campbell hired at UCSB

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SoCalHoops College News

LMU's David Campbell Hired
As Assistant By UCSB--(Apr. 23, 2001)

Last month, UCSB announced that assistant coach Pete Padgett, the former 19-year Reno HS head coach and father of high-major recruiting prospect David Padgett (6'-11" So. C) from Reno HS, who had coached at Santa Barbara for less than a year, had resigned his position at UCSB to return to his coaching job at Reno HS. Obviously, this left an opening at UCSB which needed to be filled by UCSB head coach Bob Williams. There had been some speculation that the job might go to former Pepperdine assistant and former Simi Valley head coach Bob Hawking, who last had the head coaching job at Cal State Fullerton. Hawking had reportedly been offered the job which Padgett took last fall, but turned it down because he had already taken the head coaching position at Anaheim High School, where he coached his son Quinn Hawking (6'-4" Sr. SG) this past season. And with Quinn's graduation and the possibility that he might become a walk-on at Santa Barbara, that speculation actually started to, as they say, "develop legs".

But in the end, the Hawking angle was just that, i.e., speculation and it proved to be without foundation in several ways. First, there's no indication that Bob Hawking will be giving up his job at Anaheim. Second, there's also some credible evidence that Quinn Hawking will be attending UCLA and will walk on to the Bruins team next year (along with several others. . . but more about that shortly). Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the UCSB job was actually filled by someone else.

This afternoon, both UCSB and LMU announced that the Gauchos had hired current (and soon to be former) LMU assistant coach David Campbell to replace Padgett. Here's the press release we received from LMU' sports information director, John Shaffer:

Lions’ Assistant Moves Closer to Home

Los Angeles, CA (April 23, 2001) -- Loyola Marymount University men’s basketball assistant coach David Campbell has announced his resignation to take a similar position with UC Santa Barbara, moving the native of Monterey, Calif., closer to home.

Campbell, who was brought to LMU as part of first year head coach Steve Aggers’ staff, helped the Lions to a seven-game turnaround in the 2000-01 season, the fifth best ever in the history of the program. The Lions finished the season tied with San Francisco for fifth place in the West Coast Conference.

With family still in Monterey, the move closer was a priority to the graduate of Saint Mary’s College.

“David expressed the desire to be closer to his aging parents and this was an opportunity that he felt moved him closer,” said Aggers. “Bob Williams (head coach at UCSB) is also one of David’s closest personal friends and this gave them an opportunity to work together. Situations like this do not arise very often in the coaching profession. We are disappointed to see him leave our program. He has been a valuable piece to these very critical early stages of rebuilding our basketball program. We thank him for his efforts and wish him well in his new position.”

Aggers and the Lions will begin to search for a replacement immediately.