The Dons' 2007-08 season was one of the strangest in school history. It'll be up to new coach Rex Walters to predict what is in the program's future.

Walters, who starred at Kansas and played in the NBA, was a head coach for two seasons at Florida Atlantic, guiding the Owls to a 31-33 overall record. He's from California (San Jose) and inherits a pillar to build around in Dior Lowhorn, the leading scorer in the West Coast Conference last season.

Naming Walters coach on April 14 ended a period of several months during which the program was more tumult than anything.

Coach Jessie Evans was relieved of his duties the day after Christmas and replaced by Eddie Sutton, who needed two wins to reach 800.

The way the firing and hiring were handled by athletic director Debra Gore-Mann created a lot of controversy among the school's top donors. There still are complaints.

Gore-Mann's choice of the successor to Sutton was probably the most important and will become the most scrutinized decision of her career.

If Walters turns the Dons into a WCC contender -- and top supporters will expect something close to it with Lowhorn around -- much of last season's drama will be forgiven.

The support for basketball still exists at USF, and there is enough talent in the Bay Area for a good recruiter to assemble a good team.

"The University of San Francisco is a national name, and we need to be a national program," Walters said. "The challenge of that really excited me."

The Dons initially showed little improvement under Sutton. The only positive accomplishment for the first eight weeks was Sutton's 800th career victory.

But right after playing their worst game of the season in a 32-point loss to Santa Clara, the Dons improved dramatically, winning four of their next five games before losing a one-point game to Santa Clara in the WCC tournament semifinals.

The discipline and structure Sutton had been preaching suddenly took hold and may benefit the Dons next season.

The season still could not be considered a success, though, because the Dons lost 21 games, tying the school record for defeats in a season, and matched their worst conference record since 2000.

Their 5-9 WCC mark was about what was expected from this team, but was worse than any of Evans' three complete seasons as head coach.

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