Marcos Breton: Pacific an institution of higher yearning
September 14, 2006
By Marcos Bretón -- Bee Columnist
Published 2:15 am PST Sunday, March 6, 2005
STOCKTON - Just a short drive south of Sacramento, you'll find the nation's 17th-ranked college basketball team - and that's reason enough to toast the Pacific Tigers.
But landing big in the polls isn't even the best part of their success story - not even close.
To begin with, the Tigers are good students who also happen to rock Alex G. Spanos Center, one of the prettiest little gyms you'll ever see.
The Tigers are also unselfish and unassuming, mirroring their laid-back campus of 3,459 undergraduates in the heart of a gritty town of farmers and workers.
In fact, the Tigers are a collection of scrappers from Europe and California towns, players that few other schools wanted. Starters such as Christian Maraker of Sweden, Guillaume Yango of France and David Doubley of Oakland - the Tigers' three leading scorers - were largely pursued by only one suitor: Pacific.
More than anything, this is why Pacific became a triumph of vision by coach Bob Thomason, who wins by outsmarting and outhustling richer opponents and by identifying opportunities rather than crying about obstacles.
Indeed, the Tigers are like the A's of college basketball.
They win though operating within a university that has a relatively tiny athletic budget of $5 million.
They pack Spanos Center and average 4,685 fans per game in an arena that seats 6,150 - although Pacific has only 6,000 alumni in San Joaquin County.
They flourish even though Pacific was supposedly crippled in 1995 when forced to drop its hallowed football program - and after taking a major financial hit from alums for doing so.
"By suspending football, we immediately lost $100,000 in outside support," said Cindy Spiro, Pacific's interim athletic director at that time. "Our alums weren't happy."
Instead of retreating or continuing to be pummeled on the gridiron and in their budget, Pacific decided to focus on what it did well while making basketball its centerpiece.
Are you paying attention, Sacramento State?
The Tigers are proof it can be done - that a college program can be successful without football; that a small school can attract fans in a pro sports market like the Sacramento region; that you can play with the big boys if you first know who you are.
While at Sac State's campus we've heard goofy predictions of becoming the "Florida State of the West Coast," there are no delusions of grandeur at Pacific.
"We steer clear of guys who say, 'I think I'm a Pac-10 player,' " Thomason said. "You don't want a kid who thinks he's doing you a favor by playing at your school. In fact, our best kids are players that really weren't recruited by other schools."
Doubley, for example, was playing community college ball in Oakland when Thomason came calling. Doubley was so flattered, he committed to Pacific right away.
What did Thomason see in him that other schools didn't? A 6-foot-1 point guard who could score - and a kid with loyalty and honor.
In Yango, a backup community college player in Idaho before transferring to Pacific, Thomason saw a 6-9 center who could move like a smaller man.
And in Maraker, the coach saw a cool-headed shooter, even though there has never been an NBA player out of Sweden.
"Nobody in my hometown knows anything about basketball. ... Only my parents know what I'm doing," Maraker said with a smile.
He has been doing a lot of smiling lately - and so has his team. The Tigers reached the NCAA Tournament last year and look to go again this year as Big West Conference champions.
Once there, who knows? All it takes for a school such as Pacific is to reach the Sweet 16, and suddenly you're a national phenomenon.
Suddenly you are the new Gonzaga, the small school no one wants to face in the NCAA Tournament.
The Tigers have it in them, having given powerhouses such as Kansas all they can handle and pulling off miracle victories such as their Feb. 12 triumph at Utah State.
The Tigers were eight points down to the Aggies on the road - and seemingly done - before they came back to win by pressing Utah State into critical errors.
Maraker hit the winning shot with two seconds left.
"Any of our players could have hit that shot, but what typifies this team is they found the open man," said Lynn King, athletic director at Pacific.
Now the Big West tournament awaits next weekend in Anaheim - and then the NCAAs, and who knows after that?
Sitting in Sacramento, you wish the local school could follow Pacific's blueprint, dump a losing proposition in football and build a basketball winner in a basketball town.
It would take guts to do that, as well as a smart coach with a vision and a nice little building - no mean feat.
But Pacific proved it can be done, and for that, the Tigers deserve all the accolades in the world.
