It has been a rough March for teams out West (Arizona, Gonzaga, etc.) but there is still a rich legacy of basketball in the Pacific time zone due to teams such as…Pacific. Bob Thomason helped lead the Tigers to the 1971 NCAA tourney by scoring 17.2 PPG as a player, then took over as coach at his alma mater in 1988 and turned out to be a great fit. In 25 years on the sideline he set a Big West conference record with 437 wins, led his school to 6 conference regular season titles, and was a 5-time conference Coach of the Year. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with Coach Thomason about being a great FT shooter and making a bunch of NCAA tourneys. Today is Bob’s 73rd birthday so let us be the 1st to wish him a happy 1!
You were an all-conference SG at Pacific, where your 83.7 FT% is still among the best in school history: how good a player were you back in the day, and what is your secret for FT shooting? We had a good team with some great players like John Gianelli. My secret for 5 straight summers was to shoot until I made 100 FT in a row. Every time I stepped to the line I would verbalize my entire routine. I treated every situation as a win/lose opportunity, whether in practice or a game.
You scored a career-high 36 PTS against Loyola Marymount as a senior: was it just 1 of those scenarios where every shot you put up seemed to go in because you were “in the zone”? I think so. If we had won that game then we would have clinched the league title: I had a lot of great opportunities that I took advantage of.
What are your memories of the 1971 NCAA tourney (you had 19 PTS/7 AST in a loss to Long Beach State)? I was pretty sick about losing after being up by 13 PTS at halftime. They came out in a half-court trap and we were not prepared to handle it. If we had won then we would have played 4-time-defending-champion UCLA next!
In addition to basketball you also played varsity golf in college: which sport were you better at, and which 1 did you enjoy the most? In college I enjoyed basketball more and I was much better at it than golf. I had fun on the golf course but was not great at it. Now I have a great passion for golf and have even more since retiring.
In 1976 as coach at Escalon your team finished 27-0 and won a state title: how were you able to keep your team focused for every single game, and what did it mean to you to win the title? When I started at Escalon we had a couple of good sophomores, and as they matured over time we became a good team. I remember the fans getting behind us and traveling with us. They allowed me to coach them hard as we kept trying to get better during the season, which is something I have always believed in.
In the 2004 Big West tourney title game Miah Davis scored 11 PTS and made 2 FT with 5 seconds left in a 2-PT win over Cal-State Northridge: how were you able to pull out the win? We were up by almost 20 PTS in the 1st half but they came all the way back to tie it up with 15 seconds left. That team really deserved the title because they were committed to playing defense and being unselfish.
In the 2004 NCAA tourney Davis scored 19 PTS in an 8-PT upset of Providence: where does that rank among the highlights of your career? It is 1 of the proudest moments of my career. I remember that after the 1st few minutes I was impressed with how calm we were, which gave me a lot of peace of mind. That win opened the door for the next 2 years.
In the 2005 NCAA tourney Christian Maraker/David Doubley each scored 17 PTS in an 8-PT win over Pitt: how were you able to keep upsetting major conference teams in March? We were actually wearing white uniforms as the #8-seed, which meant we were the favorite even though it was an 8-9 game. We played fantastic basketball that day.
In the 2006 NCAA tourney Maraker scored 30 PTS in 49 minutes in a 2-OT loss to BC: where does that rank among the most devastating losses of your career? I saw BC beat UNC in the ACC tourney the week before and recall not wanting to play them. They were so big/strong and set a lot of hard screens. Christian hit a big 3 to get us into OT. It is still the most heart-wrenching loss of my career: the foul call against us at the end of the 1st OT was disappointing.
You became the all-time Big West leader in wins in 2011 before retiring in 2013: do you think that anyone will ever break your record, and what do you hope to do in the future? Records are always there to be broken so I assume that someone will break it at some point, although they will need to stick around 1 place for a couple of decades to do it. As far as my future, I have no idea what I am going to do but I like playing golf and hanging around with my grandkids. I do not want to go somewhere else to be a head coach but would consider being some sort of consultant for a program.