Photo courtesy Sports Information

By Tony Ciniglio

     Coach Jan van Breda Kolff left his imprint on Pepperdine’s men’s basketball program in just his first season. Now, as he is about to embark on his second season, van Breda Kolff is hoping to build the Waves into perennial contenders.
     Under van Breda Kolff, the Waves utilized a variety of pressing and trapping defenses that gained the nickname “Pressure-dine.” He also implemented an up-tempo offense that seemed to suit his players and their athletic ability.
     The Waves captured the regular season West Coast Conference title, upset Indiana in the first round of the NCAA Tournament and tied a school record with 25 victories. But most importantly, his players bought into his system, and the program enjoyed tremendous harmony.
     Van Breda Kolff, the son of former Lakers coach Butch van Breda Kolff, was once a standout player himself. He lettered at Vanderbilt for three seasons (1972-74) before heading to the now-defunct ABA, playing for Portland, Denver, Kentucky, and Virginia before playing seven years with New Jersey in the NBA. He played for such coaches as Hubie Brown, Larry Brown and Kevin Loughery.
     He began his coaching career in Italy as a player-coach from 1983 to 1985. He then served five years under legendary Princeton coach Pete Carril, where the Tigers won three straight Ivy League titles.
     Van Breda Kolff’s first head coaching job came with two years at Cornell, beginning in 1991. From there, van Breda Kolff took over for his alma mater at Vanderbilt, coaching the Commodores for the next six seasons. Vanderbilt made the NCAA Tournament once and had three NIT appearances.
     Amidst the busyness of preparing for the season, van Breda Kolff sat down with Currents Magazine and talked about his aspirations and how he is feeling at Pepperdine:
     Currents: How do you follow up on last year’s performance?                                             Van Breda Kolff: It’s nice to have goals, but you don’t want to be obsessed to the point 

that you overlook important things, like the development of your players or the team’s overall happiness. I don’t think we have to focus on following last season as much as concentrating on what we can do this season. When you have expectations, that shows you have found some success. But you can’t try too hard or the pressure is going to catch up with you and frustrate you. Last year, we enjoyed a lot of success for a lot of different reasons. This year’s team is going to find success in different ways. They have the potential of being a better team. It’s just the old adage: go out and take one game at a time. 
     Currents: How would you rate last season among your all-time accomplishment?
     Van Breda Kolff: Each team and each season is different. Last year was the most special team I’ve been a part of. There were so many changes the team had to make, learning a new system and adjusting to a new coach. But the players embraced everything that was brought to them.
     Currents: What makes you feel especially proud of last season’s team? 
     Van Breda Kolff: We had three seniors on the team who found success, and I feel most proud of that. What made these players so special is that they had their share of ups and downs throughout their career. Tezale Archie battled injuries throughout his career and never had much of an opportunity in the past. But for him to step up and have the kind of year he had, it had to put a smile on your face. He proved a lot of people wrong, and did so on a national scale. Nick Sheppard transferred here and was also injured, but for him to find success on the national stage like he did in the NCAA Tournament is really quite amazing. Now he has a chance of making the Toronto Raptors. Not bad for someone to whom many did not give much of a chance of succeeding in the WCC. And Tommie Prince transferred here and worked hard to meet the requirements to play a fifth season. For him to perform like he did, he was a warrior. He made big play after big play, and he was an inspirational leader on this team.
     Currents: Are you going to continue with the “Pressure-dine” defense this season?
     Van Breda Kolff: Most definitely. This is the type of defense I wanted to play on a consistent basis, and we have the personnel to do it this year with superior depth and speed. In that sense, we’ll be more pressure-oriented than last year, but with six freshmen coming in, we have more people to teach than last year. But by January or February, we should be a pretty good pressure team.
     Currents: It doesn’t seem like you’re backing down from anyone in your schedule, with teams like Indiana, UNLV, USC, Georgia and several tough tournaments. Why take on such a challenging schedule?
     Van Breda Kolff: We have the talent and the maturity to play good teams and not to lose confidence. You always want to play the best to find out who you are and where you stand. You can pad your schedule to get lots of wins, or you can schedule the greatest competition, where you become battle-tested and you find your strengths and weaknesses. And a stronger schedule gives a team from a smaller conference, like us, another way of getting into the NCAA Tournament. 
     Currents: Your players really seemed to buy into your coaching philosophy. What kind of approach do you take as a coach?

Photo courtesy Sports Information
Under van Breda Kolff’s leadership, the Waves hope to excel once again and take the national stage in 2001.

     Van Breda Kolff: There’s an old saying that goes: players don’t care what you know until they know you care. Our coaching staff cares about our players, on and off the court. They knew we were bringing a fun style of play here. Not many kids out of high school want to slow it down. They like the up-and-down and high- energy game. The players really embrace this philosophy, and this style helps us in our recruiting.
     Currents: You are bringing in one of the top recruiting classes on the West Coast. Do you feel comfortable recruiting here in Southern California?
     Van Breda Kolff: Very much so. We have had good exposure on Fox Sports, we’ve had good coverage in the papers, and as the season wore on, there was a lot more awareness about our program and what we’re all about. In the NCAA Tournament, everyone was watching. We were on center stage, and we did well for ourselves in the tournament. All these things sit well with recruits and have contributed to our success.
     Currents: What are your expectations this year?
     Van Breda Kolff: We want to play the best basketball we’re capable of playing. We want to develop our younger players and we want to have a good time doing it. When Gonzaga advanced to the Elite Eight two years ago, they expected to go further than they did before. That’s pretty hard to do. They had some big shoes to fill, and while they found success, they lost to us for the conference title and they only made it to the Sweet 16. Everyone else remembers what you do in the tournament. I just want to be playing our best basketball come March, be happy and see what we can do from there. 
     Currents: You have two new assistants in Benjy Taylor and Sean Farnham. How are they going to fit into your system?
      Van Breda Kolff: Benjy Taylor has worked for me before, so there won’t be as much adjustments there. Gib Arnold has been here for three years and really understands the system well. He should be a big help in getting Benjy adjusted. Sean Farnham just finished his playing career at UCLA and is a bright, enthusiastic young man who brings a lot to the table. Our staff is strong and cohesive, and this will help the team be successful.
     Currents: How has your experience as a player in the NBA helped you as a coach?
     Van Breda Kolff: The thing I learned most as a player was that successful coaches do a good job of finding out how their players feel. As players, we had insights about the other team, like somebody being tired, and the successful coaches would ask us about these things and talk to us about what we think is good. So I try to interact and talk to my players and get their opinions on certain situations. A lot of coaches are pretty set in their ways, but I like to think of myself as an open-minded coach, and this helps to give the players a sense of ownership.
     Currents: How has Christianity influenced your life and your coaching?
     Van Breda Kolff: I’ve lived by that my whole life. The players we have also live by it. A 
lot of our ideas are based on our Christianity, and I think that has had a lot to do with our success. We treat each other as a family and we do things together, we threat others right and we try to be good people. I’m a big advocate of Christianity.
     Currents: How much does your father help in coaching?
     Van Breda Kolff: My father really gave me the exposure to basketball. I learned the game of basketball younger than most of the other head coaches today, and as a result, I’m one of the younger head college basketball coaches. My coaching is based on a compilation of all the coaches I’ve played or worked for. I take a little from everybody and try to blend it all into my own philosophy.
     Currents: Who has been the greatest influence in your career?
     Van Breda Kolff: Probably Coach Pete Carril at Princeton. I worked for him for five years, a coach learning from a coach. During that time, he taught me what it took to run a program, and since I was a novice at the time, he probably had the great influence in my career, although I learned from all my coaches.
     Currents: What has been the most difficult position you have been in?
     Van Breda Kolff: We all have had difficult times. Probably the most difficult for me was having a basketball team that played hard and did well, but was not able to win games because the team did not have any scorers. That’s what happened in my second year at Vanderbilt. We went 13 and 15 and missed the postseason by one game when we lost to Arkansas in the conference tournament. That team did everything right, but it just could not score and did not see the success from its hard work.
     Currents: Have you had any problems at Pepperdine?
     Van Breda Kolff: Everything has been smooth sailing. You’re going to have minor problems wherever you go, whether it’s in terms of facilities or scheduling, but there has been nothing here that has been significant to affect our performance on the court. 
     Currents: Do you feel Pepperdine gets the respect it deserves?
     Van Breda Kolff: Everyone has their own assessment. Some magazines have rated us well, and one magazine said Pepperdine is the best team in the L.A. area. That says a lot about our program when you mention us in the same breath with UCLA and USC, who are both ranked in the top 25 in almost every publication. 
We’re not lacking respect at all. In fact, we’ve received a great deal of respect. I’m pleased with the overall assessment of the team.
     Currents: What are your ultimate goals at Pepperdine?
     Van Breda Kolff: We want a situation at Pepperdine where players can develop on and off the court, and where they can be proud as gentlemen in society. We want them to be able to speak well, go beyond what they did at Pepperdine, get a good job and raise a family. We want to win within the rules. With what we did last year, we want to build off that foundation and pass the baton on to future classes. We want to instill integrity in our players.
     Currents: Have you had any coaching offers since last season?
     Van Breda Kolff: I came here to devote my time to helping Pepperdine be successful. I’m looking forward to helping build this program into national prominence. I’m not out looking for jobs because I’m comfortable here. To do that would be inappropriate.
     Currents: You have been at several different places throughout your coaching career. Do you feel you have finally found a home at Pepperdine?
     Van Breda Kolff: I was at Vanderbilt for six years, and that felt like home there, especially since I went to school there. But it’s the people around you that determines whether a place feels like home. You can be at one place for 10 years and not feel at home, or you can feel at home very quickly in a group, and that has been the case here.