6. Pepperdine Waves
The Pepperdine Waves were dreadful in a lot of categories last year. They finished last in the conference, ranked 335th in the country in opponent two-point shooting percentage, 292nd in defensive effective field goal percentage, and 293rd in opponent offensive field goal rate. They gave up over 100 points twice last season in conference. However, all of those team failures covered up a lot of the individual promise that the core of this Waves team showed.
Sophomores Houston Mallette, Maxwell Lewis, and Mike Mitchell were three of the seven All-Freshmen team members. Mallette and Mitchell were the leading minute earners last season and that experience will no doubt help them turn the corner this season. The two are terrific tough-shot makers and perimeter scorers (Mitchell 40% and Mallette 38%). Where the team really takes a huge jump is the addition of Lewis for the start of the season.
Lewis not only joined the Waves late due to career arc decisions but he was injured as well missing the first six games of the season. Lewis was on the New Bloods podcast with me and explained that he was learning mostly on the job throughout the season, learning his role and how to impact the game in live-game situations. He’s a three-level scorer, able to attack the rim (65% when shooting at the rim) and shooting 36% from deep. Add senior forward Jan Zidek (13.3 points per game) and the Waves will have plenty of offense to stay in games against their conference foes.
What Lorenzo Romar’s team really needs to do to reach the ranking I have them at and to go even further is improve that aforementioned defense. It was a point of emphasis when Lewis and Mallette were on the podcast. That remains to be seen, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see Pepperdine win games they shouldn’t because of that offense and talented group while also losing games that they shouldn’t because they couldn’t stop their opponents.