Former Puget Sound men's basketball coach Eric Bridgeland was promoted from assistant to head coach at Division I Pepperdine after head coach Vance Walberg resigned Thursday. Pepperdine is 6-12.

In five seasons at Puget Sound (2002-06), Bridgeland's teams captured three consecutive Northwest Conference championships, advanced to the Division III Sweet 16 in 2004 and 2005 and the Elite Eight in 2006. He was a two-time Northwest Conference coach of the year and compiled a 115-65 record between Puget Sound and UC Santa Cruz.

“This is not how we drew it up, but we're going to make the best of it,” Bridgeland said in a school news release. “The most important task at hand is to pull our family together and make sure every individual team member is OK. We've got a young, resilient group and we'll move forward as best we can.”

Pepperdine plays at St. Mary's (Calif.) on Saturday.