MALIBU, Calif. – On senior night at Firestone Fieldhouse, a pair of freshmen gave their programs optimism heading into 2012-13.
Freshman guard Jordan Baker tied for the team high with 17 points as Pepperdine posted a 70-65 victory over Portland (6-21, 3-11) on Saturday night. Meanwhile, Portland freshman Kevin Bailey led all scorers with 18 points.
"Jordan's a player," Waves coach Marty Wilson said. "He wants to be good. He's fearless. He's not afraid of any situation. He just continues to grow."
Pepperdine (9-18, 3-12 West Coast Conference) honored a collection of program greats at a halftime ceremony, including former Waves coach Jim Harrick. He led the team to four NCAA tournament appearances in five seasons from 1981-82 to '85-86.
"Pepperdine is a very, very, very special place for me," Harrick said. "They gave me the first opportunity to be a head basketball coach, and I had a marvelous run in college basketball all because I had a chance at Pepperdine. It was my favorite place wherever I worked, and as you know it's just a tremendous place to be every day."
It was a special night for Wilson, a member of perhaps Harrick's best team in Malibu, a 25-5 outfit that finished first in the West Coast Conference with a 13-1 record in 1985-86 and the final of Harrick's four NCAA tournament teams before he accepted the head coaching position at UCLA, where he won the 1995 national championship.
"I learned just about everything (from Harrick)," Wilson said. "I spoke at a booster group earlier with some of the alumni guys here. Coach Harrick was there, and I just thanked him for everything — for me coming to his camps when I was 15, giving me a scholarship, and me being able to remember all the things that he taught our teams back then that I'm trying to teach our guys right now on and off the court."
Though the Waves will lose some size next year with the graduation of their leading scorer, 6-foot-8 forward Taylor Darby and 6-10 center Corbin Moore, Baker will be poised to step into a key role as a sophomore next season, leading a shifty group of guards in Wilson's second year as head coach.
Though there were points and minutes to replace in 2011-12, there's optimism for the program's future. Harrick spoke about what must come together for an academically elite school of less than 8,000 students to find consistent success.
"I always measure it by, 'Have they done it before?', and yes, Pepperdine has done it before," Harrick said. "So that tells me that they can do it again. It comes down to recruiting the right athlete that fits your system.
"Marty Wilson's been in the game for a long time. He understands, really has a great knowledge of what it takes. The job for them and the staff is to go out and recruit some really good athletes that are going to help them win the league and compete for a championship. And that can be done."
"It takes time. There's no time frame — coaches get three, five, seven years. You hope they can get it turned some time in that framework, and I believe in all my heart in Marty Wilson. I think he's going to do a great job."
Darby, meanwhile, was glad the Waves got the job done on Senior Night.
"I was just really happy," Darby said. "I played well because it was Senior Night, and I really wanted to go away with a W. Our alumni — I just wanted to make them proud. We just went out there and played with a lot of passion tonight."
