GARRETT WAIT and NOAH GODWIN
Sports Editor and Associate Sports Editor
Pepperdine’s men’s basketball has been a source of great pride and angst for both of us. So as we return from a winter break in which the team had a few victories slip through its grasp, we wanted to discuss the state of our program.
Garrett: This could be the year the team finally breaks through in the West Coast Conference. The Waves are 12-5 and off to a quick start so far in the WCC with two early wins against University of San Diego and University of San Francisco.
Glen McGowan, Yakhouba Diawara and Alex Acker may be three of the top-five players in the conference. Any one of those guys could get major minutes on any team in the country.
Glen is already labeled as a big-time NBA prospect. Pat Riley and Mitch Kupchak even paid a visit to Malibu to see if G-Mac could help out one of their teams.
The difference between last year’s unfulfilled promise and this year has been the play of the other guys surrounding the big three.
Everybody Paul Westphal throws on the floor seems to come up with big plays at the right times, especially at Firestone Fieldhouse where we haven’t lost a game. Yes, the rotations (I mean who thought Russell Hicks would be able to make the kind of impact he has?) may leave some of us scratching our heads, but something’s obviously working.
I say this is the year the team does it. I predict that they break through against Gonzaga at home and beat St. Mary’s twice. I believe in what the coaches are doing.
Noah: The coaches are doing a great job, especially with our big players. Most of us thought we had no centers when the season started, and now we have three who all provide pretty good presence at both ends of the court in Henry, Hicks and Pinegar. And that trio does not included injured Derrick Grubb, who was expected to start at the position.
Of course it helps that McGowan and Diawara draw the opposing teams’ best inside players, but Coach Westphal and Coach Nielsen do deserve credit for the quality minutes they’ve generated from the center position.
But we’ve lost several close games, and traditionally teams with terrific point guards excel in close games. Pepperdine has three capable point guards in Lea, Griffin and Costain, but through 17 games the coaches still haven’t figured out which player they want handling the ball down the stretch in close games.
Gonzaga has that steadying point guard in Derek Raivio, and St. Mary’s definitely does in super-quick E.J. Rowland. But I guess we could just let Alex Acker handle the ball in the clutch. He played some point last year, right? Westphal’s motion offense is fun to watch even if we don’t win all of our conference games. But we’ve got Keith Jarbo, so no need to worry about that.
01-13-2005
