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By Jeff Faraudo
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\nWhen Randy Bennett was hired as men\u2019s basketball head coach at Saint Mary\u2019s in 2001, he had more to overcome than inheriting a team that was 2-27 the year before. Recalling the state of the facility known then as McKeon Pavilion, Bennett acknowledged, \u201cIt was pretty much a high school gym.\u201d
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\nBut as the Gaels blossomed from a program that enjoyed only sporadic success in the West Coast Conference to a national power that has earned 11 NCAA Tournament berths over the past 20 years, their basketball facility also has transformed.
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\nThe changes weren\u2019t always dramatic but each one made the old gym a little better. The facility became the University Credit Union Pavilion in 2019 and since then the Gaels did a major behind-the-scenes renovation with new locker rooms, coaches offices, weight room and a state-of-the-art sports medicine center to serve all of the university\u2019s athletes.
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\n\u201cIt\u2019s a pretty cool gym now,\u201d Bennett said.
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\nChris Callahan, President at the University of the Pacific and chair for the West Coast Conference Presidents\u2019 Council, likes the trend he\u2019s seeing throughout the league.
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\n\u201cSaint Mary\u2019s, that gym is completely transformed. And all the ancillary support is absolutely first rate,\u201d Callahan said. \u201cWe\u2019re seeing that over and over again. We need to do that. We want to be competitive as a conference.
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\n\u201cThe West Coast Conference is a basketball conference and more and more we see our member schools really investing in their coaches and their teams, but also in their facilities,\u201d he added. \u201cWhen you look at the basketball-centric conferences, I feel like we\u2019re right there. Investing in the facilities is really critical and I think it\u2019s been a long time coming for a lot of these schools.\u201d
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\nHere are four of the most significant current or recent projects across the conference:
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\n\u2014 San Diego last April opened its new $35 million Basketball Performance Center. The two-story, 28,000-square foot complex features a full basketball court, an additional shooting court, weight room, sports medicine and hydrotherapy facility, coaches\u2019 offices, locker rooms, player lounge and film room. \u201cIt\u2019s a game-changer, and I don\u2019t say that lightly,\u201d USD athletic director Kimya Massey said. \u201cI\u2019ve been around the West Coast a long time and I think it\u2019s one of the best of the best.\u201d
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\n\u2014 LMU undertook a $15 million renovation of the West Wing at Gersten Pavilion with the unveiling in September of its Academic Success Center. The Lions also renovated administrative offices, and moved basketball offices into Gersten, along with the training table and film rooms for basketball. \u201cFor all of our athletes, the academic center is as good or better than anyone in the conference,\u201d athletic director Craig Pintens said.
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\n\u2014 Pacific is completing construction of its $11 million Student-Athlete and Sports Medicine Center that will include locker rooms for men\u2019s and women\u2019s basketball and volleyball, and a sports medicine rehab space for all of the Tigers\u2019 sports teams. At 15,682-square feet, it\u2019s nearly triple the size of their current facility. \u201cIt has all the bells and whistles,\u201d said Pacific athletic director Adam Tschuour, and is scheduled to open next summer.
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\n\u2014 Pepperdine is in the midst of implementing a four-phase, $150 million project that will be headlined by The Mountain at Mullin Park, a 3,600-seat basketball facility situated in the heart of campus. It will replace Firestone Fieldhouse, the Waves\u2019 basketball home since the university moved to Malibu in 1972. \u201cWe\u2019re building what will be one of the best college arenas on the West Coast, if not in the country,\u201d Pepperdine athletic director Tanner Gardner said.
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\nThe Waves already have opened a new parking garage to serve the arena, and a practice gym and student recreation center are also in the works. The Mountain at Mullin Park is expected to be complete by next November, in time for the 2026-27 basketball season.
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\nWest Coast Conference Commissioner Stu Jackson said he\u2019s encouraged by the level of commitment schools in the league are showing toward improving facilities for basketball.
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\n\u201cMany student-athletes in this new world of college basketball are focused on revenue benefits, but if you don\u2019t have those facilities and amenities, you really can\u2019t become part of the conversation,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cSo, it helps tremendously to see the way our schools are investing overall.\u201d
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\nFirst-year San Diego women\u2019s basketball head coach Blanche Alverson was the associate head coach at Georgia Tech when she visited the Toreros\u2019 campus last spring to interview for their coaching vacancy. There were a lot of reasons the job appealed to her, but the Basketball Performance Center was \u201cthe cherry on top.\u201d
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\nShe is convinced elevated facilities can help translate to more success in recruiting. \u201cIt sends a message that USD is really investing in basketball and is able to compete in that space nationally now,\u201d she said. \u201cIn recruiting, it is still keeping up with the Joneses in a lot of ways.\u201d
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\nAlready Alverson has witnessed how recruits visiting campus respond. \u201cThey realize, `I\u2019m going to be able to compete here. I\u2019m going to have all the resources I need \u2014 weight room, training room, our own basketball practice facility,\u2019\u201c she said. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely made a lot of recruits realize, USD is a place they really want to consider.\u201d
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\nAt Saint Mary\u2019s, Bennett said a key to the Gaels\u2019 ability to develop the setup they needed was the construction of a student recreation center on campus, which houses intramurals and classes. That enabled the men\u2019s and women\u2019s basketball programs to take possession of historic Madigan Gym, built in 1928, and modernize it into a fully equipped practice gym.
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\nElsewhere, San Francisco completed substantial upgrades four years ago to War Memorial Gym, originally constructed in 1958. Improvements to the Sobrato Center included a VIP seating area for guests, seismic retrofitting, a digital scoreboard and improved lighting. The facility also serves as meeting spaces for a range of campus groups and activities. In 2023, the Dons also opened the new Malloy Pavilion, a 7,400-foot practice facility that\u2019s situated alongside War Memorial.
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\nSanta Clara opened the Leavey Center back in 2002, replacing Toso Pavilion, and the 4,200-seat facility has seen upgrades in recent years. The Broncos installed a center-hung video board two years ago. Locker rooms were renovated and this year the old weight room was converted into a team lounge and film room.
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\nAt Portland, the Chiles Foundation presented the university with a $5 million gift in 2023 to provide short- and long-term improvements to the Chiles Center, the Pilots\u2019 basketball home since 1983.
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\nMany of the projects benefit the entire campus, not merely the basketball program. That includes Pepperdine\u2019s Mountain at Mullin Park arena, which is the largest capital project ever done on the Malibu grounds.
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\n\u201cIn terms of what this will mean for the campus, it\u2019s truly transformative,\u201d Gardner said. \u201cIt\u2019s located adjacent to all the student housing so we believe it\u2019s going to be a place where students gather for all sorts of activities. There\u2019s going to be a rec center, something we\u2019ve really never had here in substantial form. That alone is going to have a tremendous impact for all of our students.\u201d
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\nLikewise, Pacific\u2019s new sports medicine center, funded entirely through community philanthropy, will have enough space to allow students in related academic fields to shadow the athletics medical staff for real-world training.
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\n\u201cIt\u2019s a big deal, not just for our student-athletes,\u201d said Tschuour. \u201cWe have one of the most fantastic athletic training staffs, but we also have a terrific undergraduate and graduate program in athletic training and physical therapy. We partner with them on a lot of stuff.\u201d
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\nMassey said he has gotten valuable feedback from student-athletes on what it means to have the new Basketball Performance Center. \u201cWe have a few guys on our team who were at Power Five schools and they said this is way better than what they had.\u201d
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\nPintens said LMU has boasted a strong athletic department-wide GPA and graduate rate. \u201cAt the same time, we didn\u2019t have a good sense of community for them because we didn\u2019t have an adequate space.\u201d The upgraded facility features individual study rooms, computer rooms, small group study areas and a players\u2019 lounge.
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\nPintens shared that since the new academic center opened in September, the few recruits who have so far made visits \u201call have been blown away by our facilities.\u201d
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\nSeattle U has had a partnership with Climate Pledge Arena, an NBA-ready facility minutes from campus that was renovated and re-opened in fall of 2021. The Redhawks have been playing select games there each year since it re-opened during the 2021-22 season. Seattle U also opened the Wright Family Athletic Performance Center last fall, providing a state-of-the-art performance training facility on campus. Seattle U athletics director Shaney Fink said at the time of its opening \u201cThe Wright Family Athletic Performance Center reflects Seattle University’s commitment to competitive excellence through student athlete-centered initiatives that focus on performance and well-being. By providing Redhawk student athletes with a state-of-the-art performance center, we are empowering our athletes with the resources necessary to achieve their aspirations.”
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\nCallahan said Denver and UC San Diego, which will join the West Coast Conference as competing members over the next two academic years, both are committed to making more investments in their basketball programs.
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\n\u201cI\u2019m just so proud of this conference in large part because we\u2019ve leaned into who we are,\u201d he said. \u201cI came from Power Four schools. It\u2019s very different. Here, in a high-qualify mid-major without football, we can really focus more on the student-athlete experience, on the fan experience, and on all of our sports but particularly on basketball. It\u2019s really exciting to see.\u201d
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Story Links
By Jeff Faraudo
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