N AA D1v1s1on I Basketball Tournament seemed like a m1lhon miles away for the University of San Diego men's basketball team thr road to the ame tournament a mere 40 mmutc · 11way for the Toreros . Thr turnabout 1s due to USO' ·sudden success playing in front of ho ttl nowds on the road Where the Toreros wer once 2 7, they have won thr tra1ght away from horn and five straight overall Th(• most r nt ro d wm was a 71-69 double-overtime thrill r h re at Gon,aga University against the third- pl.icc Bulldog Saturday night m We t Coast Athletic Conft'r nc play " I don' t know what it is, " said Torero 6--foot-7 forward Mike Whitmarsh " I'm just glad we decided to turn it In thr day
around "
LOS ANGELES TIMES MAR 5 198+' )breros Return on Top of WCAC By TIM GILLMAN, Times . taff Writer SAN DIEGO-Though forecasters predicted clear sky, it was unexp£>ctedly overcast earl~ Sunday after- noon as the plane carrying the Univers1li)' of San Diego men's basketball team headed toward Lindbergh Field. By the time the plane landed, the weather was as the forecasters said: clear and beauuful. It's been that kind of a season for USO, which ts in first place m the West Coast Athletic Conference and has won at least a share of the conference Utle for the first time. The Toreros' sky has cleared many times thi season when things looked bleak. The team, returning from road wms over the University of Portland and Gonzaga University, had a small group of fans waited to greet them. USO (17-9, 8 -3 ), on a five-game wm streak, may be headed to the NCAA Division 1 playoffs, the same tournament UCLA may fail to make. . "We have earned our way," USD Coach Jim Brovelh said. "It 1s a tremendous accomplishment. The team Just doesn't give in. I said m the beginning, after I scouted all the league teams that every game, I thought, would be very, very clo e. And I've said that you had to be very, very lucky and fortunate to win the close games and the overtime games and stay away from injuries. We have done that " USD had a slow start finishing the nonconference season at 9-6. But the Toreros became visibly more confident during the WCAC campaign. Th~t confidence has made the difference thiS year, according to guard Please see USD, Pase 10
c AN DI GO UNION
the Sports Center. A USO win would make it the outnght WCAC champions and give the Toreros an the automatic NCAA tournament berth. St. Mary's beat USO, 79-71, m Moraga, Cahf. lastmonth. If USO loses, both teams will be tied at 8-4. They will be declared league co-champions and will have a playoff at a neutral site-probably on March l0-to determine who gets the NCAA berth. . "We want to win Thursday because we want to wm the championship outright," Prunty said. "I think we will be ready to play. ~o team in the conference has beaten us twice this year. And, I have to believe that the place ts gomg to be a madhouse. I can't wait until Thursday night. We are all really excited." The team's success has only heightened rumors that Brovelli, who played at the University of San Francisco. will be offered the USF job at season's end. USF, which temporanly discontinued intercollegiate basketball, will come back to the WCAC for the 1985 season. USF is hkely to hire a coach after this season. Brovelli said he has not been offered the job. "There have always been rumors in the papers, the San Francisco Chronicle and up and down the line because it 1s open and they are takmg applications. The only thing I'm thinking about right now is USD and what we are domg m the league.
USD Continued from Pase 1
5
USD torrid on road, awaits big home test By Bill Center 1arr Wrlur
John Prunty, the only four -year senior on the team. In its first four seasons in the WCAC, USD was known for losing close games, particularly on the road, but this season USD was 4-2 on the road and 4-1 at home. "We have generated confidence and everybody knows their roles," Prunty said. "We are all playing Y.'ithin our roles and we have great chemistry. It gets down to the end of the game and nobody worries whether or not we are going to pull it out." The last three games, all on the road, were critical, and close. On Feb. 23, USO won at Santa Clara, 63-61. Thursday the Toreros beat Portland, 63-56, and Saturday night they topped Gonzaga in Spokane, 71-69, in double overtime. These were heart-stopping wins. For exam- ple, USO had never beaten Santa Clara at Santa Clara and the Broncos, with a tough schedule, had compiled a 13-1 home record. "The Santa Clara win," Brovelli said, "was the one that really got the momentum going. We knew then that we could win on the road no matter who we played. 'Those three road games-Santa Clara, Portland and "I was overwhelmed," he said. "It was hard-fought and then you go mto two overtimes with both teams doing what it takes to win. Then the jumper by (jumor guard All Moscatel won it. We knew that St. Mary's ~ad lost (to Portland) since they played m the afternoon The players themselves are amazed by the way they have improved and sometimes don't quite know how to r.!act to 1t. "Before the Gonzaga game," Prunty said, "Anthony Reuss asked me if we had ever beaten Gonzaga at Gon7,aga and I said 'no, but we are doing a lot of things this year we have never done before.' " Brovelli, in his 11th season at USO, isn 't bashful in his praise. "They are the best team I have ever coached," he aid. USO will get another chance to prove that Thursday night when it hosts St. Mary's College (12-15, 7-4 l at
Cosentino. "We kept telling them one game at a time and they played it th'at way .•. one game after another." For the past month, Brovelli has said at ~me time during each pregame talk, "This JS the most important game of the season." In the locker room before the Gonzaga game, Brovelli asked for questions. "Coach," responded forward Anthony Reuss. ''Is this the most important game of the season?" "My 'tonigbt's-game-is-the-biggest- we've-ever-played' line has become a run- ning JOke," said BroveUL "I knew every leagu£> game would be close and would go to the team that put itself in position to win at the end. "That is what we have done." USO is 5-0 in the second half of the WCAC season. Since the middle of last sea- son, USD is 12-5 in WCAC games. The Toreros are 8-3 in league play this year, although they have been behind in the sec- ond half of seven of their eight victories. Whitmarsh remains the star of the USD team. He leads the Toreros in scoring, re- boundmg, assists and steals and is among the top three in the WCAC in all four cate- gories. "But the keys are a lot of other things " said Brovelli. "Few teams change defen~ as often as we do, but it only takes one guy to look to the bench to make the change . .. they read each other that well. "It's getting so that when we have a timeout I ask the players, 'Which offense and defense do you feel best in?' " Late in the Portland game, Whitmarsh directing the offense from the point that b~ has been playing more and more, signalled to Brovelli to send in Reuss at a key moment. Saturday night at Gonzaga, Whit- marsh and Brovelli discussed strategy along the sideline while the ball was in play. "We've got players on the court thinking through the game like a coach " said Bro- velli. "For a coach, it's a drea~ come true. This is the most consistent team I've ever coached. We've had 2½ had games all sea- son: San Diego State, Santa Barbara and the second half of the North Arizona game. "We're in the top third of the country in wins. That's an incredible accomplishment for this university."
Scott Thompson was leaning h!S 6--foot-ll frame against a locker Saturday night grinnmg one of those gnns that only a col'. lege fr hman could get away with, "Who would have ever thought this would happen?" said Thompson. "A lot of people out there are going to be shaking their heads. If someone had put down money on our odds, they would have made a fortun " Mom nts earher, the University of San Diego had defeated Gonzaga 71-69 in two overtim to clinch a tie for the West Coast Athletic Conference title. USO, which in five previous season had failed to post a wmmng record as a Division I team bad just run its record to 17-9 and mov~ to within one victory of an NCAA tournament berth. USO, a team with no radio or television package and one of the smallest gyms in major college basketball, is riding the crest of a five-game winning streak, claiming its title with three straight victories on the road. "Nothing in my coaching career tops the past three weeks," Toreros coach Jim Bro- velli said yesterday as USD flew home from Washington to begin preparations for Thursday night's regular-season finale agamst St. Mary's at USO The Toreros were a game down to St. Mary's when both clubs headed into the toughest three-game road swing in the WCAC. St. Mary's lost two of the three. USO swept, winning for the first time at both Santa Clara (which had lost only one previous home game this season) and Gon- zaga. "We went out and won it where you are supposed to lose it," said Brovelli. "Simply stated, that is quite an achievement." hard to put my feelings into words," said forward Mike Whitmarsh. "At the end of the season, we've had a lot of confidence m each other and ourselves as individuals that we've never had before. "It's everyone doing their job. Some in spot duty, others out of position, some on the bench. But there isn't a player who isn't contributing something." "After we won at Santa Clara, our kids ~gan believing in the possibility of win- nmg the title," said assistant coach John :·u·s
"I have talked to people up there because obviously I Gonzaga-are the toughest m the conference. You ~ave grew up m the area but there have been no specifics and to give the players all the credit because they did 1t. . nothing concrete yet Let's wait unul the end of the Brovelli himself was dazzled by the wm over season." Gonzaga.
-
TIIESTRIBUNE
San Diego, Monday, March 5, 1984
C-6
SanDiego Notepad
~Indy driver Mosley dies in highway crash
Fallbrook race car driver Mike Mosley, a veteran of 15 Indianapolis 500s, was killed Saturday when his van rolled down an embankment and caught fire off a remote portion of Highway 79 in the desert, authorities said. Mosley's teen-age son, Michael, was also in the van but escaped with only bruises. According to the California Highway Patrol, the 37. year--0ld Mosley apparently lost control of the vehicle
Coast Athletic Conference, the University of San Diego today finds itself on top of the WCAC standings. Now all the Toreros have to do is stay there. That's the mission ahead for coach Jim Brovelli's club, which can wrap up the conference championship with a victory Thursday night at home in the Sports Center against St. Mary's. It all boils down to this: With one game left on the regular-season schedule, USD has a conference mark of 8-3; St. Mary's is second at 7-4. Should the Toreros defeat the Gaels, they would win the WCAC title outright and gain an automatic berth in the Division I NCAA playoffs. If the Gaels win, the two would play again Saturday night at Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles with the NCAA playoff berth going to the winner. The Toreros thus enter their final regular-season game riding a five-game winning streak, including a 71-69 double-overtime victory Saturday night over Gonzaga in Spokane, Wash. USD's last defeat was a 79- 71 decision at St. Mary's last month. In that game, Torero all-conference forward Mike Whitmarsh led the way with 29 points.
about 7 p.m. Saturday on Highway 79 near Aguanga, near the San Diego/Riverside county line. Debbie Driscoll, a family friend, said Mos- ley and his son were re- turning from an outing in the Borrego desert with their three-wheel recreational vehicles • when the mishap oc- curred. Mosley's best finish in the Indy 500 (he began competing in 1968) was third place in 1979. He
C4 TIMES-ADVOCATE, Escondido, Ca., Sunday, March 4, 1984 Toreros bullish on WCAC crovvn r~e A ociated Press
For the first time since It joined the West Coast Athletic Association five years ago, the University of San Diego finds itself tn a commanding position - leading the confer- ence with a game to play. The Toreros assumed the leadership in the WCAC by beating Gonzaga 71-69 in dou- ble overtime on Saturday night in Spokane. The victory ups USD's conference record to 8-3 - one game ahead of St. Mary's, which was upset by Gonzaga on saturday. USD and St. Mary's will decide the title the conference's representative in the NCAA Playoffs on Thursday night when they meet at USO, west coast roundup USD had a 41·38 haltlme advantage, but Gonzaga tied the game at the end of regua- latlon at 61. It was tied at 65 at the end of the first overtime. Senior Mike Whitmarsh paced the Toreros over Gonzaga with a game-high 18 'points. Junior Anthony Reuss added 14 as did Al Mo catel. Jophn Stockton paced Gonzaga with 14 points. USO ls 17-9 overall, there best record since they joined the NCAA 's D1vislon I five e on ao -'-''-----
MIKE MOSLEY
Killed in auto crash started in the middle of the front row in last year's race with a qualifying time of 205.372 mph. The native of Oklahoma City won bis first major Indy car race, the Trenton 200, in April 1971. In 1970, the United States Auto Club named him most im- proved driver for finishing fourth in the year's point standings. . TOREROS GO FOR_TITLE -After ibowing steady unprovement through its first four seasons in the West
THE TRIBUNE
1984
MAR 6
® Pl.AYER MleWhllmtrsh AnthonyRM5 MrrtBosflc ScoltTilon'4)1CO ,II- a.tsca-r .1cM PMIY Davel/am Erlc"'41Sselman llaloC:0-onodo R(lldy llrio.leV IIIIPtnlold NllsModden Steve Kralman JoeFIVl TORE1!0$ 117-1) c,ponent,
Toreros' Statistics
-
PPG IIJ 111 IOJ 7J M lJ 0
PTS
PF 61 71 ll $j so 55 l7 JI
BL
TO 6S JS 59 41 29 45
ST 42 II 31
A
R RPG
FTP .714 .650 ,6t2 .l4S .511 JIii, .144 .605 ]'11 .333 .500 ,000 .soo
FT
FGf' .537 .620 .458 .506 JII Ml A94 ASS .636 .556 .l4S 1.000
FG
G MIi
9 9 6 2 2 0 0 4 2
157 !I 13 39 43 51 q
7A 6.l 17 4.7 1.1 u OJ 1.9 0.2 0.9 OJ OJ u
193 170 69 123 2t 2S
121).168 67-103 5'-71 24-« n-37 32~ 77-32 26-4
112-339 12~200 110-240 IJ,114 69-135 10-1:14 41.IJ 20.jj
36.2 JIJ 32.9 29A 17J 22.1 IU 11,1 2.3
26 26 26 26 15 26 26 21
11S 774 190 159 152 109
u II 2t IS 10
l6
10 IS
21 39 16
71 22 23 IJ
3A 2.2 u u u o.6 0.1 0] 7U 617
14
4 • , 3 s
3 , 0 I I
J
6 7
2 3 ,
1-11 J-9 1-2
7.11 ll>-11 6-11
10 17
II
1.3 2J 2.l 3.3 1.7 It.I IU
I 0
I 2 7
I
' s 4 0
l j MIKE WHITMARSH Top USD scorer
9 4
2 2 4 0
H 1-2 0-1 H
2-2 2-S 2-4 H 711 171
• J,2 10
I
11
MO .soo ,000 Jli .411
2 0
I 0
10
0,9 1.0
I
9 3
.llOO .llOO J7S .636
0
0
J u u
JI.I m
1134
74
Iii M4
411 Sil
Ill 154
ltt-571 Jn·Sli
Ill " Ill'
114
419
It!
Ablrevlallons- G· Gomes Min· Averoqe minutes per oome. FG: Field Goal~ FGP: Field Goal Pertenfooe. FT: Free Throws. Fl1': Free Throw percernitoe. R: Rebounds. RPG: Rebounds Per Gome. A: Assists. PF: P~I Fools, ST: steols. TO: Ttl'novers. Bl: Shols Blocked. PTS: Points. PPG: Points Per Gome,