Wave Cagers Ride the Crest Toward Next Season

For Pepperdine’s basketball team, this season’s 17-13 record, including an appearance in the National Invitation Tournament, was a big change from 1986-87 when the Waves finished 12-18.

And, although Levy Middlebrooks, the school’s career rebounding leader with 972, has completed his eligibility, the Waves should be in the battle for the West Coast Athletic Conference championship next year.

Middlebrooks, the 6-7, 240-pound power forward who was named the WCAC player of the year, averaged 19.6 points a game and topped the conference in rebounding with a 10.7 average.

“We’re excited about next season,” said Pepperdine Coach Jim Harrick. But he added, “We would like to fill one or two spots (with new recruits), especially Levy’s.”

Harrick is trying to sign two more front-court players, but he has already signed two good ones in 6-8 Geoff Lear of La Puente’s Bishop Amat High School and 6-6 Steve Guild of Huntington Beach’s Marina High.

Lear averaged 15 rebounds for Bishop Amat, which ended Mater Dei’s 55-game winning streak in the 5-A Angelus League and became the first team other than Mater Dei to win the league championship in five years. Harrick said Guild “had a great year” and Lear has a chance to start next season.

The Waves are also stocked with returning front-court players, including 6-7 all-conference sophomore forward Tom Lewis, who led the team in scoring with a 22.9 average and also averaged 5.1 rebounds and 3.1 assists.

Lewis, who displayed a knack for drawing fouls on drives to the basket, also led the team in free-throw shooting, making 180 of 230 attempts (78.3%). At times, he also displayed a tendency to get into pushing matches with defenders while trying to get position. Occasionally, the confrontations would cause him to lose his concentration on the game.

Harrick said he had talked with Lewis this week about that problem and thinks Lewis “will grow out of those things. He’ll make that adjustment.”

Casey Crawford, the 6-11 center who started for most of the season, and 6-7 Dexter Howard, who began the season at center but became the first forward off the bench, also will return.

Crawford, a junior who played little as a sophomore and was ineligible as a freshman, seemed to find self-confidence this season. He led the Waves with 46 blocked shots and was the team’s second-best rebounder with 5.5 a game. He could also get in foul trouble; in 608 minutes, he was called for 82 fouls. Lewis, the team’s leader in fouls with 89, played 1,073 minutes.

Damon Braly, a 6-10 freshman center from Colorado, was a redshirt this season, and Harrick intends “to bring him along slowly.”

Howard, a sophomore, was a shooting star at times, a flickering star at others, but he became more consistent toward the end of the season, scoring in double figures in eight of the last nine games. He averaged 9.6 points and 4.1 rebounds and shot 52.4% from the field. In last week’s NIT loss to New Mexico, he finished with 20 points after scoring 16 in the first half on 8-of-8 shooting.

Dennis Burbank, a 6-5 freshman forward who played just 15 minutes this season, also will be back.

Though there are plenty of players at guard and a returning starter in 6-3 sophomore guard Craig Davis, a lot will depend on the recuperation of starting junior point guard Marty Wilson from a knee injury that ended his year after 17 games this season.

Wilson, who averaged 6.5 assists before he was injured, had missed the previous season with a back injury. Donny Moore proved a capable replacement, but Moore has completed his eligibility.

Harrick said Wilson is “way ahead in his rehabilitation. He will certainly help us.”

Davis, who averaged 15.8 points and 2.9 assists, was the team’s best outside shooter, but Lewis wasn’t far behind. Davis averaged 44.1% from three-point range to 44% for Lewis.

Harrick had to use Davis and Lewis too often this season, especially after the injury to Wilson. Lewis, who sometimes played guard after Wilson went down, finished with 1,073 minutes, Davis with 1,044.

Other guards are 6-4 sophomore Lafayette Dorsey, who played 42 minutes, and 6-0 redshirt freshman Rick Welch. Doug Christie, a 6-4 guard from Rainier Beach High School and the most valuable player in the state of Washington’s high school tournament this year, signed an early letter of intent with Pepperdine.

The Waves finished in fourth place in the WCAC with an 8-6 record, trailing first-place Loyola Marymount and Santa Clara and St. Mary’s, which tied for second. But Pepperdine nearly beat the 28-4 Lions in the semifinals of the conference tournament and played well against high-scoring Loyola in two regular-season games.

Harrick said he thinks Loyola will have another good year but that the Lions will receive strong competition from Pepperdine, Santa Clara, St. Mary’s and Gonzaga.

The Waves will open the 1988-89 season in the University of Hawaii tournament and will play another tough non-conference schedule that will include a January appearance by North Carolina at Firestone Fieldhouse.