The men’s basketball team is looking for a fresh start with familiar faces this summer and really the only way is up.
After a dismal two-and-a-half months of West Coast Conference (WCC) play in which the young Waves (7-24 3-11) lost their last 12 games by an average of 17.8 points a contest the season mercifully came to an end. They suffered defeat in their first-round WCC Tournament game a lost to rival Loyola Marymount 87-84.
“We were extremely disappointed in how some of the older veteran guys finished the season Associate Head Coach Marty Wilson said. We should have shot the ball and defended better in terms of one-on-one matchups. It was individual pride that let us down at the end of the season.”
According to kenpom.com a top and influential basketball rating Web site Pepperdine finished the season ranked 289th out of a possible 347 teams this season. The Waves were near the bottom in turnover ratio effective defensive field goal percentage (both 330th) and effective offensive field goal percentage (322th). Pepperdine was also one of the youngest teams in Division I (318th).
As a team the Waves shot 39.4 percent for the year and 34 percent from three-point range— although a 1 percent improvement from last year good only for last place in the WCC.
“We didn’t use the ‘youth’ excuse this year Wilson said. It was more inexperience than anything else on our team.”
There were some post-season bright spots. Sophomore guard Keion Bell had one of the better statistical seasons for the Waves in recent memory averaging 18.3 points five rebounds and 3.2 assists in all 31 games this season. Those numbers were good enough for an All-WCC honorable mention along with junior swingman Mychel Thompson.
Playing abroad and summer plans
The Waves will travel to Italy for 10 days at the beginning of May to start the summer offseason program. Basketball programs are allowed a trip overseas every four years— the Vance Walberg-led Waves took a trip to Switzerland in 2006. The team also gets an extra 10 practice days to prepare for the trip which will be a good gauge for where the team is to start the offseason Wilson said.
“Hopefully we’ll get a good taste of competition with some of the older teams [in Italy] Wilson said. It will be a good experience for us to practice before and get back on the court.”
After the trip most players will stay close to campus and enroll in summer school Wilson said. While the coaches cannot directly work with the players they will still have specific offseason workout plans and basketball drills the coaches can monitor.
“This offseason we need to get tougher mentally individually and as a team Wilson said. We focused a lot on getting physically stronger last summer but we need to change the team’s mindset so that everything is competitive.”
A majority of the players will also compete in one of two Los Angeles-based college summer leagues. Last summer Bell led one of the leagues in scoring while Thompson and sophomore guard Lorne Jackson also performed well.
The leagues only allow two same-college players per team and the usually high-scoring games feature very little defense Wilson said.
“The summer leagues are both good and bad for our guys Wilson said. It’s a five-on-five game of one-on-one.”
‘Harold’-ed recruit
The Waves are returning every player from last season so only one new face can join them and it’s a good one. Six-foot-7 Pasadena native Hector Harold committed to the Waves early on in his senior year. Harold is a top-50 small forward in the 2010 class according to recruiting Web sites Scouts Inc. and Scouts.com.
“[Harold] is a very good all-around player Wilson said. He’s not great at anything but very good [at] everything.”
Harold played his final two years of high school back East at Northfield Mount Hermon High School a preparatory school in Connecticut where he averaged 14 points and five rebounds per game.
“The fact that he is from Southern California made it easy for us to get him Wilson said. He wanted to be close to home and out of the snow back east.”
