University of San Francisco Athletics

In the fall of 1982, Joe Seager was a senior center at Newport Harbor High School and a pretty hot property. He was 6-feet 10-inches tall and had been averaging 19 points and 10 rebounds a game. After making two trips, to Colorado and Hawaii, Seager visited the University of Oklahoma.

“I liked the school and I liked the coach who was recruiting me,” Seager remembers. “I signed on the first day of early signing.”There was just one little catch. Because he signed early, Seager hadn’t seen the Sooners’ new freshman, a 6-9 power player by the name of Wayman Tisdale. Seager redshirted his freshman year.

But his sophomore year, Seager never got the chance to play. That year Tisdale, a junior, led Oklahoma to the final eight of the NCAA tournament. “I thought I’d get a chance to play a different position,” Seager said. “But I wasn’t playing at all.” So Seager came home. He played a season at Orange Coast College, then made a commitment to the University of San Francisco. Seager started for USF last season but suffered two leg injuries, one during the season and one last summer. Now he’s averaging about 20 minutes a game as a backup center. This is his last year of eligibility.

“It’s been a pretty rocky road,” he said. “Some people have talked to me about going to Europe to play, but with all my luck, I think I’ll just hang it up and get a job. “I learned a lot playing against Wayman every day in practice. But if I was coming out of high school now, I wouldn’t sign early. I’d wait. If you’re good enough, someone will take you (LATimes).”