Oct. 20, 2008

By Trevor Freeman

Special to NCAA.com

Today we have a special treat as water polo royalty stopped by to speak with me about his squad.  On the heels of an impressive seventh place finish in the SoCal Invitational and 20-4 rout over Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, Denny Harper from UC San Diego is joining us for an interview.  There are only a few coaches that have achieved legendary status in the sport of water polo and Denny Harper is one of them.  In his 29th season, Harper might have a team that can get him back to the NCAA Final Four and we all know how dangerous the Tritons can be with an invitation to the party.  In 2000, his Tritons became the first and only non-Division I team to play in the NCAA Men’s Water Polo Championship game after they upset USC 9-8 in the Final Four.  Harper won his 500th game this season and his UC San Diego squads have won their WWPA conference fourteen times.  We discussed this year’s team and his tremendous coaching achievements and below is our interview.

How important was it for you to do so well at the SoCal Invitational in beating UCSB and Long Beach State and playing UCLA to a three-goal game?

It was very important.  The SoCal Invitational is not much different from the NorCal Invitational in that on day one, everyone wants to make the top eight.  We were in the 8-9 game which involved the nationally ranked eighth and ninth teams.  At the NorCal Invitational we lost that game to Long Beach State.  Going into it, we knew it would be a gnarly game and we were happy to play well under pressure and win.  We wanted to be in the top eight grouping instead of that nine through sixteen group that the losing team drops into.  We wanted to be the hunters instead of the hunted.

Against UCLA, we survived an early counterattack storm from them.  We played great frontcourt offense and defense.  The game was tied in the third period.  I thought there were some questionable calls that could have gone our way.  However it was a good outing for us against UCLA.  Just a really good effort.

We played Loyola Marymount the next morning who is a big conference rival.  It was a great, physical game.  I was disappointed we gave up a two-goal lead.  We also didn’t offer up much in overtime.  That being said, a few breaks here and there and we could have pulled off a win.

UCSB was a great game.  I thought we had won it in regulation; however there was a questionable ejection which led to overtime.  We knew during the game there was a short side of the sprint.  That came into play at the beginning of the second sudden death overtime period as we knew we would win the sprint.  We called an immediate time-out after winning the sprint and set up a 2 on 2 game with A.J. Kotanjian and Adnan Jerkovic and Adi hit a great shot from about 20 feet to win the game.

Speaking of Loyola Marymount, what do you guys have to do to get over the hump and beat LMU?  I noted that you have played them twice this season and have lost two close shaves.

Both teams know each other well.  We are very respected programs in our conference.  It will come down to who makes plays.  The 6 on 5 will be critical.  Loyola Marymount has an exceptional 6 on 5 offense.  We play one more time at their pool.  I’d be perfectly content to lose that one as long as we beat them at WWPAs.

Adnan Jerkovic and A.J. Kotanjian redshirted for your team last season and have come back as forces on this team.  What was the decision-making behind that and how important is it to have their Final Four experience back in the fray?

There were a ton of factors behind redshirting them.  From a water polo perspective, we thought we could win WWPAs and get to the Final Four with them redshirting. However, last season turned out to be our lowest finish ever in conference at fifth place.  By redshirting them we were investing in our future.  We did get six to seven guys some major experience last season by throwing them into the fire and those players combined with Adnan and A.J. are leading this year’s team.  I think Adnan and A.J. are two of the better players in the nation.

Steven Donahoe has been outstanding for the Tritons this season.  What makes him the great player that he is?

He has great physical skills and he is also a really smart kid.  He is one of the most intelligent players we have ever had.  This is a kid who already took the MCATs and scored in the 97th  percentile.  He listens to coaches and applies it.  Steven also has a great work ethic.  He is emerging for us as a bona fide star at two-meter defender.  He did a great job last weekend on Long Beach State’s big set Jeff Greenwood.  He is also a great shooter.

David Morton is off to a promising start to his college career.  Can you tell us why he has been successful in goalie as a true freshman?

Last year we did not have stability in the cage and David has brought greater stability.  He is a good kid, who keeps a good head in the cage.  He gave up some goals at the SoCal Invitational that you would expect him to block, however he will bounce back from that.  He has had a good season as a freshman.  David trains hard.  He is learning all the time as he is transitioning from a fairly decent region of high school water polo to the college varsity level.

Finally, 500 career victories.  Which ones stand out to you as the most memorable?

I try not to compare teams or players.  Especially because I also coached the women’s team for sixteen seasons and won five national titles prior to the women’s sport being included as an NCAA sport.

That being said the win over USC in the 2000 Final Four and earning the right to play for the national title stands out.  When it used to be an eight team tournament, our expectation was to make the Final Four.  When it became a Final Four our expectation was to make the Championship game.  That win made our expectation as a program to now get back to the Championship game and win it.

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Two of the top four teams in the country matched up when 2nd ranked Stanford traveled to 4th ranked UCLA for the most important game of the weekend.  Most thought this game was going to be a nailbiter; however Stanford had other ideas as the Cardinal put together quite possibly the best performance any team has had this season.  The Cardinal defeated UCLA 12-2 and cemented their status as the second best team in the country behind USC.  Stanford held UCLA scoreless for the first thirteen minutes of the game and led 5-1 at halftime.  Then the Cardinal officially put the Bruins to sleep by scoring the first six goals of the second half.  The statistics on this contest are even more stunning.  Jimmie Sandman had eleven saves in the cage for Stanford versus Chay Lapin’s two for UCLA.  The score was so out of hand that Stanford even subbed their goalie in the fourth quarter.  In water polo, this is the equivalent of Red Auerbach pulling out a victory cigar and smoking it on the bench.  Ten different Cardinal players scored (Janson Wigo led the way with three). 

The CWPA Southern Division conference had a set of regular season games held at Bucknell from Friday through Sunday and all it did was make the already wild East even more of a free for all.  It started on Friday night with Bucknell’s convincing 11-6 upset victory over 12th ranked Princeton.  Like the above mentioned Stanford-UCLA contest, Bucknell’s dominance was incredible.  This was a Princeton team that seemed to have established itself as the team to beat in the East with their play in recent weeks that included conference wins over Navy and Johns Hopkins and nonconference victories over Redlands and Pacific.  The game was all Bucknell as the Bison scored six consecutive goals at one point and also held a margin of 10-3 in the second half.  Richie Hyden led the way with three goals and Nick Donahue had fourteen saves.  It was an outstanding weekend for the Bison as they also defeated George Washington, Mercyhurst and Johns Hopkins.  The Mercyhurst win was a thriller for the Bison as the difference was Alex Lampley getting a goal past his old Governor Mifflin High School (PA.) teammate Andy Sekulski with twenty seconds left.  However, one team had a better weekend than the Bison and that is the Midshipmen of Navy who are beginning to round into form.  Bucknell’s only loss on the weekend came to Navy by an 11-6 count with Johnny Meiners’ four goals leading the way.  The Middies also defeated Gannon 19-2 and have now won four straight contests since losing to Princeton in late September.   

Following the loss to Bucknell, Princeton rebounded by defeating Johns Hopkins 7-5 and Mercyhurst 10-5.  Brendan Colgan scored eight goals in the two victories for the Tigers.  Gannon also scored a huge win at Bucknell as they beat George Washington 7-6 on a Dmitriy Simonoff penalty shot.  Simonoff scored three goals in the victory for the Golden Knights and Darren Stone had nine saves.  Mercyhurst was able to rebound from the heartbreaking loss against Bucknell on Saturday night to claim a big 16-11 victory over Johns Hopkins.     

Pepperdine took an eight-hour bus ride up North and came away with two victories.  In their first game they faced off with UC Davis and raced out to a 9-3 halftime lead.  Pepperdine was able to keep the Aggies at arms-length the rest of the contest and won 14-9.  Adam Hewko and Grant Miller led the way as they combined for nine goals in the victory.  In its second game of the weekend, Pepperdine moved to 2-0 in conference play with a 9-4 victory over Pacific.  J.P. MacDonell scored three goals to lead the way for Pepperdine.  These were both games that Pepperdine was expected to win.  Next week is exam time for the Waves as they will face-off with USC in what is their biggest game of the season. 

CWPA Northern Division regular season champion Brown took a trip out West to play Loyola Marymount, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, UCLA and UC-Irvine.  The Bears ended up their trip 1-3 as they lost to Loyola Marymount, UC-Irvine and a UCLA team that was angry about their loss the previous day to Stanford.  Brown’s lone win was over Claremont-Mudd Scripps.  The loss to LMU was by a 13-4 count as Julien Lormant and Tibor Forai each scored three goals for the Lions.  Andy Stevens blocked seven shots (including a five-meter penalty) as well for Loyola Marymount.  Against UCLA, the Bears ran up against a team that was fired up to put the previous day’s disappointment behind them.  UCLA won 14-2 with eight players registering a goal.  The match with UC-Irvine came approximately three hours after the UCLA game; however the Bears had a much better showing.  Brown lost to Irvine 13-9 and had the game down to 11-8 with four minutes left.  That was the closest they would get as James Frank and Brandon Johnson scored consecutive goals for Irvine to put the game away.  Sandwiched between those three losses to three of the top nine teams in the country was a 12-8 win against Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.  Gordon Hood scored three goals to lead the way for the Bears in that contest. 

Other games of note included 9th ranked UC-Irvine making a trip to Santa Barbara to take on the 8th ranked Gauchos.  In front of a packed house, UCSB won 13-12 in triple overtime as Daniel Natalizio found the net on a backhand shot for the winner.  Milos Golic led the way for the Gauchos with four goals and Michael Robinson had fourteen saves in the victory.  Iona also traveled to Colorado Springs to face the 19th ranked Falcons of Air Force twice over the weekend.  The Falcons won both games by a combined total of 32-13.  Jack Hines scored seven goals in the two Air Force victories.

Player to Watch

Jimmie Sandman, Stanford, Jr:  All Sandman did was hold UCLA to two goals and block eleven shots in a game that Stanford needed to have.  He negated the biggest edge most felt that UCLA had going into this game which was Chay Lapin in the cage. 

Contest To Keep An Eye On

USC travels to Malibu this weekend for a gigantic road clash with Pepperdine.  If Pepperdine is to creep into the at-large bid discussion, then this is a must-have for them.  It will be interesting to see what the Waves do to slow down the Matt Sagehorn-J.W. Krumpholz-Shea Buckner trio.  Pepperdine is a very physical team and that helped them slow down USC in their first matchup which was a 7-6 double overtime loss at the Triton Invitational.