THE COLLEGES : Tom Lewis Is at Home in Malibu : He’s Feeling Good, Scoring a Lot for Pepperdine’s Team

So the question remains.

Happy?

Has Tom Lewis, that ramblin’ man with jump shot in hand, found tranquility, oneness and a team with a shot at the NCAA tournament in the hills of Malibu?.

Lewis seems to think so.

“This is the best, the most relaxed I’ve ever felt at the beginning of a season,” Lewis said, having just scored 23 points to help Pepperdine to a 91-89 nonconference victory over UC Irvine Tuesday in Firestone Fieldhouse.

Yet, the fact remains that on a basketball court, Tom Lewis looks like a tortured man.

Before a game he fidgets with cups and towels, drawing deep breaths and shooting quick side glances up into the crowd, as if to look for some sinister force.

It’s up there.

“Where to next, Tom?”

“Don’t worry if you miss a shot Tom, you can always transfer.”

The barbs refer to Lewis’ odd trek from USC, to orally commiting to UC Irvine, to ending up in a Pepperdine uniform.

“I’ve tuned that stuff out since I was in high school,” he said. “I’ve never heard it. Maybe it’s because I play the stereo in my car too loud.”

Maybe it’s because he’s heard the same things for so long.

When he was at Mater Dei High School, starting on the varsity as a sophomore, people seemed more concerned with his transfer from Capistrano Valley after his freshman year than his talent.

When Lewis was a senior, on his way to leading Mater Dei to a second 5-A championship and earning 5-A player of the year honors, the talk about him never seemed to be what he was doing but where, what college, was he going to?

“It’s too bad that with all the attention Tom gets, people don’t notice what a good basketball player he is,” said Gary McKnight, Mater Dei coach, during Lewis’ senior season. “You know, he’s a lot of fun to watch.

But is it a lot of fun to be him?

When he’s playing his facial expression remains frozen in that unseemly cross of a man about to cry and sneeze at the same time.

After two games with Pepperdine, Lewis is averaging 24.5 points a game.

“He’s playing awfully hard for me,” said Jim Harrick, Pepperdine coach. “We’re looking to get him to make a few triple doubles.

Lewis wasn’t that far off Tuesday, getting six rebounds and five assists.

Harrick said he still wants to work on Lewis’ defense. But scoring points has always seemed to come easily to Lewis.

As a freshman at USC, he averaged 17.6 points a game, tops among the nation’s freshmen.

He left USC after Coach Stan Morrison was fired, and said he was going to UC Irvine.

Said is the operative word, because a few weeks later he had signed to play at Pepperdine.

He redshirted last season, and has started very well this season for the Waves (2-0).

And here, he has told one and all, is where he intends to stand for the next three seasons.

Pepperdine, with a clear view of the Pacific and a clear shot at the NCAA tournament, is for Lewis.

“Getting to the NCAA playoffs is my No. 1 goal,” he said. “It’s why I came here.”

And why, he has told people, he decided not to go to UC Irvine.

“I’ve talked to him several times since he got to Pepperdine,” McKnight said. “He seems a lot more relaxed now. Kind of at peace with himself. Like he’s found a home.”

And, as everyone knows, that’s worth a lot.