COLLEGE NOTES : Powerful Lions Not Rated Among Anybody’s Top 40

National ratings are a curious, sometimes murky, undertaking, especially preseason polls.

For example, it’s hard to fathom the curious case of Loyola Marymount’s basketball team, which was rated in several Top 20s a year ago and would appear to have a stronger squad this season--and yet hasn’t cracked any preseason Top 40. The highest Loyola has been ranked is 48th in Dick Vitale’s basketball magazine.

The early ratings have prompted Lions Coach Paul Westhead to note: “There must be a lot of good teams out there if there are 30 or 40 better teams than us.”

Westhead’s feelings aren’t really hurt, though. He said: “Preseason ratings are just for ego. You haven’t played anybody. If you’re ranked No. 12 in February, then it’s on what you’ve done; you’ve made someone take notice.”

With the season opener less than two weeks away, Westhead is aware of the rankings--and aware of Loyola’s potential to create attention. He pointed out that the Lions’ nonconference schedule includes two teams being ranked No. 1 in various polls--Nevada Las Vegas and Louisiana State--and several others getting Top 20 mention, including Oklahoma and Xavier.

Anticipating an exciting season, Westhead is ready to go. Loyola plays the Australian National Team on Saturday in an exhibition, then officially opens at UNLV on Nov. 15, the earliest opening day in the country--exactly one month after the start of practice.

“I like (the early opener),” Westhead said. “The entire time I’ve coached in college I’ve thought a month is plenty. I’ve always said six weeks (of practice) is long enough for your team to hate each other. Everybody starts out Oct. 15 with all this enthusiasm and excitement, and by Thanksgiving they’re ready to kill each other.”

Westhead, whose teams have been been accused of running a free-form style, jokingly added, “Some coaches say they need the six weeks to put in all their offenses and defenses. I guess we don’t have that much to put in.”

Loyola scoring star Hank Gathers, whose Achilles’ heel has been foul shooting, may try a new approach--shooting free throws left-handed. Gathers, a natural right-hander who has a proficient lefty touch around the basket, considered the idea last season but was discouraged by the coaching staff. Despite improved technique, he shot 56% from the foul line compared to 61% accuracy from the field.

He has continued to struggle with right-handed free throws in practice and recently began shooting them left-handed again. In a recent practice he took 50 foul shots and made nearly 80%. He continued to shoot lefty in a scrimmage and showed a true touch with nice rotation.

Gathers said he intends to try his lefty shot in some upcoming games, including Saturday’s exhibition against Australia. The coaches are uncertain whether they will encourage the switch or not.

The West Coast Conference, which has several soccer teams in the Top 20, presents the unusual situation of having the nation’s No. 1 team in second place in the conference.

Going into the last week of regular season play, Santa Clara is ranked first in the U.S. and is the only undefeated major college team at 15-0-2. However, one of those ties belongs to 13th-ranked Portland, which is 17-1-3 overall and in first place in the WCC at 4-0-1. Santa Clara needs to beat the University of San Francisco this weekend to tie for the conference title. However, under WCC tie-breaker rules, Portland has already clinched first place and the automatic bid to the NCAA playoffs by having scored more goals than Santa Clara when both defeated third-place St. Mary’s.

Both teams will undoubtedly be invited to the NCAA Tournament, which will announce its bids this weekend. But Santa Clara, which entered the week with a 24-game unbeaten string, could be in the odd position of being an at-large selection while being ranked No. 1.

Broncos Coach Steve Sampson told USA Today that being unbeaten and atop the polls is secondary to doing well in the playoffs. “Being No. 1 is not as important.”

Portland won its perennial West Coast Conference cross-country titles over the weekend, but the future bodes well for Loyola Marymount’s men, who had six runners in the top 31, most underclassmen. Running a 10-kilometer course in Belmont, Erik Merk, Mike Thom and Kevin Delaney--all freshmen--placed 18-19-20, junior Greg Bates was close behind at 23rd and freshman Tim Feeley was 31st. Sophomore Dan Martinez placed 40th. Loyola’s top four finishers averaged sub-six-minute miles.

This year, however, Portland’s domination was evident in both the men’s and women’s races. For the men it was 11 straight titles, while the women won for the third straight year.

College Notes--Sign of the times? Loyola Marymount’s volleyball team, which failed to win a game against Cal State Fullerton in early September, beat the Titans in four games Wednesday night. Coach Mike Normand said before the season that the test of his team’s improvement would be how they did against teams the second time around. . . . Cal State Dominguez Hills soccer Coach Marine Cano’s new personalized license plate: MR SCCR. . . . On the verge of the playoffs, Cano has lost his women’s coaching assistant. Paul Krumpe, who has been nursing a broken foot, has returned to the U.S. national soccer team to compete in this weekend’s World Cup qualifying game against El Salvador in St. Louis. . . . Loyola Marymount soccer goalkeeper Alex Poli had a rare thrill for a goalkeeper over the weekend, scoring a goal against UC San Diego. Poli played the first half in goal, then moved up field for the second half and scored. . . . The Loyola men’s open eight-man shell placed ninth out of 11 teams in the Head of the Estuary competition, the season’s opening crew race at Oakland. A Stanford boat won. . . . Dominguez Hills senior Karen Sutherland set a school volleyball record last week with a .583 attack percentage in a four-game victory against The Master’s College. The Lady Toros hit .301.