Prudholme is among 14 newcomers — which includes freshmen and transfers — on the 16-man Waves roster
Stevie Prudholme won a handful of championships on the diamond at Bluffs Park when he was a youth baseball player in the Malibu Little League.
The 19-year-old Malibuite will dribble into another sporting endeavor on the opposite side of Pacific Coast Highway from the park on Saturday.
Prudholme will lace up his sneakers and run onto the hardwood inside Pepperdine’s Firestone Fieldhouse as a member of the Pepperdine men’s basketball team. He said playing college basketball across the street from where rang up hits and wins as a member of the MLL’s Dodgers and Braves teams was once unimaginable.
“Now, I look back and think on it, I never thought I would be playing Division I college basketball here. It is surreal,” Prudholme explained.
The 6-foot-2 freshman guard and his teammates are hosting the Lincoln University Oaklanders at 6 p.m. in an exhibition game. It is the first of two contests — the other is Nov. 6 at 6 p.m. against Western Illinois — the Waves will hold on their home court before their regular season tips off with a game at UC San Diego in La Jolla on Nov. 9.
Prudholme has enjoyed everything about college basketball so far.
“From practice to my teammates to class and school overall,” he said. “The season is about to begin, so we have been practicing twice a day and working very hard. We are getting prepared, and I think we can be really good.”
Prudholme is one of three Malibuites competing with Pepperdine athletic teams this year. His sister, Sophie Prudholme, is a senior forward on the school’s women’s soccer team, and Milo Joseph is a junior utility on the Waves men’s water polo team.
Stevie lives on campus and shares a dorm room with teammate Taj Au-Duke, a freshman guard from Ontario, Canada, while his sister lives at their family’s home a short drive down PCH. The two siblings don’t see each other much on campus because of their class and sports schedules; however, when Stevie and Sophie know they are in each other’svicinity, they are a text message away from a meetup.
Sophie recalled that the first time she saw Stevie on campus was in a café eating breakfast with his teammates earlier in the semester.
“I was really excited to see him because I hadn’t seen him since school started,” she said.
There has been talk of them trying to take a class together.
“That would be fun,” Stevie said.
Both Prudholmes excelled as teammates in the Malibu Little League. The teams they played for and won championships with were coached by their dad, Steve Prudholme.
Stevie eventually put down his baseball bat to focus on basketball, the sport he loved the most, before high school. He discovered shooting the basketball was his strongest skillset. He enjoyed practicing and playing at gyms in Westlake Village and Agoura. The hooper had a trainer in Glendale.
Prudholme played high school basketball at Oaks Christian School in Westlake Village. He won all-league and all-county honors as a senior after helping Oaks Christian win a share of the Marmonte League championship. In fact,Prudholme scored five key points in the third overtime of Oaks Christian’s 73-67 three-overtime victory over Westlake to gain a portion of the league crown. He also played AAU basketball for the Paul George Elite EYBL team for four years.
In high school, Prudholme grasped that there are difficulties in sports.
“I learned to not let that affect me,” he said. “My biggest up was me contributing a lot during our wins my senior year. That feeling of winning as a team and playing well. Senior year is when I learned about the consistency of working hard no matter if I had a good game or a bad game.”
He also practiced and practiced his way into being a talented player.
“I’m hardworking, I’m a good teammate, and I play the right way,” he said. “I got skill too.”
Prudholme had attended a few Waves hoops games in the past but wasn’t a fan. When looking for a university to play at, he knew he wanted to play on the West Coast. Prudholme committed to the Waves in the spring.
“Pepperdine checked all the right boxes for me,” he said. “Basketball-wise it’s the best fit for me to grow as a person and a player. The basketball staff and I connected.”
Prudholme explained that it took a while for him to get adjusted to the speed and the physicality of college hoops.
“These have been the hardest practices I have been in my entire life,” he said. “I’ve adapted though. I’ve picked up the speed and intensity of the game.”
Pepperdine has games against UC Irvine, UNLV, Northwestern, and CSU Fullerton before closing November out with two games in the Arizona Tip-Off in Tempe, Ariz.
Prudholme is among a 14 newcomers — which includes freshmen and transfers — on the 16-man Waves roster. First-year head coach Ed Schilling leads the squad.
The Waves finished last season with a 13-20 record. Pepperdine hasn’t had a winning record since their 2020-21 campaign.
The team’s only Malibu player said the Waves have a bevy of skilled players.
“We are a new team, and we are going to shock college basketball,” Prudholme said. “People always overlook Pepperdine, but we can shock a lot of people.”
He wants to help the team win any way he can.
“I’m going to be a good teammate and continue to work hard every day,” Prudholme said.
