The college basketball offseason is here, and we decided to have some fun over the next few months, ranking ALL 364 teams in D1. Number 150 is Pepperdine basketball.
Before you say we’re crazy – or that all of this is up for debate, let’s go over the very intricate process of how we came to this conclusion. We took a very statistical approach – with the help of Chat GPT – taking into consideration everything from March Madness wins and finishes, to AP Poll appearances, to conference players of the year. And then, a good friend of ours, Scott Blanchard, took our approach to the MAX.
Click here to visit the FIRST article, which explains how the formula works!
Here’s the breakdown of Pepperdine basketball!
NCAA Tournament Success
- Championships: 0
- Finals appearances: 0
- Final Fours: 0
- Elite Eights: 1
- Sweet 16s: 2
- NCAA wins: 5
- Bids: 13
Consistency Over Time
- Wins per season: 14.0
- Bids per season: 0.18
- AP Polls: 1
Player Quality & Talent
- All-Americans: 0
- NBA players drafted & played: 15
- Conference Players of the Year: 11
Conference & Other Success
- Conference regular season titles: 12
- Conference tournament titles: 3
- NIT titles: 0
- Other tournament titles: 1
Overall scoop on Pepperdine basketball
If you looked at the last two and a half decades of Pepperdine basketball, you’re probably wondering why they are ranked at No. 150. The Waves have had a winning record just five times in the last 24 seasons. But success comes in waves, and for this program, they were sort of like the 1970s-90s version of today’s Saint Mary’s. Pepperdine was a dominant West Coast mid-major that often went dancing.
Their roots go back even further, to 1944, when the Waves went 20-14 and made it to the Elite 8. Only eight teams made the big dance back then, but Pepperdine qualified, and they can thank head coach Alva Duer, who would later be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1982 and the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006.
In 1962, Pepperdine was a full-blown D1 program, winning the WCAC Tournament and getting back to March Madness. This time, 16 teams competed, so even though they lost in the first round, it was another Sweet 16 appearance.
But it wasn’t until the ’70 when the Waves started to get big. Head coach Gary Colson took them dancing in 1976 and 1979, and went 153-137 as their coach. He actually took some time to build the program to that level, but they started to get noticed, taking down Memphis in ’76 for another Sweet 16, and taking down Utah in ’79 for a second round appearance. In the 1976 run, Hall of Famer Dennis Johnson starred, along with big man Marcos Leite. Johnson’s college numbers really wouldn’t blow you away, but of course, he went on to have a great NBA career.
Colson left for the head coaching job at New Mexico, but it worked in Pepperdine’s favor. The foundation was built, and all Jim Harrick did was build it higher. He would go 167-97 as their head coach, with just one losing season in nine years. He helped them win five WCAC regular season championships, and in all but one of those years, they made it to March Madness. The only time they’d win a game would be in 1982, taking down 10-seed Pittsburgh, but they were pretty much a given to go dancing about every other year.
After Harrick left for UCLA, Tom Asbury came in and rinsed and repeated. In six seasons, he had a 125-59 record, never having a losing season. His teams won the WCC regular season crown in 1991, 1992, and 1993, and went dancing in 1991, 1992, and 1994. Unfortunately, they’d continue the streak of exiting in the round of 64. The ’91 and ’92 teams featured Doug Christie, who went on to have a very solid NBA career and is currently the head coach of the Sacramento Kings.
After Asbury left for Kansas State, Pepperdine started to slide down a bit. They’d go through a couple of coaches before Jan Van Breda Kolff led them to back-to-back 20-win seasons and a tournament bid in 2000. That team would take down 6-seed Indiana, but fall in the round of 32 to Oklahoma State.
And the last tourney bid came in 2002, Paul Westphal’s first season as head coach. Unfortunately, that would be the high of his tenure, going just 76-72 in five seasons. And since Westphal left in 2006, the Waves have had six head coaches, including second stints for Asbury and Lorenzo Romar. They had brief moments where you thought they could be back, but with Gonzaga and dominating the conference, Pepperdine has pretty much been a bottom-feeder.
It is sort of a sad state of affairs for a program that was once one of the top mid-major teams, year in and year out, to now be often forgotten about. In 2021, they did win the CBI, going 15-12 in the shortened COVID seaosn. But in today’s era, all it takes is a big donation to get some players and start up another dynasty.