1958 West Coast Athletic Conference Champions
Overall Record: 25-2 | WCC Record: 12-0
Head Coach: Phil Woolpert
Overall Record: 25-2 WCC Record: 12-0
All-WCC Team: Gene Brown, Mike Farmer (POY)
Top Scorer: Eugene Brown (14.2) Top Rebounder: Art Day (10.3)
USF Hall-of-Famers: Gene Brown, Mike Farmer, Phil Woolpert
The Dons won the newly renamed West Coast Athletic Conference with a perfect 12-0 record in league play and finished four games ahead of the second place St. Mary’s Gaels (8-4). The Dons led the nation in scoring defense, limiting their opponents to just 50.5 points per game. The Dons opponents had a rough time making shots against USF’s stingy defense also. Opponents’ average shooting percentage was a paltry 34.5%. Field goal percentage stats were not kept as an official stat until the 1970’s or the 1957-58 Dons might well have the led the nation in that category as well.
How tough was it to score against the 1957-58 Dons? Consider this – only four times all year did an opponent shoot higher than 40% from the floor versus USF. In a January game against ancient rival Santa Clara, the Broncos got a taste of the Dons stingy D as hated Santa Clara connected on just 12-65 from the floor – a paltry 18.5%. One month later in the rematch the Broncos fared slightly better – making 20-62 from the floor – 32.3%.
Forward Mike Farmer was named league MVP, averaging 12 points and 8 rebounds per contest, while knocking down 86% of his free throws. Guard Gene Brown led the Dons in scoring at 14.2 points per game and Fred LaCour added 12.5 points per contest.
The Dons finished 25-2 overall and lost to Seattle and Elgin Baylor in the second round of the NCAA tournament 69-67, in front of 16,832 fans packed inside the Cow Palace. At the time it was the largest crowd ever to watch a basketball game on the West Coast. It was the Dons fourth straight 20-win season and capped a tremendous four-year run for Coach Phil Woolpert. Over the four years (1955-58) the Dons record was 104-10 (91%) with two national titles and three trips to the Final Four.
Did You Know? The Dons played their final games without a true home gym at the end of the 1957-58 basketball season. For bigger opponents USF had used the mammoth Cow Palace, but for most tilts the Civic Auditorium, Winterland and Kezar Pavilion were used for the home courts. USF had practiced in a high school gym borrowed for the afternoon from the local preps. Completed in October of 1958, Memorial Gym was christened at the start of the 1958-59 season.
They Said It: "See you next year - in our gym - give the cows back their palace," wrote publicist Dick Duris in The Don, the annual campus yearbook. The loss to Seattle at the Cow Palace in the NCAA tournamant signaled the end of an era as USF christened Memorial Gym the next season.
