Hawking Starts Anew at Pepperdine

Bob Hawking stepped up in class Wednesday when Pepperdine announced that the former Simi Valley High basketball coach had joined the Waves as a part-time assistant.

“I’m excited about the chance to be in the Pepperdine program,” Hawking said. “And I’m tremendously focused on learning basketball at the collegiate level because there definitely is a big difference.”

Pepperdine Coach Tom Asbury realizes that Hawking may use the position as a steppingstone to a full-time assistant position at the Division I level, but the Waves’ new head coach said the arrangement is mutually beneficial.

“It’s so difficult for a high school coach to move to a Division I school,” he said. “We know that this is a transition for him. We’ll bring him in so he can learn about Division I basketball. Bob has a lot of experience but a lot of what happens here is brand new to him.”

NCAA regulations prohibit part-time assistants from making recruiting trips so Hawking’s responsibilities will focus on hands-on coaching, scouting and the school’s summer basketball camps.

“We think Bob’s maturity and intelligence will help our program,” Asbury said. “He will help on the floor with coaching details and spend a lot of time teaching basketball.”

In 14 seasons at Simi Valley, Hawking compiled a 230-119 record. His teams won three consecutive Marmonte League titles, as well as four of the past five, and captured this year’s Southern Section 4-A Division title, the school’s first in basketball.

Asbury was named to succeed Jim Harrick in April after Harrick was selected to succeed Walt Hazzard as head coach at UCLA.