By Scott Trevathan
Contributing Writer
For some reason the Pepperdine men’s basketball team likes to take a game that looks like it should be an easy win and make it a close, nail-biting victory.
The fact is the team plays flat out horribly during the last few minutes of almost every game, and this is the main reason that we have lost so many close games this year. I wish that I was one of those fans who knows nothing about the game and that any moron could convince me that the second half was only 16 minutes long — I would think that we won every game!
The men’s basketball team had trouble with an atrocious LMU team — I mean I think that our feeble baseball team can even beat LMU at sports (and that is saying a lot). Everyone knows that LMU is not known for its basketball program, but for some reason they had no trouble handing it to Pepperdine.
Loyola Marymount out-rebounded us, scored more points in the paint than us, scored more points off of turnovers than us, scored more second chance points, and flat out played better defense than Pepperdine. It is hard to imagine our team playing any worse defense than we have this season — I can’t wait to see if Gonzaga can drop 120 points against us in the tournament.
Let’s take a brief look at the last few seconds of the game to see just how bad a team can play when the game is on the line. The Waves had a six-point lead in the closing seconds of the game and during that time we missed 75 percent of our free throws, committed two fouls, and turned the ball over.
If we continue to play like this during the end of close games, there is no way that we will be able to continue the season with a sense of dignity. I just hope that the team can realize the game is actually 40 minutes long.
Here is a look at a few individual performances — both good and bad. Terrance Johnson once again came up huge with 20 points and one rebound. That’s right I said one rebound — that sounds like not very many rebounds but when you can get any sort of non-scoring effort from Johnson you have to be happy.
Cody Horning played maybe the best game of his short season even though the box score doesn’t show it. Horning came into the game and actually played what real basketball players like to call defense. Horning had five rebounds in only 13 minutes — for you Communication majors that is equal to about 15 rebounds a game. Alex Acker played a great game and continued to be one of the few players on the team who plays on both ends of the court.
We have now come to the point in my article when I have run out of things to comment about on the weekend’s game, so I am going to just make a few random comments about the basketball team that will probably cause more faculty members to write outrageous letters to the editor.
First of all, with all of the roster positions filled and no one on our team even close to being good enough to play in the NBA, what is the recruiting situation looking like for next year? I know that we have plenty of really short players, but maybe we should recruit a big man who can score and actually play his defensive position. I am not a huge fan of Derick Grubb’s offensive efforts so why is he getting so much playing time — it can’t be because he is moving down the court at amazing speeds.
Another problem that I have with our team is the whole missing element of the team. Coach Paul Westphal is a great NBA coach, because he knows how to handle egotistical, talented players. Our team has more than its share of those, what we need is more talent.
Even though I haven’t made very many friends while writing this article I am still impressed with this year’s team and I wish them best of luck entering the WCC playoffs.
Submitted February 26, 2004