USD Basketball

The University of San Diego men's basketball team, now relegated to fourth-class status by the football, baseball and women's hoops squads, has been predicted by The Sporting News to finish sixth in the West Coast Conference in this upcoming inaugural season for new head coach Bill Grier. League coaches were more charitable, picking the Toreros third behind perennial power Gonzaga and Saint Mary's.

That the basketball team would have been upstaged by not one, but three other teams on campus -- none of them with soccer in their name -- would not have been figured four years ago, when the Toreros won the WCC Tournament and nearly knocked off Stanford in the NCAA Tournament. Even though everyone realized that graduation losses from that group would hurt then-coach Brad Holland's team the next season, no one knew that still another loss -- Corey Belser to injury -- would result in a 4-win season.

The basketball team never really recovered from that disaster. Potential recruits are often willing to give smaller programs a look, but especially when one has sudden success, they want to know that you're not just a flash-in-the-pan. Okay, you won big this year, but is there any gas left in the tank. For the Toreros, their fuel-level went to empty in that run to March Madness, and there were no gas stations in the neighborhood. Holland became the proverbial man walking down the freeway shoulder with a gallon emergency-tank in his hand.

Holland managed 18 wins last year, but the Toreros were just 6-8 in the WCC and were never really a post-season threat. Only two current players, F Gyno Pomare and G Brandon Johnson, would have seen floor time on that Toreros conference championship team.

I was very sorry to see Holland fired. I liked Brad Holland. I saw him when he was joyful and saw him when he was mad. I asked him tough questions he didn't like and he answered them. Maybe begrudgingly. But we knew where each other stood, so the disappointments he sometimes faced and were forced to talk about did not impact our relationship.

It's kind of funny, sports fans often hold college and pro coaches on some sort of pedestal, like they're so much different from us. But it's not necessarily true. One day right as preseason practice was about to start, I went to see Holland at the Jenny Craig Pavilion so I could get a feel for his team and pass along to you, my readers, what he seemed to have that year.

We walked from the floor of the arena and back to his office. We sat down and before I fired away with my questions, he punched the "play" button on his answering machine. His wife left a message reporting that she'd run an errand to some store in Rancho Bernardo and had driven over a curb in a parking lot and struck something. He hung his head and slowly shook it, crestfallen. His wife said not to worry, everyone was okay, but they had to get the car fixed.

I laughed and told him it was nice to see how similar our lives were.

As much as I was sorry to see him go, I hope that other opportunities open up for him, in basketball or some other endeavor. I haven't heard what he's doing now. That he was fired is sad because the act, and the stigma associated with it, are quite harsh. Undeserved in his instance.

My experience is that sometimes situations simply come to an end. Firing someone connotates wrongdoing, certainly not a factor in Holland's case. But as fate smiled on him in 2003 and some prior seasons, it did not afterward. The Toreros men's basketball team -- the school's lone athletic revenue-producer -- had stopped being a viable commodity in the local entertainment market, and it had slipped behind those other sports in status on its own campus. By March of this year, it was just simply over, and time for everyone to move on.

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Those who read the old Sandiegosportstown.com will remember my fondness for Toreros women's stars Amanda Rego and Amber Sprague, the alums from Mission Bay High School. This season will be the last to see the childhood friends play together, for Rego is a senior and Sprague, whose college career has been beset by injury, is a redshirt junior.

Rego led the nation with an average of 7.6 assists per game last year and was named the WCC Co-Player of the Year. While she was productive her first two seasons, it was her junior year in which she finally blossomed into a star. Far from the rail-thin pony-tailed teeny-bopper who fired up left-handed threes in a vain effort to keep pace with powerful Santana High in a CIF playoff game as a prep freshman, Rego is now a mature 5-10 and 21 years old. How the time flies.

She can shoot, is a great passer, and is in control of the game. Once, in high school, playing a game vs. Rancho Bernardo High at the JCP, I was along the baseline getting some of those awful photographs I used to take. A Broncos player makes a basket. Rego takes the ball as it falls from the net and, in one smooth motion, steps out of bounds, looks down at me, smiles, says "Oh, hi there," in-bounds the ball and heads downcourt. That was a girl in charge of her environment.

Maybe it was no surprise that Rego had her breakout year last season, because it was the first time Sprague had a full season in college, and she ended up being All-WCC herself. She missed the previous year entirely, redshirting in a bid to regain health. She's grown to 6-5, which is the sort of thing you deal with when you play Tennessee or UConn, not USD. She will once again -- if healthy -- dominate conference games in the paint.

From the moment I became aware of their existence, covered their games and a couple of times interview them, I went to few basketball games in which those two were not in attendance. They are hoops junkies on par with Dick Vitale. Their success, and that of their team, which won the regular season WCC title under coach Cindy Fisher, came through a lot of hard work and much passion for the game.

It's absolutely worth it to head out to the JCP at some point this season to watch them play together for the last time.

2007 Football Predictions

This fall has the makings of what could be a highly successful season of local football, maybe more so than the late-1970's when San Diego State ruled the roost and the Chargers were beginning to come on strong behind Dan Fouts.

The Aztecs appear to have better personnel entering this season under coach Chuck Long than they did in a 3-9 2006. The offensive is, for the most part, healthy. QB Kevin O'Connell is a senior. The running back corps is deep, and the wide receivers could become a threat for the first time since JR Tolver and Kassim Osgood were running patterns for the red and black. The tight end position has a chance to be productive for the first time in more than a decade.

The defense has switched to a 3-4 set, a long overdue move based on recruiting realities -- the difficulty a non-BCS school has at attracting talented defensive linemen and SDSU's growing reputation as a linebacker factory. The Aztecs have usually attracted far more defensive ends than tackles, too.

The keys to the season: keeping the offensive line starters healthy and the secondary able to at least put up a fight to opposing wideouts. The line may never be able to power a strong running game, but they should be able to give O'Connell that extra split-second he's been needing to find receivers. The secondary is a total unknown, but reports claim they're pretty athletic.

If those points above are met successfully, the Aztecs could go somewhere around 7-5 and qualify for a bowl game -- a welcome holiday gift for suffering fans. If things don't work out so well, then a 4-8 semi-disaster is likely.

My bet is the offensive line will hold together at a reasonable level but the secondary will probably struggle early, particularly since the defense probably won't generate much of a pass rush against good teams. That means something more middlin', meaning the Aztecs could be 6-5 and needing to beat a Top 25 TCU squad when they come to town for the regular season finale on Nov. 24.

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What else is there to say about the Chargers other than they have the most talent in the NFL, and might by far. There are some issues noted in previous posts, such as two new starting inside linebackers and a pair of safeties who are suspect. They might end up in some shootouts this year against quality opponents.

On offense, the wide receivers don't look improved as a group, but Vincent Jackson might be ready to blossom into stardom in his first season as a starter. We'll have to see. And, remember, Philip Rivers had a couple poor games last year. I don't see him having a sophomore jinx in 2007, but the possibility is there nonetheless. The offensive line depth is thin behind some quality starters.

Maybe the biggest problem the Chargers have is Denver being vastly improved, at least on paper. The Broncos are good enough to split with the Bolts and then who knows what they do with the rest of their schedule.

All things being equal, it's probably too much to expect another 14-2 against a tougher schedule, and facing NFL competition. I'm guessing, after going through the Chargers slate, that they'll go 12-4 or 11-5. If they get hit with injuries in the offensive line, the receiver corps beyond what they already face with Eric Parker, it could get worse. Otherwise, this is a high quality team that will almost certainly go to the playoffs. Postseason is the real season as far as Chargers fans are concerned.

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There's a lot of talk in town of USD running the table behind superstar QB Josh Johnson, star RB JT Rogan and a solid defense. But the Toreros do have two games against teams at a higher level: Northern Colorado at home and UC Davis to end the season on the road. Davis is the squad that rather comfortably dealt the Toreros their only loss last season. So one or two Ls this season could happen, but no one else should give them a problem.