After leading the Pepperdine men’s basketball team to its best season in more than a decade, head coach Marty Wilson has signed a five-year contract extension that will take him through the 2020-21 season.
Wilson will be in his fifth season as the Waves’ head coach in 2015-16. He will be bringing back 12 letterwinners and all five starters from a team that went 18-14 overall, finished fourth in the West Coast Conference at 10-8 and made its first postseason appearance since 2002 with a bid to the College Basketball Invitational.
“We are so pleased that Marty has agreed to further his commitment to Pepperdine men’s basketball,” said Pepperdine Director of Athletics Dr. Steve Potts. “He is a great fit for Pepperdine and has skillfully and successfully led our program’s improvement over the last four years. We are excited about the future for Pepperdine men’s basketball under Marty’s leadership and thank him for his dedication.”
Wilson has compiled an impressive record in Malibu, beginning as a student-athlete (1985-89), continuing as an assistant coach (1991-96, which included a brief stint as the interim head coach) and then returning as the associate head coach for three seasons (2009-11) before being named the Waves’ head coach on March 10, 2011. The 2015-16 season will mark Wilson’s 19th year as either a player or coach in Malibu.
“I really want to thank President Andrew Benton and Dr. Steve Potts for continuing to entrust me with the leadership of our basketball program,” Wilson said. “The culture that we have established on and off the court is something that I am really proud of. We take great pride in recruiting young men that are eager to succeed on the court, in the classroom and in the community. Our staff will continue to work toward building Pepperdine basketball back into a championship program.”
Wilson’s four-year record is 55-67, but the Waves have shown a remarkable amount of improvement under his leadership. The team’s win total has gone from 10 to 12 to 15 to 18 during his tenure. Additional 2014-15 highlights included the program’s most overall wins since 2002, the first league winning season, best WCC regular-season finish and first WCC Tournament semifinal appearance since 2004, and the first winning record since 2005. The Waves had zero seniors on the team last season.

The 2014-15 squad allowed just 61.6 points per game, the program’s best scoring defense since 1961-62. The team ended the year ranked second in the nation in three-point field-goal percentage defense (a school-record 27.0%).
Over the past four years, the Waves have earned WCC Defensive Player of the Year (Brendan Lane in 2014) and Newcomer of the Year (Stacy Davis in 2013) awards. Eight players have received All-WCC notice (including Davis on the first team in 2014 and 2015) and Waves have made the WCC All-Freshman team each of the last three seasons.
Pepperdine’s student-athletes have also impressed in the classroom under Wilson. Malte Kramer became the program’s first-ever Capital One/CoSIDA Academic All-American in 2014 and was a Pepperdine co-Valedictorian. Wilson’s players have received WCC All-Academic honors four times and made WCC Commissioner’s Honor Roll appearances 13 times.
Since Wilson returned as associate head coach prior to the 2008-09 season, the Waves have finished better than predicted in the WCC preseason coaches’ poll all seven years. In 2013-14, Pepperdine was picked to finish in last place (10th), but instead earned their first upper-half finish in the league standings (fifth) since 2004.
Wilson graduated from Pepperdine in 1989 with a bachelor’s degree in communications. He ended his playing career fifth all-time on the program’s assists list with 342 (and now ranks ninth). The Waves went to the NCAA Tournament twice and the NIT twice during his playing days.
After a year away, Wilson came back as an assistant coach, and the Waves went to three more NCAA Tournaments and one NIT. When Tony Fuller resigned midway through the 1995-96 season, Wilson took over on an interim basis for the remainder of the season. Most notably, the Waves upset a Steve Nash-led and top-seeded Santa Clara team in the first round of the WCC Tournament.
Wilson went on to hold assistant coaching positions at San Diego, UC Santa Barbara and Utah before returning to Pepperdine.
Over his 18 years with the Waves, Wilson has been present for nearly a quarter of the program’s all-time victories (286 of 1,185, 24.1%).

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