Zags expect a battle from Waves

MALIBU, Calif. – Gonzaga coach Mark Few claims he knows what to expect from Pepperdine in tonight’s West Coast Conference men’s basketball showdown in sold-out Firestone Fieldhouse.

Waves coach Paul Westphal can only wish he had such foresight.

Westphal, in his fourth season at Pepperdine, is as perplexed as anyone over the inconsistent nature of this year’s team, which knocked off then-No. 17 Wisconsin and UNLV during an early season seven-game winning streak and later lost to Troy State in New Mexico’s Comcast Lobo Invitational.

Since starting league play, the Waves (13-11 overall, 3-6 in the WCC) have lost to Portland and Loyola Marymount, the two teams they are tied with in the WCC cellar. But they have beaten San Francisco – the only team with victories over co-leaders Gonzaga (17-4, 7-2) and Saint Mary’s (20-6, 7-2) – twice.

The ups and downs, Westphal admits, have been maddening. But it is not difficult to understand their origins.

Injuries, defections and academic problems have all played into Pepperdine’s disappointing season. Shaun Davis, last year’s starting point guard and a member of the WCC’s all-freshman team, quit school over the summer. Terrance Johnson, a second-team all-WCC pick, who averaged 14.8 points as a junior last winter, was declared academically ineligible at the start of the season. And Westphal’s top two centers, senior Jesse Pinegar and junior Derick Grubb, have missed a combined 24 games because of injuries.

Pinegar dislocated an ankle in mid-January and has missed the last six games. Grubb has missed the Waves’ last 18 games with a bad back and will probably apply for a medical redshirt season.

So when Westphal looks out on the court when things are going bad, he sometimes catches himself thinking about what might have been.

“When you lose two players of (Johnson and Davis’) caliber, plus your two top centers, it’s not nothing,” he explained. “Sometimes we’ve had some success this year going with what we have, but other times you say to yourself, ‘Man, those other guys could have helped.’ But it’s all irrelevant, really, because you play with the players you have. And you don’t want to talk about who you don’t have.”

So Westphal spends much of his time talking about Glen McGowan, Alex Acker and Yakhouba Diawara, the top three returnees from last season and the heart and soul this year’s team.

McGowan, a 6-9 senior forward, leads the team in scoring (19.2 ppg) and rebounding (7.8 rpg), while Acker, a 6-5 junior guard averages 16.8 points and 6.2 rebounds per game to rank No. 2 in both categories. Diawara, a 6-7 senior, is averaging 13.6 points and 5.8 rebounds.

Still, the Waves have had problems getting up for some games – especially those against lower-division opponents. Which is why Few expects nothing but the best from Pepperdine in tonight’s showdown that tips off at 8 in front of a national ESPN2 television audience.

“We know what we’re going to get, being an ESPN game and all,” Few said. “We’re going to get a superlative effort in front of a hostile crowd. This is the only game left on their schedule, relative to the WCC tourney, that I think they have any emotion (about).”

Gonzaga handled the Waves 86-62 on its home floor last month. But that was the first game Pepperdine had played without Pinegar, who is one of the league’s better outside shooters. Since then, the Waves have made some adjustments, going to a smaller, three-guard lineup.

But Few knows their game plan still revolves around McGowan, who has scored 20 or more points 12 times this season.

“He’s just a handful,” Few said. “He’s an NBA talent – he and Acker both are. And he’s really tough to stop one-on-one.”

In addition, Few has prepared his team as if Pinegar is going to play, even though Westphal said he is “still a ways away.”

“If he plays, it will change them from the team that played against us the first time,” Few said of Pinegar, who was averaging 5.6 points a game and shooting 46.5 percent (20-43) from 3-point range prior to injuring his ankle. “He’s a great face-up shooter. We were playing off their bigs before, but we won’t be able to do that if he plays.”