![\"USD](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/SUT-L-usdhoop-0801-01.jpg\")
USD men\u2019s basketball coach JR Blount will show off the school\u2019s basketball performance center during Saturday\u2019s coaching clinic on campus. (USD athletics)<\/p>\nMany of the qualities that made the University of San Diego an attractive destination for JR Blount and Blanche Alverson will be on display Saturday at USD\u2019s Basketball Performance Center.<\/p>\n
NBA assistant coach Jeff Van Gundy and UCLA women\u2019s basketball coach Cori Close will headline Saturday\u2019s sold-out coaching clinic on campus.<\/p>\n
Van Gundy, currently defensive coordinator for the Los Angeles Clippers, became one of the voices for a generation of NBA fans during his 16 years as a color commentator for ESPN. He previously helmed the New York Knicks, leading them in 1999 to their last NBA Finalsappearance before USD grad Mike Brown won this year\u2019s title.<\/p>\n
Close has coached UCLA to back-to-back women\u2019s Final Fours, winning it all last season.<\/p>\n
Blount and Alverson are eager to show off their university to Saturday\u2019s attendees.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot happening throughout this university,\u201d Blount said. \u201cNot just in terms of basketball, but across athletics.\u201d<\/p>\n
USD men\u2019s basketball coach JR Blount will show off the school\u2019s basketball performance center during Saturday\u2019s coaching clinic on campus. (USD athletics)<\/p>\n
Blount heads into his first season with the Toreros, taking over for Steve Lavin. He spent the previous six years as an assistant at Iowa State.<\/p>\n
Under Blount, USD will try to end an NCAA Tournament dry spell of nearly two decades. USD last made the NCAA Tournament in 2008. San Diego State has since become a March Madness regular. UCSD, which will join the Toreros in the West Coast Conference next summer, qualified in 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201c(SDSU) coach (Brian) Dutcher and (former UCSD coach Eric) Olen proved it \u2014 it\u2019s a great area where people with come out to support basketball,\u201d Blount said. \u201cThey love to see success and they\u2019ll back you when you have it. It\u2019s a great place to live, and it\u2019s a place that embraces winning basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n
USD\u2019s investment in basketball, which includes the $35 million Performance Center, comes at an opportune time.<\/p>\n
Gonzaga has left the WCC for the resurrected Pac-12 Conference, and NCAA Tournament mainstay Saint Mary\u2019s has lost longtime coach Randy Bennett to Arizona State.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s wide-open, and our (players) know it,\u201d Blount said. \u201cWe have belief in building with championship habits, and that\u2019s all you can do.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"USD](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/SUT-L-womenshoops-1012-006.jpg\")
USD coach Blanche Alverson looks on during practice at the Basketball Performance Center on campus on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025 in San Diego, California. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
Alverson was in the same position a year ago.<\/p>\n
USD endured growing pains in her first year, finishing 11-22 overall. The Toreros return a veteran corps, with leading scorers Kylie Ray and Olivia Owens both back for 2026-27.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were trying to figure out who we were last year,\u201d Alverson said. \u201cGoing into my second year, we have an identity now and really know our players and know what we\u2019re capable of.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alverson sees the potential for USD as a program. She came to Alcala Park from Georgia Tech, where she spent six years as an assistant. She played collegiately at Auburn.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were fortunate at Georgia Tech that we were right on (Interstate) 85, so there was a lot of traffic in and out through campus,\u201d she said. \u201cThen we realized after (the COVID-19 pandemic),\u00a0when we were allowed to recruit people to comes to campus to really see what it is, that made a real impact.\u201d<\/p>\n
Visible from Interstate 8 and Interstate 5, USD\u2019s hilltop campus has long been a part of San Diego\u2019s landscape.<\/p>\n
Events like Saturday\u2019s clinic could help make USD a bigger part of San Diego\u2019s basketball community as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Many of the qualities that made the University of San Diego an attractive destination for JR Blount and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419656,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[1327,181,74,76,75,127,3425],"class_list":["post-419655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-college-sports","tag-latest-headlines","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-sports","tag-toreros"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}