SoCal Hoops Report

Midnight Madness by the Beach
Pepperdine, Romar, Gardner and Brown--October 18, 1997

Well, technically this isn't a "prep" or "high school" report at all. But since we've got nowhere else to put this (yet--we'll open up a college news, notes and reviews section in the next few days), for now we're putting this article here. Besides, it's about 2:00 am, and I've just gotten home from Malibu, CA, where I attended the West Coast/SoCal version of "Midnight Madness". Intense, silly, fun, loud and some pretty sloppy basketball, with flashes of brilliance. Midnight Madness at Pepperdine manages to be both hokey and a fine showcase for the talents of both the Lady Waves and the men's squad, coached by Lorenzo Romar.

Actually here in LA, there were only two Midnight Madness programs: Loyola Marymount and Pepperdine. UCLA and CSUN and some of the other colleges (unsure of LB State on this one) have had an on-again off-again love affair with this form of spectacle. I guess most schools here feel like the east coast gets the jump on them by 3 hours, so why bother? A little like watching the ball drop in Times Square at 9:00 pm.

Saw several folks at Pepperdine. Dave and Dana Pump; a few of the assistants at Pepperdine, several local high school coaches, and Lorenzo Romar. The evening started at about 8:00 out in the parking lot where there were lots of tailgate parties and plenty of students getting ready for the festivities: face painting, wigs, those incredibly stupid looking orange high top Nikes that only Pepperdine fanatics would be caught dead in. At about 9:30 the field house gym was rockin. Cheerleaders dancing. Music poppin, crowd groovin.

At about 10:45 there were the usual student dunk contests, free throw shooting (the loser got his head shaved on court), three point contests, and a sort of basketball "musical chairs" elimination shooting, in which an original group of about 10 would begin sitting down at midcourt, each person holding a ball, and on command, would charge toward one basket, all shooting at the same time; once a shot was made, the shooter would get his or her rebound, and run back to center court and try to find a seat; only problem: while shooting, one chair was removed. This continued until a winner was declared. A nice contest, but a bit long.

At about 11:00 the Lady Waves were introduced, ran through a few lay-up and pull up jumper drills (they really should consider using an outlet on these drills, it will speed it up significantly). Then the women's teams split and scrimmaged. They looked pretty good, although Pepperdine really is lacking in height. The largest Lady Wave is only 6-2, and the rest all seemed to be well-under six feet. A whole team of guards. Pretty good guards, who could probably beat most boys high school teams, but a whole team of guards nevertheless.

At "half-time" of the women's game (they played two 8 minute halves), there was the obligatory half-court "win your tuition for a year" shot. This year it was worth $21,000. You guessed it. The guy attempting, student Henry Jones, missed it. Airball. Not even close. I've seen 14 year olds make this shot with some degree of regularity after practice. Actually I'm told by some of these kids that it's not that difficult to do. Yeah, right. In a gym full of screaming kids, where you're shooting for $21,000, it's a piece of cake. I don't think so. I've got a lot of respect for the guy out there who missed tonight.

After a second "half" of the Lady Waves, and a few other short diversions, the men's team was introduced at precisely 12:00 midnight. The three big stars of the evening: Jelani Gardner (formerly of Cal, redshirted last year), omm'A Givens (formerly of UCLA with Lorenzo, also redshirted last year), and, Gerald Brown (also a redshirt), a big-bodied guard, who looks like a post player. After shoot around and lay-up drills, the team held a dunk contest, during which Brown, a southpaw, promptly racked his left wrist and had to sit out the later scrimmage. After the first dunk shot, Brown could be seen holding his left wrist, grimacing. Lorenzo looked over at him mouthing the words, very quietly "no more dunks", but Brown ignored the advice, and shot two more, each time wincing more and more from the pain. Finally, he had enough sense to go looking for a trainer who wrapped his left wrist; but the damage was apparently already done, and he sat out the remainder of the practice. After sitting out the entire season last year, you could see the frustration on his face. Reminded me of Al Grigsby. Maybe they'll give Brown a fifth year too.

The real "star" of the dunk contest was a smallish guard named Aaron (I didn't catch his last name and there were no rosters available. . .I'll get it later). This kid couldn't have been much more than 6'-0", and after making a tremendous, thundering dunk taking off from near the free-throw line, he then did a standing backflip. The crowd went wild. It was great.

True to their billing, Gardner and Givens didn't disappoint. Both had great moves, Jelani alternating at the point and two spot, and Givens at the post and playing swingman. While Gardner played perimeter defense pretty well and interior defense like a sieve (hey, this was only a "practice" scrimmage), he did impress with some great shake-and-bake moves, and incredibly quick passing, dunks and a few turn-around, no look passes. Givens was pretty much unstoppable in the post, and was like a vacuum cleaner on the boards. And he wasn't the biggest guy out there either. Kelvin Gibbs (6-7) and Brian Hill (6-8) looked very impressive too.

This will be a very quick and athletic team, and should do very well in the WCC against teams like Gonzaga, St. Mary's and Santa Clara. The big challenges will come from USF in conference play, and from Kansas, whom the Waves will play in Kansas on December 18. Romar has done a great job recruiting these last two years and has put together the squad that he would have liked to have had, size and speed-wise, had he stayed at UCLA. As it is, he'll go a long way toward putting Pepperdine on the map in Division I this year. Don't expect Sweet 16, but you never know, they could be a real sleeper and take everyone by surprise.

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