Interim steadies Waves

Had a tough day at work? Put yourself in Eric Bridgeland’s shoes in mid-January.

Three days after Gonzaga blitzed Pepperdine 92-57 in Malibu, Calif., Bridgeland reported to the gym for the Waves’ practice Thursday morning. A couple of players were no-shows. Head coach Vance Walberg called a team meeting.

“At that point, he told us as a staff that he was going to resign,” said Bridgeland, a second-year Waves assistant coach who was quickly promoted to interim head coach.

Bridgeland, who had head-coaching experience at Puget Sound from 2002-2006 and UC Santa Cruz from 1999-2001, immediately held individual meetings with players, but crowded class schedules delayed the first team meeting until 10 that night.

“And we let everybody talk, one at a time,” Bridgeland said. “First we let them know where we were coming from as a staff, that we want to make this a positive experience and make something out of this mess. The only rule was that they couldn’t be interrupted when they voiced their concerns. You can imagine the emotions from all levels, the players to the coaches to the coaches changing roles.

“We made an agreement that no matter what was said, how it was said, we needed to bury everything that night and move on.”

When the meeting concluded 90 minutes later, Bridgeland told the group that practice was at 7 the next morning for “those who want to be here and want to play for each other.”

Two days later, Bridgeland took his reeling team to Saint Mary’s, where the Waves nearly pulled off a storybook upset before falling 79-74 to the WCC co-leading Gaels.

Pepperdine has gone 1-4 under Bridgeland, who is a candidate for the full-time position along with ex-Waves coach Tom Asbury, but the squad has been competitive in every game.

The Waves lost by three to San Diego, had a 20-point lead on San Francisco that it couldn’t protect and fell to Santa Clara after trimming a 20-point lead to four. They’ve done countless team-building exercises and upperclassmen have started to emerge as leaders.

“The first thing was getting the guys wanting to play again and playing for each other,” Bridgeland said. “And over the last three weeks, no question we’ve accomplished that. We’re just working on us and we’re in preseason mode, really. We had to simplify for the players we have and give them more freedom. But we’re still young, with four or five freshmen.”

The roster is down four players, which left the team with few interior options. Daniel Johnson, a 6-foot-10 post, got homesick and returned to Australia last week.

Joked Bridgeland: “I would like to ask (GU) coach (Mark) Few if he would only play guards. Let’s just do that.”

Few, and others, have been impressed with Bridgeland’s impact.

“They seem to be playing more in the halfcourt, especially with their defense,” Few said. “They’re not pressing as much, which has allowed them to play these games much closer. They’ve been tight with everybody.”

Bridgeland is pleased that the players’ efforts haven’t gone unnoticed.

“We’ve had some great people come out of the woodwork – teachers, profs, administrators and alumni – that have been very complimentary,” he said. “If you just look at the win-loss column, you’d say, ‘OK, not much change.’ But if you watch us play and the way we’re fighting, we’re an improving basketball team. It’s been very positive around here.”

That’s made for some better days at the office for Bridgeland and the Waves.