These Coaches Are Familiar Foes

Before their basketball teams met Sunday, coaches Jan van Breda Kolff of Pepperdine and Jim Harrick of Georgia had crossed paths.

Pepperdine, coached by van Breda Kolff, was Harrick’s team from 1979-88.

Georgia, coached by Harrick, competes in the powerful Southeastern Conference East Division, which includes Vanderbilt, van Breda Kolff’s former team.

And they were in a league long ago, too. Van Breda Kolff starred at Palos Verdes High in the late 1960s when Harrick coached at Inglewood Morningside High. Both schools were Southern Section powers.

“I know Jan very well,” Harrick said. “Morningside, Palos Verdes and Santa Barbara with Jamaal Wilkes were the best teams in the [Southern Section] at that time.”

Harrick’s Bulldogs (4-3) got the best of van Breda Kolff’s Waves (3-2), 72-61, on Sunday night in Athens, Ga.

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Harrick agreed to schedule a home-and-home series against Pepperdine because next season Georgia will visit Malibu en route to a tournament in Hawaii.

“We were looking for a game close to Hawaii,” he said.