Seven Big West men’s basketball coaches joined counterparts from six other southern California institutions to discuss the upcoming season at the annual Wooden Award College Basketball Tip-Off Luncheon at the Los Angeles Athletic Club.
Included among the assembled throng of more than 200 were first-year Big West head coaches Dedrique Taylor of Cal State Fullerton, Cal State Northridge’s Reggie Theus and Dennis Cutts of UC Riverside. The trio joined incumbents Joe Callero of Cal Poly, Long Beach State’s Dan Monson, UC Irvine’s Russell Turner and Bob Williams of UC Santa Barbara. Coaching representatives from Loyola Marymount, Pepperdine, San Diego, San Diego State, UCLA and USC also were in attendance.
With new NCAA legislation moving up the start date for a team’s first official practice by more than two weeks, the coaches traded barbs, reflected on the successes and challenges from last season, and touched on what to look for in 2013-14. The first day of practice begins on Saturday, Sept. 28.
Here’s a sampling of what the Big West coaching contingent shared at the luncheon.
TALL ORDER
UC Irvine’s Russell Turner begins his fourth season as head coach coming off one of the most successful seasons in program history. The Anteaters won 21 games to tie for the third-most in a season, and made their first postseason appearance in 11 years by playing in the CollegeInsider.com Tournament (CIT). UCI recorded its first postseason victory in 27 years with an 80-71 victory in the CIT first round versus High Point.
So what do the ‘Eaters have in store for an encore?
Well, a lot of height for starters.
“We’ve got three seven-foot guys on the team,” said Turner, who then referenced freshman Mamadou Ndiaye. The Dakar, Senegal native stands 7-6 and has an 8-foot, 3-inch wingspan.
Turner should know. He stood on a chair to do the measurements.
Extra leg space will be at a premium as far as transportation is concerned. “If anyone is in the market for seats, we need to remove a few from the team bus,” Turner quipped.
In addition to being tall, Ndiaye is versed in a number of languages – five, to be exact. He can speak French, Arabic, English and two different African dialects.
Turner would just as soon not witness another one of Ndiaye’s apparent talents, that of acrobat. During the summer, Ndiaye did a backflip into a shallow area of the pool and had his coach gasping.
NEW LOOK
The 51-year-old facility that the Cal State Northridge men’s basketball team plays in, the Matadome, has received significant upgrades recently. New video display boards, a scoreboard above center court, wall graphics, and a brand new floor with redesigned court have improved the venue’s overall aesthetics and functionality, making the place more attractive for recruits and fans alike.
First-year Matador head coach Reggie Theus has his own blueprint for improvements. While some elements of the roster offer a solid foundation for success, other areas need reconstruction.
“When I came here, I thought we were young and small,” said Theus. “We got a lot older and bigger.”
Theus brought in three Division I transfers with significant experience and added bulk to an otherwise undersized roster. Amir Garrett, a 6-6 guard who played two seasons at St. John’s, gives the Matadors a big presence in the backcourt. Six-foot-10 center Kevin Johnson played one season at Seton Hall, while fellow 6-10 forward Devonte Elliott joined the group after three years in the rotation at Nevada.
All three players are southern California natives who are returning home to play for Theus, a product of Inglewood High School.
Theus, who played and coached under two recent Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame inductees in Jerry Tarkanian and Rick Pitino, credited the vision of CSUN president Dr. Dianne F. Harrison and Director of Athletics Dr. Brandon E. Martin as a key reason for his arrival.
Ultimately, he knows what is at stake. “In the end, it’s your program,” he said. “It’s your responsibility for everything that goes on in this program, and that gets me fired up.”
THE DEAN SPEAKETH
After 15 seasons pacing the sidelines at UC Santa Barbara, Bob Williams is officially the dean of Big West head coaches now that Pacific’s Bob Thomason retired following last season.
He’s pretty much seen it all. But as he surveyed the room and pinpointed all the new faces, he was in awe.
“These guys are replacing very good coaches,” Williams said, referring to UCLA (Steve Alford), USC (Andy Enfield), Cal State Fullerton (Dedrique Taylor), Cal State Northridge (Reggie Theus) and UC Riverside (Dennis Cutts). “But look at how much better looking these guys are. This is the GQ group, it’s unbelievable.”
He even cracked that Theus was a “male model.”
After graciously thanking the Wooden family for putting on the event, Williams ran through the Gaucho non-conference schedule, and it’s a challenging one.
NCAA Tournament dancers UCLA, Cal, Colorado, UNLV and South Dakota State lurk, and so does a home-and-home series with former Big West rival Utah State.
Alan “Big Al” Williams, a 6-7, 240-pound junior center with equal parts big game and personality, is the type of player who could lead the Gauchos back to the postseason. He ranked sixth in the nation in rebounds per game (10.7) and led the Big West with 15 double-doubles.
TAKING ALL COMERS
Long Beach State head coach Dan Monson was succinct about his program.
“We play the toughest preseason schedule in America,” he said.
Who’s going to argue with him? During his tenure with the 49ers, Monson’s teams have played the likes of Kansas, Duke, Texas, North Carolina, Louisville, Ohio State and Syracuse – almost exclusively on the road – and the formidable competition has helped him win three straight Big West regular season titles.
With eight new players on a mostly overhauled roster, one being UCLA transfer Tyler Lamb, did Monson see fit to ease up a bit on this year’s schedule?
No sir.
LBSU is tangling with another who’s who of college basketball heavyweights, including a guaranteed six teams that reached the NCAA Tournament last year. Arizona, Kansas State, Michigan, Creighton, NC State and Missouri dot the ledger. After playing the national runners-up Wolverines in the opener of the Puerto Rico Tip-Off, the 49ers could face another NCAA participant, VCU, in the next round.
As to the ultimate fate of the 2013-14 49ers, Monson admitted, “I have no idea.”
NATURAL PROGRESSION?
During Joe Callero’s tenure at Cal Poly, his Mustangs have finished second, third and fourth in the final Big West standings.
“Now we’ve got to win the conference,” said the fifth-year head coach.
To do that though, the Mustangs first must unseat three-time defending conference champion Long Beach State.
The job might be somewhat less harrowing now that 2012-13 Big West Player of the Year James Ennis is no longer a fixture on the 49er roster. A second round NBA Draft selection of the Atlanta Hawks, later traded to the Miami Heat, Ennis is currently playing for the Perth Wildcats in Australia’s National Basketball League (NBL).
One of his teammates happens to be former Mustang Drake U’u. The two are now roommates in the Land Down Under, and according to Callero, have traded friendly banter.
“I was told we were the dirtiest team in the conference, we hold the ball all game and don’t let anybody dunk,” said Callero.
No matter what the style, Callero complimented his players for buying into creating a winning program based on a strong work ethic and unselfish play. The kingpin of that group and the embodiment of that philosophy is 6-7 senior forward Chris Eversley, who earned first-team All-Big West honors last season and is one of a handful of Big West Player of the Year candidates.
It’s anyone’s guess as to whether Callero masters the art of winning Big West championships, but if there’s one thing he knows it’s how to get to the Los Angeles Athletic Club.
“I finally found the parking garage. It’s the most important thing I’ve learned in the last four years of coaching,” he joked.
BUILDING BLOCKS
Cal State Fullerton’s Dedrique Taylor appreciates the man for whom the Tip-Off Luncheon was named – legendary UCLA coach John R. Wooden.
Taylor, who is set to begin his inaugural season as the Titans’ head coach, got his first glimpse into coaching as a youngster.
“I was 12 or 13 when I attended one of Coach Wooden’s camps in Oxnard,” said Taylor. “There were two things I remembered about that experience. One, I got to meet Coach Wooden. The other, was I earned one of his plaques – the Pyramid of Success.”
The Titans are a program on the rebuild after finishing 14-18 in 2012-13 and dealing with the graduation of leading scorers and all-conference standouts Kwame Vaughn and D.J. Seeley.
But the rebuild goes deeper than just the talent on the floor.
“We’re really focused on changing and impacting our culture,” said Taylor, who played at UC Davis under then-head coach Bob Williams and spent the last seven seasons as an assistant at Arizona State. “We’re working on building our brand and we’ve got a bunch of hard-nosed guys that are excited about where we’re going.”
Taylor noted that one of the main differences in being a head coach as opposed to an assistant is the constant attention he gets from all directions. Much of the on-floor instruction is something that will be tasked to the assistants on his staff.
“Ninety percent of my job is to not coach,” he said, pointing to his cell phone. “This thing never stops ringing.”
Hopefully, through a mixture of transfers, five-year program fixtures and freshmen, the incoming group will answer the call.
THANKS, BOSS
Dennis Cutts was an assistant under Jim Wooldridge for six seasons with the Highlander program, but became the interim head coach when Wooldridge stepped down to accept the position of interim athletic director.
It is his first head coaching opportunity at the college level. And as he looked around the room at the other head coaches and the impressive résumés that some had built over the years, he couldn’t help but compare himself.
“No wins, 16 years as an assistant coach and I was a Division 3 player,” said Cutts. “Not much of a legacy.”
But the opportunity to build a legacy is there at UC Riverside. He jokingly pointed out that he knows he has got the support of his boss. “The first decision that Coach Wooldridge made when he took the AD position was to fire himself and hire me, so I think he is a great AD.”
While he will have the chance to make his own imprint on the program, some things will not change under the watchful eye of Wooldridge.
“He’d kill me if we didn’t guard people,” said Cutts. “I know we’ll defend.”
This year’s Highlanders got an early start on preparations for the upcoming campaign with a September foreign tour in Canada. Ten practices and three games – all wins – punctuated the trip with a far more mature roster than last year’s. Seven freshmen played on last year’s team. Only one frosh is on the current roster.
Australia native and 6-10 big man Chris Patton is the centerpiece of what Cutts hopes will be a competitive, winning product.