sixth in the WCC, second among freshmen). He has scored in double-figures in seven of eight conference games, and is averaging 18.3 ppg over the last six games (all in double-figures). He nearly set or tied two school records in the win at San Francisco (1/29). His 32 points were two shy of the Pepperdine freshman record and his 13-for-14 shooting was one field goal made short of the single-game record for field-goal percentage. Though just 6-foot-3, he has two double-doubles that came against Gonzaga (1/22, 19 points, 12 rebounds) and Loyola Marymount (2/7, 15 points, 11 rebounds).
QUICK HITS — Ryan Holmes scored only two points in his first five games after returning from a knee injury, but then scored nine points at both San Francisco and Santa Clara and reached double-figures for the first time since early this season with 18 against Loyola Marymount (he’s averaging 12.0 ppg in the last three games) ... LMU’s field-goal percentage of 25.8% was the first time an opponent had been held below 30% since 2006 (Santa Clara) ... The last time the Waves allowed fewer points to the Lions was a 55-41 victory in the 1958-59 season.
FREE THROWS — Pepperdine currently leads the WCC in free throw percentage at 70.9%. The Waves would like to get there a little more, as they’ve only shot 378 free throws compared to 518 for opponents. Seven of Pepperdine’s regulars are at 70% or above. Only Keion Bell appears in the WCC individual leaders (ninth place at 74.4%). Several others have higher percentages, including Lorne Jackson at 84.1%, but don’t have enough attempts to qualify.
ROTATION — Among the 12 players that got into the game against Loyola Marymount, nine were freshmen or sophomores and seven weren’t on the roster last year. Lately, Pepperdine has been starting three freshmen, a sophomore and a senior. Prior to that, the Waves had started four freshmen and one sophomore for nine straight games. The Waves have played five freshmen on the court at one time on an occasional basis.
FRESHMAN SCORING — Last year, freshmen scored 63.6% of Pepperdine’s points. It looks like the new group of freshmen will lead the way in 2008-09 as well. Right now they account for 58.3% of the scoring, compared to 26.2% by the sophomores and 15.5% by the seniors. The two games where freshmen contributed the most were at Hawaii and vs. Portland (76%).
STAT LEADERS — In the WCC, Keion Bell is tied for third in steals (1.50), ninth in free throw percentage (.744) and 14th in scoring (12.4) ... Taylor Darby is sixth in rebounding (7.0) ... Dane Suttle Jr. is 11th in three-point field goal percentage (.386) and 13th in three-pointers made (1.33) ... Andy Shannon is 11th in blocked shots (0.81) ... Mychel Thompson is 20th in scoring (10.3).
SEASON NOTABLES — The win over Cal State Monterey Bay gave the Waves their first victory in a season opener since 2001-02 ... Veteran broadcaster Al Epstein called his 700th consecutive Pepperdine men’s basketball broadcast vs. Pacific on Dec. 13 ... The game at Cal State Northridge on Dec. 18 was the 2,000th in program history ... Pepperdine’s 12-game losing streak tied the third-longest in program history and was the longest since the 1965-66 season ... The Waves beat Loyola Marymount in Firestone Fieldhouse for the 11th consecutive time ... Pepperdine won its conference opener (vs. LMU) for the first time since 2005.
SOLES4SOULS — Pepperdine’s Student Athlete Advisory Committee, in conjunction with student-fan group Riptide, will be collecting shoes at Firestone Fieldhouse until Feb. 17 for Soles4Souls. Soles4Souls has already successfully donated more than one million pairs of shoes to those hurting both domestically and internationally. Fans can drop off shoes, both new and used, into the Soles4Souls collection box located near the concession stand at Firestone Fieldhouse, or among several additional boxes placed throughout Pepperdine’s Malibu campus.
ROSTER — The Waves have just five players that saw action last season. Only four of them were on the roster at season’s end, and because of injuries, only two of them played in the 2007-08 season finale at the WCC Tournament. The five returners accounted for 40.2% of last year’s scoring (950/2,365), 32.0% of the rebounding (357/1,117), 59.6% of the assists (239/401), 16.4% of the blocked shots (21/128) and 57.9% of the steals (183/316). To replenish the roster, the Waves added 10 newcomers. Two are sophomores that are junior college transfers, six are scholarship freshmen and two others are walk-on freshmen. Of the 15 players, 12 are underclassmen. The breakdown is three seniors, zero juniors, four sophomores and eight freshmen.
AGRE OUT — Sophomore center Denis Agre, in his first season at Pepperdine after transferring from Central Arizona College, became academically ineligible at the start of the semester. He averaged 3.2 points and 3.6 rebounds and started seven of the first 16 games.
RETURNERS — Three players — senior Rico Tucker (10.7 ppg last season), sophomore Mychel Thompson (8.1 ppg) and senior Ryan Holmes (6.0 ppg) — were starters in 2007-08. Senior Mike Hornbuckle (5.5 ppg) saw extended playing time last season and started half of the 32 games. Sophomore Gus Clardy (1.3 ppg), a walk-on, appeared in 16 games last season.
NEWCOMERS — When Tom Asbury was hired in February 2008, he was given a very late start to the recruiting process. The three recruits that signed letters-of-intent with the previous coaching staff were given their release, and several players transferred following the season. With many holes to fill, Asbury and his staff utilized their contacts, identified the best of the remaining unsigned talent that fit their needs and put together a very impressive group under the circumstances. The Sporting News ranked Pepperdine’s recruiting class #2 in the West Coast Conference.
NON-CONFERENCE SCHEDULE — The home schedule should have been much more palatable to Waves fans in 2008-09. A year after playing just three non-conference home games, Pepperdine supporters were treated to eight this time around, including ones against such big-time opponents as Brigham Young and Georgia Tech, and in-state rivals such as Cal State Bakersfield, UC Irvine and Pacific. A few of the road games were notable too, including contests at Pac-10 foes Arizona State and USC. The Waves also took part in the Rainbow Classic in Hawaii right after Christmas.
TELEVISION — The Waves will appear on television several times once again in 2008-09. Six games will be shown locally (Nov. 21 at Arizona State on FSN Prime Ticket, Jan. 10 vs. Loyola Marymount on ESPNU, Jan. 22 vs. Gonzaga on FSN West, Feb. 14 vs. San Diego on FSN West, Feb. 21 at Gonzaga on ESPNU and Feb. 26 vs. Saint Mary’s on FSN West). A few other games will be televised out of market (Nov. 21 at New Mexico State on FSN Arizona, Dec. 28 vs. Buffalo on KFVE in Hawaii, Jan. 17 at Saint Mary’s on Comcast Sports Net California).
TOM ASBURY — It was announced on Feb. 19, 2008, that the architect of one of the best stretches in Pepperdine history, Tom Asbury, was returning to Malibu to become the Waves’ head coach again. Asbury was previously at Pepperdine for 15 seasons, the first nine as an assistant coach (1980-88) and then the next six as the head coach (1989-94). He then served as head coach at Kansas State from 1995-2000 and was most recently an assistant coach at Alabama from 2004-07. Asbury went 125-59 (.679) in his first six seasons with the Waves and 210-147 (.588) in his first 12 seasons overall as a head coach. The Waves went to the postseason five times in six years with three NCAA Tournament appearances (1991, ’92, ’94) and two in the NIT (1989, ’93). Pepperdine won three regular-season West Coast Conference titles, finished no worse than second in any of his six seasons and compiled a league record of 66-18 (.786). Pepperdine’s only three WCC Tournament championships came under Asbury.
ASSISTANTS — Tom Asbury wanted to find assistants with a passion for Pepperdine and an understanding of its mission, so he turned to three former student-athletes. It’s believed that Duke and Pepperdine have the only two college basketball staffs where the assistant coaches are all alums. Associate head coach Marty Wilson (1985-89) and assistant coaches Damin Lopez (1990-94) and Will Kimble (2001-03) played in three different eras, all successful. In the 13 seasons that made up their playing careers, Pepperdine went a combined 261-135 (.659), had 12 winning seasons, won six WCC regular-season titles and three WCC tournament titles, and made six NCAA Tournaments and four NITs.
RECRUITS — The Waves signed two players to letters-of-intent for 2009-10 during the early-signing period. They are 6-foot-3 point guard Josh Lowery (Phoenix, Ariz./Desert Vista HS) and 6-foot-9 forward/center Tanner Kerry (Sydney, Australia).
WCC PRESEASON POLL — Pepperdine may do better than predicted, as the Waves were picked to finish eighth in the conference’s preseason poll, done by a vote of the coaches. The predicted order of finish went Gonzaga, Saint Mary’s, San Diego, Santa Clara, San Francisco, Portland, Loyola Marymount and Pepperdine.
LAST SEASON — The midseason resignation of Vance Walberg and several player departures that followed contributed to Pepperdine’s third straight losing season, as the Waves finished 11-21 overall and sixth in the WCC at 4-10. They defeated Portland in the first round of the WCC Tournament before falling to eventual champion San Diego in the quarterfinals.
PEPPERDINE HISTORY — This is the 71st season of Pepperdine basketball, and the Waves opened 2008-09 with an all-time record of 1,102-887 (.554). Pepperdine has been to the NCAA Tournament 13 times (last in 2002), and has won 12 West Coast Conference regular-season titles (last in 2002) and three WCC Tournament crowns (last in 1994).
BEST IN THE WEST — Over the 30-season period from the 1978-79 season through the 2007-08 campaign, Pepperdine has proven itself as one of the top Division I programs on the West Coast. Of the 31 schools that currently play Division I basketball in California, Oregon or Washington, the Waves began the 2008-09 season ranking third overall in postseason appearances (16) and fifth in both wins (516) and winning percentage (.575) over the past 30 years.
WCC HALL OF HONOR — Pepperdine great Doug Christie will be among the first class inducted into the WCC Hall of Honor at the WCC Tournament in Las Vegas in March. Christie was a two-time All-American and WCC Player of the Year in 1991 and 1992. The other seven set to be inducted are Hank Gathers (Loyola Marymount), Frank Burgess (Gonzaga), Clive Charles (Portland), Carroll Williams (Santa Clara), Tom Meschery (Saint Mary’s), Bernie Bickerstaff (San Diego) and Joe Ellis (San Francisco).
WAVES IN THE PROS — Several former Pepperdine players have gone on to play in the NBA, most notably Dennis Johnson (the 1979 NBA Finals MVP) and Doug Christie (a 15-year NBA veteran who was a mainstay on the All-Defensive Team). This is the 33rd consecutive season where at least one Pepperdine alum has been on an NBA roster. Currently in the NBA is Yakhouba Diawara, now in his third season overall and his first with the Miami Heat. Alex Acker is on the Detroit Pistons’ roster for the second time, having also appeared briefly with the team in 2005-06. Some recent players have been playing in foreign countries, including Brandon Armstrong (Ukraine), Casey Crawford (Mexico), Tashaan Forehan-Kelly (New Zealand), Jelani Gardner (Greece), Kelvin Gibbs (Germany), Chase Griffin (Germany), Dana Jones (Switzerland) and Glen McGowan (Dominican Republic) and Levy Middlebrooks (Mexico). Robert "Hollywood" Turner, formerly a member of the Harlem Globetrotters, is now playing in Germany.
ABOUT PEPPERDINE — Pepperdine boasts a one-of-a-kind athletic department with unprecedented success for a school of its size. The Waves have won a total of nine NCAA championships in five different men’s sports — one of just 14 schools to have accomplished this feat. Of the 14, Pepperdine is the only non-BCS school and has by far the smallest enrollment. The majority of Pepperdine’s teams are ranked nationally year after year and several compete for conference and national titles.
