New Point Loma basketball coach Matt Logie, a Mercer Island grad, sees value in recruiting Pacific Northwest

When Matt Logie was being recruited to play basketball at Lehigh University as a student at Mercer Island High School, the vision he was sold and the connection with the coaching staff helped him fall for a small-school program with scant basketball history, clear across the country.

It’s also helped inform his recruiting style in nearly two decades as a college coach.

But now at Division II Point Loma Nazarene, where Logie was hired as the head men's basketball coach last week, the Seattle-area native imagines recruiting will be a bit different with the San Diego school’s picturesque ocean-front campus.

“I’ve never had the fortune of going through a basketball season in the winter when there wasn’t snow or a great deal of rain,” said Logie, who in eight years at D-III Whitworth had the best winning percentage among active NCAA coaches (.847).

In leaving Whitworth for Point Loma, Logie jumps from one winning program to another. Whitworth won six Northwest Conference titles at Whitworth and was a mainstay in the D-III NCAA Tournament.

Point Loma is coming off a season where they advanced to the Division II national championship game - a season Logie hopes to build on.

Logie imagines Point Loma will continue to recruit heavily in the Pacific Northwest, considering his deep ties to the state of Washington.

“Both Point Loma and myself realize the opportunity to recruit the Northwest has been really successful for them,” Logie said. “We wanted that to continue.

“Having grown up in the Northwest and having the opportunity to go to a campus at Point Loma, which is stunning, is a really, really good marriage.”

The Sea Lions’ roster featured six players from the state of Washington, highlighted by Division II Player of the Year Daulton Hommes, a Lynden Christian graduate.

Logie sees Hommes, who recently declared for the NBA Draft, as a selling point. Hommes was a late bloomer after suffering two season-ending knee injuries in high school, forcing him to miss his junior and senior seasons.

“(He’s) another example for young players that it doesn’t really matter where you go to school, if you’re good enough they’ll find you,” Logie said.

Logie grew up as a ball boy for his grandfather Ed Pepple, a longtime coach at 3A Mercer Island. He eventually moved to the island and won two 3A state championships with the Islanders (1997 and 1999). He dreamed of playing for his grandfather as a child.

After he graduated from Lehigh, Logie spent eight years there as an assistant coach and one year at Kent State. At Lehigh,

Congrats coach @CoachLogie happy for you. Enjoy that sunshine 🙏🏽 https://t.co/kEibnnrpmq

— CJ McCollum (@CJMcCollum) April 26, 2019

">Logie recruited CJ McCollum, who went on to be a lottery pick in the NBA Draft and is now a starter for the Portland Trail Blazers.

Congrats coach @CoachLogie happy for you. Enjoy that sunshine 🙏🏽 https://t.co/kEibnnrpmq
— CJ McCollum (@CJMcCollum) April 26, 2019

NBA player and former lottery pick CJ McCollum tweets his congratulations to Logie, who recruited McCollum to Lehigh University.

Point Loma will be his first Division II coaching job. He replaces Ryan Looney, a Central Valley (Spokane) graduate, who recently took the coaching job at Idaho State.

“We’re just tapping into the potential Point Loma has,” Logie said. “They've proven they can compete for championships at the conference and national level.”