MALIBU, Calif. (AP) -Tom Asbury was introduced as the head basketball coach at Peppedine on Wednesday, marking his second stint at the university.
The 62-year-old Asbury compiled a 125-59 record at Pepperdine from 1989-94 and had been living in Arizona after coaching at Kansas State and being an assistant at Alabama.
“I spent 15 years here in total and loved every minute of it,” Ashbury told a news conference Wednesday. “We’re certainly hopeful that we can achieve the kind of success on the floor and in the classroom that we did previously.”
The Waves are 9-18 and 3-8 in the West Coast Conference.
Vance Walberg resigned on Jan. 18 and was replaced by interim coach Eric Bridgeland, who will remain on the job for the rest of the season.
Asbury acknowledged it will be a “huge challenge” to make Pepperpine a championship team again.
“With the help of some of the young guys we’ve got in the program now and through the recruiting process we’re certainly going to do everything in our power to build this program back up to where it was, with the same kind of class and dignity that it had previously,” he said.
Asbury was an assistant under Jim Harrick at Pepperdine from 1980-88, then became head coach. He took the Waves to NCAA tournament berths in 1991, ’92 and ’94, two NIT appearances and three regular-season WCC titles.
Asbury took over at Kansas State from 1995-2000, then worked at Alabama from 2004-07.
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