News Scrapbook 1986-1988

san Diego, CA (San Diego co.) Evening Tribune (Cir. D. 127,454)

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L ~-~~71\ T, rergs hoping for NCAA bid after upset los~ By Bou d r Pepperdine's Ed Allen. The final first round, Pepperdine advances his hand m Thompson ~. face for The Daiy Califom,an seconds ticked away, and the to the WCAC tournament final whenever he shot the ball. Waves had registered their sec- against Santa Clara, a 55-50 vie- Thompson, named the WCAC SAN 1-RANCI CO - Their h ond straight tournament upset, tor over St. Mary's. Player of the Year earlier this downing the Toreros 64-63. Id week, could manage only two of

The Waves roll to major upset By Kirk Kenney Tribune Sportswriter S AN FRANCISCO seats. They're tossing in their sleep. They're the USO Toreros, and they don't know 1f they're going to the NCAA Tournament. USO, the West Coast Athletic Con- ference's regular-season champion, joined a number of Division I teams on the bubble of uncertainty when it WCAC tourney was ehminated from th,e WCAC tour- nament by Pepperdine 64-63 last night. Before last night's semifinals loss at USF's Memorial Gym, the Toreros were in control of their post-season tournament destiny. No longer. Pepperdine (12-17), the tourna- ment's seventh-seeded team, is now the team poised to win the confer- ence tournament, and secure the au- tomatic NCAA bid that accompanies the title. Santa Clara (17-13),which defeated St. Mary's 55-50 in last night's other semifinal game, will play the Waves for the championship tonight at USF. USO (24-5) will now gain entrance to the NCAA Tournament only if 1t is one of 35 at-large teams chosen by the NCAA's nine-member selection panel. Twenty-nine teams will gain auto- matic berths to the 64-team tourna- ment via regular-season or tourna- ment championships. The committee will fill the remainder of the field They're biting their fingernails. They're squirming in their

rt are not the only things the r •ros of the University Qt'...San Diego w1ll leave in San Francisco. SD also will depart without its 14-game winning streak, without the We t Coast Athletic Con- f ence basketball title, and without the certainty of an NCAA po ·t-season tournament bid. All this happened in a matter of seven econds, when Danny Means' off-balance layup curled off the rim and into the hands

"We knew they wou after us, everyone is shooting for us," Torero center Scott Thomp- son said. "We were on top of the world with a 14 _game winning streak and the regular-season championship. We did the best come "Defensive pressure was the key," said Harrick. "It was, per- haps, our best defensive effort of the year. Levy (Middlebrooks) played very good defense. He got we could."

his game-high 19 points in the final six minutes. Those two came with 2:23 remaining, when Means fed Thompson inside for a short hook shot, cutting the Waves' Peppedine increased the lead to three when Jimmf< Harrick, the coach's son, was ouled by Paul Leonard and converted a pair of lead to 62-61.

"I think it helped that we have before," noted Pepperdine coach Jim Harrick. "We played Duke, Kansas and DePaul before. To- night was just the salad, though. We have to get ready for tommor- row's game, which is the dinner. With its upset of USD, the regu- lar-season champions, and sec- ond-place finisher Gonzaga in the been in these tournaments N xt k · th d rt " e wee 1s e esse .

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El Cajon, CA (San Diego Col Daily Californian (Cir. D 100,271 l

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UCLA in Pac-IO tournament at Pauley Pavilion Miller collected 39 points in 99-83 victory over Ari zona State, but former UCLA coach John Woodcr. thinks the Bruins will be better next year with ut Miller. See Nick Canepa's column, Page B Ii

USD guard Paul

TOUR AME 1' UPDATES -

Leonarn l'epperdine guard Donny Moore ',CAC ournament at USF's Memorial Gym as Waves weri.t on to upset the Toreros 64-63. Reggie Miller (left) scores for (above) claase a loose ball in l\lld

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Continued From B-1 ;zS\~~ with at-large entries. The field will be announced tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. Will the NCAA smile on the Toreros? "You know about as much about that as I do," said USD coach Hank Egan after poor free-throw and out- side shooting led to the Toreros' first loss in 15 games. "I just hope that the record we had and the performance we had over the course of the season has some weight (on the decision). "We've played pretty well over the course of a long season. We've had a lot of close games. and a lot of emo- tional things have happened. We strung together 14 straight wins, which is not an easy thing to do. We had a high level of performance for 14 games. I think that will be worth something. I'm hoping it will." If it isn't good enough, it is be- lieved the Toreros will be invited to the 32-team National Invitational Tournament. The NIT overlooked last year's 19-9 Toreros team, but will find it hard to do the same thing this year if the Toreros aren't select- d to play in the NCAA Tournament. 1:he NIT will begin announcing it's selections tomorrow shortly after the NCAA field has been determined. "I would be shocked if USD didn't ~t picked by the NIT," WCAC com- missioner Michael Gilleran said. "The only way I would see USO get- ting passed over is if the entire field fpr the NIT was east of the Mississip- pi. My gut feeling is that there's no ay they won't get picked. t I still think it's 50-50 that 1 get picked for the NCAA

who had 14 points, also missed a one- plus-one. Also to be considered was the Toreros' outside shooting, which was so important to providing the team the balance that enabled it Toreros to win the WCAC with a 13-1 record. USD's outside shooters made just one shot outside the key in the first half. They made just five outside shots in the game. USO made 10 three-point shots in last week's 99-84 first-round tournament win against Loyola Marymount. The Toreros made just one three-pointe last night, and it didn't arrive i;ntil mid- way through the second half. Finally, it was a Pepper ine team on the rise positJomnf 1tsel( for the win. In the Waves' 69-66 loss to the Toreros in the teams fir:;t meeting, the Waves' backcourt :.iluation was unsettled. Last 111ght, freshman guard Craig Davis scored 14 points and was 3-for-3 from three-point range. In Pepperdine's 78-73 loss in the teams' second meeting this sea- son, a lower leg injury limited Waves' junior forward Levy Middle- brooks to 14 minutes on the court in which he scored three points and grabbed no rebounds. Last night, Middlebrooks played 40 minutes, col- lecting a game-high 11 rebounds and scoring 18 points to share team-high scoring honors with senior forward Eric White. "It wasn't lack of effort and we weren't flat," said Egan, reflecting on his team's performance. "They got after it and we got after it, and they got after it better."

ing a timeout. Means took a handoff from Thompson on the · right side and drove the middle, but pressure by the Waves forced him to make an awk- ward layup attempt from the left side of the basket. The shot was short with the rebound bouncing off the hands of Means and Toreros forward Mark Manor before landing in the grasp of Pepperdine's Craig Davis as time expired. "I knew the clock was running and I had to take the shot," said Means, the only Toreros starter who isn't a senior. "It was open for a second, but a guy came across to cover and I made it more difficult than it should have been. I thought I had it made. My heart sank when it missed." Said Egan: "He's a little upset about not making a layup, but I thought Danny Means showed a lot of courage. There are a lot of people out there who would like you to be- lieve there are a million people who would like to take the last shot. It's not true. You don't find too many people in the course of your life who would. I appreciate his courage to take the ball to the hole to be the hero or the goat." By now means should Means' miss be blamed for USD's loss, however. The Toreros, who trailed 36-32 at the half, shot just 63.6 percent from the free-throw line. And they were 6-for- 12 from the line in the second half. Thompson led all scorers with 19 points, but he was 3-for-7 from the free-throw line and missed the front end of two one-plus-ones. Leonard,

Tournament." Among the reasons supporters cite for USD's inclusion in the NCAA Tournament are the Toreros' 24-5 record, one of the nation's best marks, their 23 victories against Di- vision I opponents and their recent 14-game winning streak, which was the nation's third-longest. However, the strength of the Toreros' schedule will be closely in- spected by the NCAA as will the number of victories the team has against so-called quality opponents. USO defeated every team in the WCAC twice with the exception of Gonzaga, which was 1-1 against the Toreros. USD's best two other wins were against Utah and Boise State in ' the season's first two games. "I'm optimistic myself," USO cen- ter Scott Thompson said "I'm confi- dent. I think we deserve to be there, There's a lot of things to take into consideration." Said Toreros guard Paul Leonard: "I agree with Scott. We played well all year. We hung in there in close games and we beat some tough teams along the way on the road. I think they should give us along look." BJurted out Egan: "They should pick us." The Toreros wouldn't be worrying about the prospects of the NCAA picking and choosing today if sopho- more guard Danny Means had made a layup with three seconds remain- ing last night. A backcourt call against Pepper- dine gave USO the ball with seven seconds remaining. The Toreros in- bounded the ball at halfcourt follow- -~---

'8&oc:iated Press University of San Diego guard Paul Leonard, left, and Pepperdine guard Donny M>ore chase own a loose ball during their Friday night semifinal game of the West Coast Athletic Conference basketball tournament. The Toreros lost 64-63. irOREROS From 1B

USD had to battle back from a six-point deficit, and took a one- point lead when Means stole a Craig Davis pass and hit on an acrobatic layup. Mark Manor eX!ended that lead to three points with two free throws, but Davis countered with a three-point goal to tie the score at 54-all with eight minutes to play. Middlebrooks, who also added 18 points, scored a pair of baskets, then the Waves hit four free throws to extend their lead to 62-58. Means and Leonard missed from the three-point area, and the Toreros never could catch up. "We started playing good de- fense in the second half. But we just were not able to do the job offensively," said Egan. "We struggled to get back in the game, and then our free-throw shooting, which has been good all year, escaped us." USD shot just 45.3 percent from the field, while Pepperdine hit on 53.5 percent, despite the Toreros' ranking as the nation's top team in field goal defense. The Toreros made 14 of 20 free throws, but just six of 12 in the second half.

cord was not good enough to get USD into the National Invita- tional Tournament. "With the 14-game win streak and our overall record, I think we deserve to get in (the NCAA)," said Leonard, who finished with 14 pointi.. ''We have won a lot of games, we have won on the road, we have beaten some good teams, so they should give us a look." Harrick, who is hoping to coach the Waves to their third con- secutive NCAA appearence, agreed. "They are a solid ballclub all the way around," he said. "They should unequivicolly be in the toumamenrt. They are the third or fourth best team in the West, behind UNLV and UCLA, and about even with Arizona." Unfortunately, that is all speculation. USO would have perferred to win and hold its destiny in its own hands. After Thompson opened the game with a three-point play, the Toreros would not see the lead again until the 10:minute mark of the second half. Eric White carried Pep- perdine's offensive load in the first half, scorin~ 12 of his team- high 18 points m the first half, giving the Waves a 36-32 lead.

USO forward Nils Madden then worked a pick-and-roll to per- fection, dishing to Leonard for a la~p to tighteri the score to 64-63 with 1:38 left. The Toreros had three chances to take the lead, but ,Thompson missed the front end of a one-and- one, Leonard had the ball stolen by Allen, then Means missed his last-second shot after a backcourt violation gave USD a final chance. "We knew they would put a lot of man-to-man pressure on us," USD coach Hank Egan said. "We just wanted to get the best shot we could. There's a million kids who dream about taking that last shot of the game and winning it, but few will try it. You can be a hero or a goat." Middlebrooks thought USO would try to get the ball to Thompson. "But he came up to get the ball," said the Waves center. "I figured they would go to a guard then. I started praying and count- ing down the seconds. When I heard the buzzer it was just high fives." USO now must wait to see of its 24-5 mark is good enough to gain an at-large berth in the NCAA tournament. Last year, a 19-9 re-