TIGERS SEARCHING FOR SOME RESPECT

The Pacific Tigers came out of nowhere during the 2003-04 season. A sixteen-game winning streak, capped with a first round win over Providence, finally came to and end in the second round of the NCAA tournament. As time expired against Kansas so to did the career of Miah Davis. The senior point guard walked away as the Big West Player of the Year and many thought Pacific’s chances of an encore left with him.

Not quite.

While Davis was lost to graduation, coach Bob Thomason did have ten returning players who had sampled success and wanted to take a bigger bite in 2005.

“Thinking about doing something and actually doing it are two different things,” says Thomason. They actually did it last season and they came into this season wanting to do more.”

And more they have done.

The Tigers are 15-2, with their lone losses coming at Kansas and at home against San Francisco (No. 24 in the latest Mid-Major Top 25). They have a 23-game unbeaten streak in the Big West Conference and are currently 10-0 in league play, which is a school best. In addition, the Tigers are 9-1 away from home.

“A lot of the success can be attributed to the confidence we gained last season,” Thomason says. “Down the stretch they learned how to win and that has carried over to this season. We don’t have Miah, but we did return ten players from last year’s team.”

One of those returning players has arguably been the team’s MVP and it’s not Mid-Major All-American Christian Maraker. David Doubley spent the majority of last season hobbled with an aggravated groin, but the 6-foot-2 senior has been healthy this season and his contributions have been immeasurable.

Doubley, the Tigers second-leading scorer (12.9 ppg), has done a phenomenal job of running the offense. And he plays with a confidence that will remind you of Davis. He wants the ball in crunch time. He’s already dropped in some big late-game shots, but when he’s not shooting he always seems to get the ball into the hands of someone who does score.

“With David, Johnny [Gray], Mike [Webb] and Marko [Mihailovic] our four-guard rotation is better than last season,” says Thomason. “Without Miah were obviously not the same. He made a lot of big plays. Now we have four or five guys that are making big plays.”

Leading the way is Maraker who all but fell into Thomason’s lap. Thomason discovered the 6-foot-9 junior while the Tigers were in Sweden on a pre-season trip. In seventeen minutes against the Tigers, Maraker scored 17 points on 7-for-7 shooting.

Thomason jokes with Maraker, telling him that had he had a poor shooting night he would probably still be playing in Sweden. Michael Olowokandi’s call requesting a scholarship still ranks as the crown jewel for Thomason, but the recruitment of Maraker is still a gem.

Maraker is one part of Thomason’s three-headed monster on the front line. Along with Guillaume Yango (6-foot-9) and Tyler Newton (6-foot-10), the Tigers boast one of the bigger front courts in America.

“That trio is as good as any in the country,” says San Francisco head coach Jessie Evans. “We had our hands full when we played them because they can bring size off the bench too. They will be able to match up with a lot of people in March and one of the big boys is not going to be happy about drawing them.”

First things first, there is still a lot of work to before the Tigers can claim a spot in the NCAA tournament and Thomason would like to see his squad take a little better care of the basketball and crash the boards to the tune of four or five extra rebounds per game. But it’s hard to imagine that the Tigers won’t be playing in mid-March.

What is hard to imagine is how, despite being ranked No. 2 in the Mid-Major poll for the past month, Thomason’s team is still not getting a lot of national exposure.

“All we can do is just keep winning games,” laughs Thomason. “There is no sense in complaining because if you complain too much you lose sight of what’s most important and that is winning. It has gotten to the point where we are a bit disrespected but that’s the way it is and we can’t get to concerned about it.”

Still it’s hard to figure the lack of attention given to kids from Stockton, CA. It’s not as if this is something new for the program.

Thomason-led teams at Pacific have won more games during the last six seasons than in any six-year span since the late 1960's and early 70's, when Thomason starred for the Tigers. Since returning to his alma mater after graduating in 1971, Thomason has very quietly guided the Tigers back to prominence.

Prior last season’s magical run, Thomason had guided Pacific to eight winning seasons, the first NCAA tournament appearance (1997) in eighteen years and the school’s first ever invite to the NIT (1998). And another postseason birth seems more than just likely.

So just how good is Thomason’s latest team?

One coach on the left coast believes Pacific is every bit the equal of media darling Gonzaga, which Thomason has tried to schedule a home-and-home series with for the past four seasons.

In addition to playing in the shadow of the Zags, Thomason’s team is hurt by the fact that they don’t have any prolific scorers. Everybody likes numbers and their statistical numbers won’t jump off the page, but 15-2 should get your attention.