SportsHubLA

The sudden resignation of Loyola Marymount Men’s Basketball coach Rodney Tention provides the opportunity to discuss the (very) good, the bad, and the ugly of the West Coast Conference. This is a very good conference at the top and arguably 2008’s best mid-major conference in college basketball. The WCC is expected to (and definitely should) get three teams into the NCAA Tournament. All three, San Diego, Gonzaga, and St. Mary’s, are most definitely deserving of spot in the field of 65 .

But outside of the terrific play on the court, it’s the moves by different schools’ administration and coaches that have caught my attention. The resignations of LMU’s Tention and Vance Walberg of Pepperdine, along with the San Francisco’s “hiring” of legendary coach Eddie Sutton on an interim basis has arguably overshadowed the fine conference’s quality of play.

Credit coach Mike Tention for sticking out a tough season (unlike other coaches we’ve seen in collegiate and professional sports), one that culminated in an overall record of 30-61 over three seasons. Make no mistake about it, anytime you go 5-26 and lose 12 of your 14 conference seasons, it’s a rough year. And for Tention, it never quite made sense why the hard work he put in never translated to wins on the court.

Year one is usually the toughest for a coach. Tention was 12-18 in his 1^stseason at LMU, including a berth in the WCC Tournament Championship game. And even though their overall record was well below .500, the Lions were physical, tough, and didn’t play like a “losing team,” especially towards the end of the season when things really started to click. Coach Tention appeared the leader of a program on the rise, one that would soon be able to contend with mighty Gonzaga.

Unfortunately, his second year was a 13-19 season. Injuries decimated the LMU roster, in particular pre-season All-American senior Brandon Worthy. LMU would endure an eight-game losing streak and an 0-5 start in conference, both of which spelled doom to the Tention era. Throw in the graduation of Matthew Knight and the Lions concluded 2007 as losers of 19 of their final 21 games.

Meanwhile over in Malibu, Vance Walberg cited “family reasons” for his resignation in the middle of Pepperdine’s season. The resignation was abrupt, surprising the Pepperdine community. Beyond the timing, many questioned whether the reasons cited were actually legit. Character issues surrounded Walberg, including allegations of verbal and emotional abuse toward his players. In any event, the success predicted for the much heralded hire from Fresno City College just never happened.

Walberg was a sexy pick for Pepperdine. Throughout his career, he’d done nothing but win, and win big. He brought to Malibu an impressive pedigree, along with a system that would supposedly transcend the college game. Memphis coach John Calipari was one of many that sought out the hot commodity to implement his system into their programs. But for whatever reason, Walberg didn’t get nearly the same results as Calipari in Memphis.

He won just 14 games during his year and a half in Malibu and lost 35 (a sharp contrast to his Fresno City career, where he lost only 11 games in all), failing to even make it through a full recruiting class. Pepperdine was just beginning to gut the program and tailor it to Walberg’s needs upon his sudden departure. And with the Walberg experiment abruptly ended, the Waves are left in a bad situation. One bright side? New coach Tom Asbury and the Waves have in youth on their side. Pepperdine loses just one senior from the 2008 squad. Granted, it means he’s coaching almost the exact same team that finished 11-21 and was just 4-10 in conference play. But fingers crossed, it’s at least something to build on.

Which is more than I can say about San Francisco and Eddie Sutton. Its hard to see what they’re building in the Bay Area with the publicity stunt, excuse me, “hiring” of Sutton and his 798 wins on an interim basis after Jesse Evans took a leave of absence in December. A questionable hire, to say the least. It’s nearly impossible for any coach to step into that situation and have a profound impact. Even one boasting, in case SF hasn’t advertised it enough, 798wins. Beyond that, what could USF possibly offer Eddie Sutton, aside from the opportunity to pick up two wins and reach 800? Has anybody thought about the players in this situation? One can only imagine what a roller coaster this has been for the Dons hoop squad. And what’s going to happen next year? Will Coach Evans return from his leave of absence and reestablish some normalcy?

If not, maybe they can pluck Bobby Knight from the four letter network during the middle of the season so that he can start his work towards win #1000.

RH

Rahshaun Haylock is a production assistant for CBS2/KCAL9 Sports and does play-by-play and sports reporting for SportsNetUSA.net Internet radio. He likes to take a look at some of the less-talked about issues in SoCal sports

Discuss: