Pepperdine Cruises to 2021 CBI Championship Win vs. Coastal Carolina
Mar 24, 2021
BYU guard Alex Barcello (13) and Pepperdine guard Colbey Ross (4) chase a loose ball during the first half of an NCAA semifinal college basketball game at the West Coast Conference tournament Monday, March 8, 2021, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/David Becker)
There was no stopping Pepperdine on Wednesday.
The Waves absolutely cruised to an 84-61 win over the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers in the College Basketball Invitational championship game, led by a huge night from Victor Ohia Obioha.
— Pepperdine Men’s Basketball (@PeppBasketball) March 25, 2021
While the Waves were flowing, everything went wrong for Coastal Carolina (18-8). They shot just 38 percent from the field and committed 19 turnovers.
Pepperdine (15-12) ended their season in style, meanwhile, cruising in the CBI with three straight double-digit wins. Not a bad showing for a team that traveled across the country to participate in the CBI in Daytona Beach and promptly played three games in four days.
Finishing fourth in the WCC and winning the CBI for the first time in school history was a pretty darn good season for Lorenzo Romar's charges. The Waves will look to build on that result next season as they look to return to the NCAA tournament for the first time since the 2001-02 season.
Key Stats
Victor Ohia Obioha, PEPP: 16 PTS, 6 REBS, 2 BLKS
Colbey Ross, PEPP: 15 PTS, 7 ASTS
Kessler Edwards, PEPP: 9 PTS, 6 REBS
DeVante' Jones, CCAR: 8 PTS, 5 REBS
Essam Mostafa, CCAR: 15 PTS, 5 REBS
Deanthony Tipler, CCAR: 16 PTS
Ohia Obioha Was Ballin'
Ohia Obioha has had a nice CBI, putting up 13 points and 11 rebounds in Pepperdine's quarterfinal win over Longwood. But he saved his best for the championship game, with an incredibly efficient night (7-of-9 from the field).
Pepperdine has relied on its top scorers, Colbey Ross (17.6 PPG) and Kessler Edwards (17.5 PPG) throughout the season. Ohia Obioha (5.1 PPG) has generally been an afterthought in that regard. But not on Wednesday.
If the junior center can continue to progress on that end, the Waves might have a very solid player on their hands next season.
A Tough Way To Close The Season For DeVante' Jones
Jones has been awesome this season, averaging 19.8 points, 7.2 rebounds, three assists and 2.8 steals per game. He didn't have that same magic against Pepperdine, however, as early foul trouble limited him on Wednesday.
After putting up 25 points in a quarterfinals win over Bryant, Jones combined to score just 17 points in the last two games. That didn't keep Coastal Carolina from beating Stetson, but it was too much to overcome against a humming Pepperdine side.
There's no shame in having a few tough games, especially after a season that saw you win Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year. Expect Jones to tear it up in his senior year, too, especially after his junior campaign ended in disappointment.
Forgot About Dre Ball
Dec 14, 2018
Frankly, this is what Dre Ball always wanted. Well, sort of.
For years, his basketball dreams had been connected to his cousins and uncle with the same name: Dre had been classmates with LiAngelo on and off since preschool. He had played alongside his older cousin Lonzo since they were kids. He was set to, in his senior season, share the backcourt with LaMelo. Dre worked out with LaVar, who taught him The Big Baller Way.
Then, in an instant, everything changed. “I wasn’t a part of [the move to Lithuania]. It was just something they did,” says Dre.
While the international sports media attempted to make sense of the move, Dre was left trying to figure out what had happened—and what to do.
In some ways, he was ready for the challenge. “I always had confidence in myself and my abilities,” Dre says. “I just needed the opportunity.” In other ways, though, he had never experienced the limelight. The pressure of the spotlight, the uncertainty of college recruitment and the burden of continuing his family’s legacy at Chino Hills was his to bear alone.
Those who have seen Dre play recognize his potential. “He has been in the shadow, but in three years, that kid will be one of the best players in his class when it matters,” says Clint Parks, a well-known trainer on the grassroots circuit. Dre’s unique skill set and size (he’s 6’7”) has also attracted the attention of pros like Kevin Durant, who believe he is perfectly suited for an evolving NBA—a league in which versatile players who can exploit mismatches and operate in the open floor are highly valued. “Long arms, can guard multiple positions,” Durant said on Overtime. “Everybody gonna need one of those type of guys.”
Still, Dre finds himself the forgotten Ball. Zo routinely makes headlines with LeBron James in Los Angeles. (He makes fewer headlines as a rapper.) Melo has since returned stateside a 6’5” wunderkind, going viral every game at the Spire Institute, a high school and post-grad academy in northeast Ohio. (LaVar and Gelo are conspicuously present at Melo’s games.) Dre, meanwhile, has never been featured on the family’s Facebook reality show, Ball in the Family.
Now a Pepperdine Wave, Dre hopes that, after a life largely spent on the sidelines as a backup to his cousins, he can forge his own path.
“I'm not looking to take a backseat to anyone,” he says. “I'm there to put in work to get to where I want to go. The assumptions about my last name never bothered me. I stopped listening to those whispers a long time ago.”
Dre was four when his parents, Stephanie and Andre, moved him to Chino Hills. The new neighborhood was only 33 miles east of the family’s previous residence in Lakewood, but the landscape—an overall flatness dotted with farms—felt like a different state. “It was cow country,” Stephanie says. “We used to get off the freeway and then drive and drive.”
The decision to move was largely undertaken as a matter of practicality: Andre’s six siblings all lived nearby, which meant that there would be after-school care for Dre—whom everyone called Little Andre (never junior)—and he’d grow up alongside his extended family. Stephanie and Andre could still commute to their jobs in Los Angeles, all without worrying about who would watch their son after preschool. “It wasn’t an inconvenience for the family,” says Stephanie, adding, “They were his caretakers.”
On Sundays, Andre played basketball with his brothers at the Neighborhood Activity Center. The NAC, as the court is known, featured the area’s best runs. He brought young Dre with him; his brothers did the same with their kids. While the older Ball brothers ran full court, the younger cadre did the same on the side court. Lonzo, the oldest of the group at 7, had a refined game, unmatched by anyone his age. Gelo could connect from deep as easily as he could bully his way to the rim. Melo was already starting to showcase an uncanny efficiency from the perimeter. Dre paired an innate quickness with his uber-hops, emerging as a natural finisher for his cousins’ passes—layups at first and then alley-oops as he discovered dunking.
“That’s all they knew,” says Stephanie. “Basketball was a passion that started with his dad and uncles.”
Dre didn’t much look like his cousins—his frame was lean and slender, favoring his mother’s side of the family—but he shared their athleticism. Through preschool and elementary school, Dre spent a lot of time hanging with Zo, Gelo and Melo at their house. LaVar, a former Carolina Panther practice squad player who had once dreamed of becoming a U.S. Marshal, was a stay-at-home father and worked as a personal trainer at a local LA Fitness. (Tina, his wife, was a middle school physical education teacher.) So he helped the kids pass time by running hills, lifting weights and playing 3-on-3 in the Balls' backyard. “We just looked at how his children were playing, and since Dre was right with them, he fell in line,” says Andre, adding, “My brother said that Dre could ball, and we all agreed it would be good for them to train as well as play together.”
Through preschool and elementary school, Dre (top right) spent a lot of time hanging with Lonzo (front), LiAngelo (top left) and LaMelo (top middle) at their house.
LaVar insisted that his progeny play against older competition. He believed the experience would make the quartet better and stronger. Failure wasn’t an option for the kids. “They expect success,” says Steve Baik, the head coach at Chino Hills for six seasons. (He coached Lonzo for four seasons.) “And if they fail, they know to get right back up and not feel sorry for themselves.”
Playing up had other advantages too, like increased exposure. “The more you win, the bigger stage you play on,” Dre explains. Though, as it turned out, the quartet was their own best competition: “We pushed each other every day. There was always enough talent on the court at any time to play each other, and we matched up with everyone.”
That sort of basketball pressure cooker only helped to further Dre’s game. “There are a lot of good things LaVar did pushing those kids and working them out beyond their limits,” says Dennis Latimore, the head coach of Chino Hills, who played collegiately at Arizona and then Notre Dame. “They all at a young age saw the type of work ethic needed to separate themselves.”
Latimore adds, “To go against a talent like Lonzo as a first-grader is transformational.”
Coexisting alongside kids as talented as Lonzo, Gelo and Melo wasn’t easy. Wherever Dre would go, he became known simply as “Cousin Ball.” Still, when it came time to choose a high school, Dre elected to follow his cousins to Chino Hills. “We weren’t completely comfortable with the school, but it was Andre’s decision, so we left it up to him,” Stephanie says.
Whether Dre seriously considered another path is difficult to determine. “I just play the game, and at the end of the day, they’re just my cousins,” he says. But those closest to Dre told me that the decision to deviate from those he had surrounded himself with his entire life was daunting. “He was a young kid, and he was happy to go with the flow,” says Baik, who coached Dre for two seasons.
Stephanie adds, “Dre didn’t want to be a dissenting opinion and go outside of what was familiar to him as a kid.”
LaVar (top left) insisted that his progeny play against older competition. “They expect success,” says Steve Baik, the head coach at Chino Hills for six seasons.
On a roster already stocked with Lonzo and Gelo—Melo, a year behind Dre, wouldn’t enroll at Chino Hills until the 2015-16 season—Dre was arguably the team’s biggest surprise. Though Chino Hills’ season ended in a double-overtime loss in the state title game (Dre scored seven points), the frosh’s potential enticed college coaches, who noted not only his physical traits but also his surname. “He was a great prospect,” says Baik. “His last name opened up doors for him that wouldn’t have existed if he wasn’t Lonzo’s cousin. Coaches thought higher of him because of that.”
As Dre entered his sophomore year, Chino Hills was projected to win a national title. Of the four, Dre was the only Ball who hadn’t committed to UCLA, but as the first player off the bench he was still expected to be an “impact guy,” according to Baik. (Dre was one of the few who could consistently catch and finish all of his cousins’ now-famous alley-oops.)
But a dislocated kneecap sidelined him for a month, and when he returned, the team’s rotation was set. Chino Hills rolled to a 35-0 record without Dre seeing much action.
The next season was much of the same: A shoulder injury suffered during the summer’s AAU slate morphed into a torn right labrum, ending Dre’s season shortly after the preseason. Lonzo was starring at UCLA, on his way to becoming a lottery pick. Gelo was coming into his own as an assassin from the perimeter. Melo dropped 92 in a game and went viral. Dre missed the AAU circuit that summer and stopped training with LaVar, opting to rehab on his own and work out with Andre at a nearby 24 Hour Fitness. “It was lonely for him,” says Stephanie. “He was limited and could only work on his legs, so he was by himself.”
As the Balls leaped into the national consciousness, Dre remained largely adjacent to the family’s national buzz. His parents sometimes worried their son might feel as if he was being pushed against his will. Did he really want this? His dad would often exclaim, “You don't have to do this!” But Dre insisted that to achieve something, as LaVar had shown, he had to work for it.
Then, a series of wholly unpredictable events suddenly thrust Dre into the national limelight. First, he finally got healthy. Then, Lithuania happened. (LaVar proclaimed that Chino Hills would go from “sugar to shit” without his sons on the team. When asked what Dre thought of those comments, Stephanie demurs, adding, “We learned for a long time to take everything LaVar says with a grain of salt.”) Finally, Dre also got a new coach in Latimore, who no longer would have to deal with LaVar on the sidelines. (Baik abruptly resigned in 2016.)
“Before I got here, there was not a lot of common sense going on,” Latimore says of the relationship his predecessors maintained with the Balls. “No parents dictate what happens with the team.”
Dre was never dismissive of his cousins' success. He continued supporting them in private—texting in a group chat or FaceTiming—and publicly on social media. He understood his cousins had chosen their own path, and now it was his turn.
With his cousins and uncle gone, Dre began training outside the family for the first time, enlisting the help of Clint Parks, who connected with Stephanie on social media midway through Dre’s senior season. The two worked to improve Dre’s comfort level with his left hand and his ability to take advantage of his athleticism and score over smaller defenders in the mid-post.
Parks worked with clients such as Tony Snell, Kawhi Leonard and Kyle Kuzma—each had trained with Parks at a period in which his skill development was raw, and all were still learning how to harness and expand on their potential. “I like working with kids who are sleepers,” he says. “Under-the-radar prospects that don’t get the love they deserve, and I help them fulfill their potential.”
Dre was similar. “He needs work,” Parks recalls. “You don’t want him to be a finished project at 17.”
That season, Dre flourished, as did his Chino Hills squad, which won 22 of its last 27 games. “Their absence forced him to step up,” says Stephanie, “and he could stand on his own, which was less stressful for him.” In the CIF Southern California Regional Division I final, Dre dropped 32 points versus St. John Bosco, helping his team reach the state championship game on a variety of long three-pointers and drives to the rim. (Chino Hills won the championship, trouncing Las Lomas of Walnut Creek.) “You can teach skills, but you can’t teach a 45-inch vertical and his quickness,” Latimore says. “Dre reminds me of Andre Iguodala, who I played with for a year at Arizona. He has that type of length and jumping ability.”
After the Southern Regional final performance, Kevin Durant proclaimed that Dre was one of the “diamonds in the rough,” a player whose “game gonna get better and develop” even though he had been “overshadowed” by his cousins. The recruiting floodgates opened—Long Beach State and Pepperdine all offered scholarships. (Dre already had an offer from Northern Arizona and Portland.) “I wondered why he hadn’t been signed yet,” says Pepperdine head coach Lorenzo Romar, who was in attendance at the Southern Regional final. “I was told that people hadn’t gotten the chance to see what he could do.”
Dre’s output against St. John Bosco was illuminating for Romar. “His athleticism jumps out at you, as does his length,” he says. “Those are the players I’ve always tried to recruit.”
Initially, Dre wondered if he should wait for bigger programs to follow suit. But Andre told him: “If they want you but haven’t called you, are they worth waiting for?” Dre committed to Pepperdine in the late spring of 2018.
Dre’s potential has overshadowed what has been something of an adjustment to Division I. Through nine games, he has averaged around 10 minutes per game. However, he continues to pique the interest of the hoop world, particularly online. His arsenal of dunks—in games and in practices—frequently earn thousands of views on Instagram. He still has that same versatility too. He should be able to play multiple positions on the Wave’s extremely fluid rotation. He remains eager to show himself, even if those minutes don’t come right away.
“Coach Romar tells me to go as hard as I can; it doesn’t matter if it’s wrong,” he says.
“His athleticism jumps out at you, as does his length,” says Pepperdine head coach Lorenzo Romar. “Those are the players I’ve always tried to recruit.”
He still thinks back to those days when he first enrolled at Chino Hills, though. “When I played with my cousins, I used to get in my own head and mess up my rhythm,” he says. “It was a mental thing, but since they left, I’ve started a new path.” Back then, he told Baik that his goal was to be the best player he could be. “He didn’t know what that meant,” says Baik. “He hadn’t experienced that level of commitment.” That focus shifted this past year.
There are advantages that are inherent to being “Cousin Ball.” “What a great time to be Dre Ball right now,” Latimore says. The reality is that Dre may have not arrived at Pepperdine with the same determination and drive if the quartet had remained intact. Which is perhaps why he handled his recruitment without their input or advice. He was on his own, so why shouldn’t he be fully in charge for the next stage of his life? “They were already in Lithuania,” his father says, “so it was just us.”
Pepperdine's Jade' Smith: California Fires 1 of My 'Scariest' Life Experiences
Nov 12, 2018
Pepperdine guard Jade' Smith (5) looks to pass around Texas A&M forward Robert Williams (44) during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game Friday, Nov. 24, 2017, in College Station, Texas. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke)
Pepperdine Waves guard Jade' Smith witnessed the intensity of the Woolsey Fire firsthand as the wildfire approached the school's campus in Malibu, California.
"It was wild. It was crazy," Smith said in an interview with TMZ Sports. "It was honestly one of the scariest experiences of my life. There was a point where they started to come around and it felt like they surrounded us almost."
The Woolsey Fire forced thepostponementof Pepperdine's game last Saturday against the Cal State Northridge Matadors. The school thenannounced on Sunday it was rescheduling all of its home sporting events through Thanksgiving weekend.
The Waves play the Northern Colorado Bears on the road on Tuesday before heading to the Bahamas for the Islands of the Bahamas Showcase. Pepperdine's next home game is Nov. 26 against the Idaho State Bengals.
According to CNN's Holly Yan and Susannah Cullinane, the Woolsey wildfire "has burned more than 91,000 acres and destroyed at least 370 structures." At least two people have died as a result of the fire.
The Southern California News Group'sRich Hammondreported on Sunday a number of Los Angeles Rams personnel, including quarterback Jared Goff, defensive tackle Aaron Donald and general manager Les Snead had to evacuate their homes because of the wildfire.
Hammond noted Snead specifically had "a very close call."
Drake Attends Pepperdine Basketball Game in Support of Friend
Jan 8, 2016
As we all know by now, Drake is a basketball fanatic. He's been seen courtside at multiple NBA games and even joined the Kentucky Wildcats for an infamous pregame shootaround.
Thursday night, it was Pepperdine University's turn.
Waves head basketball coach Marty Wilson noted the rapper was at the Malibu, California, school to support his friend Lamond Murray Jr.
You have to imagine the rest of the Pepperdine squad was quite hyped to see Drizzy at the game and to have him in the locker room.
Of course, Pepperdine got the dub with an 81-76 victory over Pacific.
