Last week on Wednesday, Pepperdine University introduced Tom Asbury as the new head coach for the men’s basketball team. He will officially take the post for the 2008-09 season.
Asbury previously coached Pepperdine from 1988 to 1994, guiding the team to three NCAA tournament appearances. He admitted that taking over this team will be a challenge.
“You pick up the media guide and see that this program has lost over 60 games in the last three years,” he said. “Our fans and our students and our community need to be patient. We need to build this, we need to build the infrastructure, need to build the foundation but do it in the proper way and under the proper guidelines. That will be done.”
Asbury, 62, was pulled out of retirement to return to Pepperdine. He would not speculate how long he will be at the school. There is a rumor that he plans to hire former Wave Marty Wilson as an assistant coach, and groom him for the head coach position. Marty is currently an assistant at the University of Utah. Asbury said he does plan to interview Wilson.
“He’s got his priorities in the correct place,” Asbury said. “He’s a guy that I am very interested in, but we’ve made no formal offer. He’s at Utah and his team is competing for the Mountain West championship and he needs to take care of business first. I don’t want to affect what he’s doing currently.”
Pepperdine had been coached the past season and a half by Vance Walberg, who resigned midway through this season. Eric Bridgeland, who immediately replaced Walberg as head coach on an interim basis, will finish the season at that position.