Wilson 'Excited' About His Challenge at Pepperdine
Just got off the phone with assistant coach Marty Wilson, who will be leaving the Utes soon to become the head-coach-in-waiting at Pepperdine. He joked that the biggest change from a day or two ago -- when he was still trying to iron out the deal -- was his blood pressure.
It's going up even more, now.
Officially, Wilson will become the associate head coach for the Waves, under his former coach and mentor, Tom Asbury, who's coming out of retirement in an effort to rejuvenate the program. But the Waves expect the 62-year-old Asbury to help prepare Wilson to take over at some indeterminate point in the future.
Wilson said he's excited about the challenge, but also aware that he's in for a lot of work rebuilding a team that has fallen quite a bit from the glory days when he was playing for the Waves under Asbury in the mid-1980's.
"It's going to be a challenge," he said. "But we're excited about the challenge."
Wilson finalized the deal after meeting with officials at his alma mater over the weekend, mostly to secure a way to assure that he and his family "could survive, financially" in one of the nation's most expensive housing markets. Neither Wilson nor the university released specifics of his contract, but Wilson said he's "very confident in the direction" that the university leadership is taking.
The Utes are just headed over for a shootaround, I think, so I couldn't reach coach Jim Boylen. But he has been expecting Wilson to take the job, and I suspect he already has a short list of candidates to replace him. Having retained Wilson from the previous coaching regime, I would imagine that Boylen plans to bring in another of "his" coaches to join the staff.
When will that happen?
That part could be interesting. While he might stay until the end of the season, Wilson also acknowledged that "there could be a chance" that he will leave earlier, considering how distracted coaches can get when worrying about one job while trying to perform another. Boylen, he said, has been exceptionally understanding of that, having gone through it himself just last year. The two will discuss a plan in the next day or two.
"He understands what I've been dealing with," Wilson said.
Don't expect the Waves to show up on the Utah schedule anytime soon, however. I asked Wilson about that, and he said the team has much rebuilding to do before he would feel comfortable scheduling the Utes. One of his first orders of business, he said, is trying to re-recruit the players who were granted releases from their letters-of-intent when the previous coach resigned -- and that includes Oregon City's Brad Tinsley, whom the Utes had recruited, too.
Tinsley now is generating interest from some major schools -- even North Carolina -- and probably won't want to return to Pepperdine. Besides, it's not as if he has a relationship with Wilson; assistant coach Chris Jones did most of the recruiting of Tinsley for the Utes, Tinsley's father said.
But, hey, we'll see ...
It's going up even more, now.
Officially, Wilson will become the associate head coach for the Waves, under his former coach and mentor, Tom Asbury, who's coming out of retirement in an effort to rejuvenate the program. But the Waves expect the 62-year-old Asbury to help prepare Wilson to take over at some indeterminate point in the future.
Wilson said he's excited about the challenge, but also aware that he's in for a lot of work rebuilding a team that has fallen quite a bit from the glory days when he was playing for the Waves under Asbury in the mid-1980's.
"It's going to be a challenge," he said. "But we're excited about the challenge."
Wilson finalized the deal after meeting with officials at his alma mater over the weekend, mostly to secure a way to assure that he and his family "could survive, financially" in one of the nation's most expensive housing markets. Neither Wilson nor the university released specifics of his contract, but Wilson said he's "very confident in the direction" that the university leadership is taking.
The Utes are just headed over for a shootaround, I think, so I couldn't reach coach Jim Boylen. But he has been expecting Wilson to take the job, and I suspect he already has a short list of candidates to replace him. Having retained Wilson from the previous coaching regime, I would imagine that Boylen plans to bring in another of "his" coaches to join the staff.
When will that happen?
That part could be interesting. While he might stay until the end of the season, Wilson also acknowledged that "there could be a chance" that he will leave earlier, considering how distracted coaches can get when worrying about one job while trying to perform another. Boylen, he said, has been exceptionally understanding of that, having gone through it himself just last year. The two will discuss a plan in the next day or two.
"He understands what I've been dealing with," Wilson said.
Don't expect the Waves to show up on the Utah schedule anytime soon, however. I asked Wilson about that, and he said the team has much rebuilding to do before he would feel comfortable scheduling the Utes. One of his first orders of business, he said, is trying to re-recruit the players who were granted releases from their letters-of-intent when the previous coach resigned -- and that includes Oregon City's Brad Tinsley, whom the Utes had recruited, too.
Tinsley now is generating interest from some major schools -- even North Carolina -- and probably won't want to return to Pepperdine. Besides, it's not as if he has a relationship with Wilson; assistant coach Chris Jones did most of the recruiting of Tinsley for the Utes, Tinsley's father said.
But, hey, we'll see ...
posted by www.sltrib.com @ 1:55 PM |
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