By John Crumpacker
#WCChoops Columnist
COMPLETE CRUMPACKER ARCHIVES
2017 WCC HALL OF HONOR RELEASE
PREVIOUS HoH PROFILES
MARK TEAHEN (SMC); JOHN CUNNINGHAM (USD) | DICK DAVEY, SANTA CLARA | SHANNON MAC MILLAN, PORTLAND | TINA GUNN (BYU); JENNIFER JOINES (PAC); BRITTANY LINDHE (USF)
| BIRD AVERITT, PEPPERDINE In a basketball-coaching career that spanned 45 years, 10 teams, eight leagues, two countries and both genders, one five-year run of wonderment stands out for Paul Westhead.
Although he is the only coach in basketball history to have won championships in the NBA (Lakers, 1980) and WNBA (Phoenix Mercury, 2007), Westhead's time at Loyola Marymount from 1985-90 represents a singular time in the history of the college game.
"Loyola Marymount during my years there was like a romantic movement where the stars seemed to fall in place,'' he said. "LMU was something special, a terrific group of guys. It would be hard to pick the best team of my five years there; everyone remembers when we went to the Elite Eight. I had a good group. Sometimes you just get lucky. Then it becomes a little bit easier. I was fortunate for that.''
LMU under Westhead was a time like no other in college basketball history. Those Lions played at the pace of a sprinter for 40 minutes and wore down most opponents at the end with a remarkable group of players that included the late Hank Gathers, his best friend Bo Kimble, the versatile Terrell Lowery and 3-point shooting specialist Jeff Fryer.
Westhead posted a record of 105-48 at LMU, including a mark of 51-19 in WCC games. From 1988-90 the Lions went 27-3, 20-10 and 23-5 and went to the NCAA Tournament each year as their scoring totals rose from 110.3 to 112.5 to 122.4 in '90. Westhead was on the bench on Jan. 31, 1989 when his team outdid itself in a record-breaking 181-150 victory over U.S. International University in what was the highest combined score (331 points) in NCAA history.
"It wasn't boring, that's for sure,'' Westhead said. "Sometimes it wasn't popular with opposing coaches, but it was fun.''
For his role in elevating a small school to national acclaim while being overshadowed in a sprawling city of the Lakers, UCLA and USC, Westhead, 78, was an easy selection by LMU to the WCC's Hall of Honor Class of 2017 that will be celebrated March 4 in Las Vegas in conjunction with the conference's basketball tournament.
"My Loyola Marymount experience certainly reaches as high as anything else I've done, even though with the Lakers we were able to win a championship and in the WNBA I got another with Phoenix and Diana Taurasi.
"You never really recognize you're having fun ... until it's over,'' he said. "In retrospect, with the different jobs I had, I had a very enjoyable time at LMU. My LMU teams liked to play the game, liked the speed of the game. With LMU, it was no grind. It was pure explosion, night-in and night-out. They weren't so cocky they thought they could always win, but they were sure the opponent would get tired.''
In fact, Westhead said former Pepperdine coach Jim Harrick (1979-88) told him he was glad LMU was his travel partner in conference because whoever the Lions played on Friday night was going to be worn out on Saturday when the Waves got them.
Westhead's LMU teams played at a pace not seen in the college game, before or since. Although it seemed like the Lions gave up uncontested layups in order to get the ball back and shoot threes on the other end, there was a method to the madness in that his supremely conditioned players were likely to be less tired than their opponents at the end. Then, too, Gathers, Kimble, Lowery and Fryer were made for the frenetic pace at which they played.
Gathers led the NCAA in scoring (32.7) and rebounding (13.7) in 1989 while Kimble was the top scorer in 1990 (35.3), the year in which Gathers collapsed on court and died during a WCC Tournament game that forced cancellation of the remaining games.
As a way of honoring their fallen teammate, LMU went on a spirited run in the NCAA Tournament that captivated all of college basketball. The Lions ran defending champ Michigan out of the gym in the second round before falling to eventual champion UNLV in the Elite Eight.
Even though he won titles with the Lakers (who fired him the following year, supposedly at Magic Johnson's urging) before coming to LMU and with Phoenix in the WNBA years after leaving the school, Westhead never achieved the same level of acclaim at any of his other coaching stops as he did in his one tour of duty in the WCC.
Westhead's coaching career got its start at LaSalle in his native Philadelphia from 1970-79 and came to a conclusion with the Oregon women's program from 2009-14. He was in Eugene the same time as football coach Chip Kelly was running defenses ragged with his fast-paced offense, a similarity to his own style of basketball at LMU that Westhead noted while attending games at Autzen Stadium.
"It was the first time in my coaching career that I was at a university that had football,'' he said. "I realize football changes the whole dynamic of the sports program and the university. It drives the entire university. I happened to be there in the Chip Kelly era. We played a similar speed game. It was analogous.''
When Westhead first came to Los Angeles to coach the Lakers in 1979, he bought a house in tony Palos Verdes that he still owns today despite coaching stops in Chicago, Denver, Virginia, Phoenix, Japan and Oregon.
While he said he'd still be open to coaching again, Westhead these days occupies his time with an occasional round of golf, swimming five or six days a week and attending the various sports played by his 11 grandchildren. He will attend the Hall of Honor ceremony with his wife, Cassie.
He remains in touch with two members of his old LMU team: Fryer, who lives in Southern California, and Kimble, a fellow Philly guy. And last week Westhead went back to LMU to see Lowery enshrined in the school's Hall of Fame.
"I felt I needed to be there,'' Westhead said, indicating the draw the school and his players has on him still.
It was a magical time for Westhead and LMU more than a quarter-century ago, when the stars aligned just so.