Men’s basketball preview: The Spencer Era

Steve Virgen

COSTA MESA - A new era will begin for the Orange Coast College

men’s basketball team Friday.

The Steve Spencer era.

OCC’s first-year coach, who was hired in July, has big-time plans for

the Pirates, but this year’s product will look a bit small, as in the

players’ size.

However, Spencer is no stranger to building and rebuilding. He spent

the past five seasons as an assistant to Coach Steve Lavin at UCLA,

helping guide the Bruins to five NCAA Tournament berths, including an

Elite Eight appearance and three trips to the Sweet 16.

“We’re pretty much all guards,” Spencer said of his squad, which opens

its season Friday at 7 p.m. at College of the Canyons. “We’re going to

have to be fast because we’re all small. We’re going to have to cause

some havoc.”

Spencer has assistants Scott Coopman and Brad Wright to help in the

building process. Coopman, who graduated from UC Irvine, worked the past

five years as an assistant at Westmont College in Santa Barbara. The last

four years, the Warriors were 93-34.

Wright, a 7-foot former NBA center, played at UCLA from 1982-1985 then

with the Golden State Warriors, New York Knicks and Denver Nuggets.

“We just want to have a program of trying to get better everyday,”

said Spencer, who learned of OCC while playing against the Pirates at the

College of Marin. He saw the Pirates, coached by Tandy Gillis, when they

went on to win the 1979 state championship (the school’s lone state

title).

“You don’t go into (coaching at OCC) without trying to win,” Spencer

said. “You want to be vying for conference championships year-in and

year-out. You want to hang state championship banners. That’s what you

get in to it for.”

This year, Spencer is basically starting from scratch. He has just

three returners, Ryan Webster, Rich Oliver and Mark Meyers, who averaged

a combined 12 points per game off the bench last season. Webster, a 6-4

sharpshooting guard, averaged 6 points per game.

“I’m very pleased with the progress we’ve made so far,” said the

optimistic Spencer. “The effort level is excellent. I’m really impressed

with their work ethic and their willingness to learn. They’re all doing a

good job.”

Aside from the returning trio, OCC also features Phil Ventimiglia, a

6-6 forward, Tommy Denson, a 5-8 guard, and Andre Hamlin, all of whom

trained with the Pirates last year as redshirts under former coach Mark

Hill. The redshirts watched as the Pirates endured an up-and-down season

that included a 5-0 start in the Orange Empire Conference. But they went

2-7 down the stretch.

Hamlin, a 6-4 forward with noteworthy leaping ability, appears to be

the best of last year’s bunch, but Spencer noted there is no star player

on this year’s team.

“No one really knows about us,” Spencer said. “Hopefully we can sneak

up on a few people this season.”

The lack of expectations, the fresh start and the new coach from UCLA

has apparently made OCC basketball more attractive to incoming freshmen.

Most of them contacted OCC themselves. In fact, Spencer actually

recruited just one player, 5-11 freshman guard Jason Garey, the Pacific

Coast League’s Most Valuable Player last year, from University High.

Julian Barfield, a 6-0 freshman guard from Baltimore, found out about

OCC hoops through Hamlin, who is originally from Atlanta.

Wyshawn Wade, of Westchester High in Los Angeles, heard about the

Pirates by word of mouth and told his high school teammate Brice

Buchanan, a 6-4 forward.

High school teammates, Bryan Williams and Stephon Seales, of CIF

Southern Section III-AA runner-up Centennial of Corona also heard about

OCC through the grapevine.

Seales, a 5-11 guard, has made an immediate impact and will probably

be the starting point guard, Spencer said.

“He has a chance to be a very exciting player,” the OCC Coach said.

“He just needs to gain consistency.”

Spencer said the most consistent post player is Meyers, who is the

tallest Pirate at 6-7. Spencer described Meyers as a blue-collar type who

brings character to the team, like Oliver who is a physical 6-3,

240-pound forward.