Big West Conference report

SportsLine.com Report
March 14, 2000

In the Paint

Pacific, featuring one of the youngest teams in coach Bob Thomason's 12-year career in Stockton, struggled to its poorest record in more than a decade. The team also lost six times at home after winning 24 of 25 at Spanos Center the previous two years.

After backing into the conference tournament with two losses the final week of the regular season, the Tigers were trounced 64-41 by Utah State in the first round. The 41 points was the team's lowest output of the season.

A glance at 2001

The Tigers will get better next season. Thomason is too talented a coach and the program too proud to drop much further. Plus, the team loses just 17.8 points to graduation and returns a bundle of players who benefited from the chance to play plenty of minutes early in their career.

The team will be young again in 2000-2001 with just two seniors. What the Tigers need most is some scoring punch. No returner averaged more than 9.1 points last season.

The Coach

Thomason is 185-162 in 12 seasons at Pacific, placing him second in seniority at one Big West School behind Lou Henson and his 15 seasons at New Mexico State. Thomason won just seven games in his first season at Pacific but has since reached double-figure victory totals every year, including back-to-back 20 win seasons and Big West Conference regular-season titles in 1996-97 and 1997-98.

Who'll be back?

The Tigers return a solid guard combination of Nathan Davis at the point and Peter Heizer at off-guard, but impressive sophomore Tom Cockle could press Heizer for minutes. The rugged duo of Mike Preston and Mike Hahn are back to patrol the paint, where they'll get some help from 6-10 junior Ross Mills.

Key reserves include forwards Bill Walton and Dan Masters. Junior college recruit Philip Ricci could also make an immediate impact and give the Tigers some needed scoring from the forward spot.

Who's gone

The Tigers lose the outside shooting and leadership of Clay McKnight, who played banged up much of the stretch run but still led the team in scoring at 11.8 points a game. Also gone is forward Barry Marvel, who averaged six points and 3.7 rebounds as a part-time starter.