Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Pepperdine signs head coach Marty Wilson to five-year contract extension

Marty Wilson

Marty Wilson

AP

Picked to finish tied for seventh place in the WCC’s preseason poll, the Pepperdine Waves exceeded expectations in 2014-15. Marty Wilson’s team won 18 games, finishing fourth in the WCC and earning the program’s first postseason berth (CBI) since 2002. And with all five starters, led by forward Stacy Davis, returning to Malibu the 2015-16 season could be one in which the Waves take a step forward in the WCC.

With that being the case the school announced Thursday that it has come to terms with Wilson on a five-year contract extension. Wilson, who played at Pepperdine and is approaching his 19th season as either a player or coach at the school, now has a deal that will run through the 2020-21 campaign.

Pepperdine’s win total has increased in each of Wilson’s four seasons at the helm, and last year they proved to be one of the WCC’s best defensive teams despite losing 2014 WCC Defensive Player of the Year Brendan Lane to graduation.

In WCC games Pepperdine ranked second in the conference in scoring defense (61.2 ppg allowed) and field goal percentage defense (41.9 percent) and first in three-point percentage defense (28.2 percent). In all games Pepperdine ranked second nationally in three-point percentage defense, limiting opponents to 27 percent from beyond the arc.

Joining Davis (15.7 ppg, 7.8 rpg), one of the top players in the WCC, as returning starters are fellow forward Jett Raines (10.6, 5.1) and guards Jeremy Major (8.7, 3.4, 3.6 apg), Shawn Olden (9.2, 2.4) and Atif Russell (5.6, 2.9). The Waves also return key reserves Lamond Murray Jr. and Amadi Udenyi (12 letterwinners in total return).