UPCOMING:
Sat., Feb. 26 -- at Cal Poly SLO, Mott Gym (3,032), 7 p.m.
Thur., Mar. 3 -- Pacific, Titan Gym (4,000), 7:05 p.m.
Sat., Mar. 5 -- Cal State Northridge, Titan Gym (4,000), 7:05 p.m.
THE QUICK SCENARIO: The Titans (16-8, 10-5) can post their first winning
conference road record at the Div. I level Saturday night with a win at
Cal Poly SLO. Fullerton is 4-4 on the road in the Big West this season,
matching the previous best by both the 1982-83 and 1997-98 teams. A win
would also give Fullerton (6-6 on the road plus 1-1 neutral) an overall
road winning record for the first time since Coach John Sneed’s
first team went 8-6 in 1988-89. A 17th win would be the most since Coach
George McQuarn’s 1986-87 team went 17-13.
Fullerton has won three in a row and eight of its last nine after a 66-57
victory at UC Santa Barbara on Thursday night. It gave the Titans their
first sweep of UCSB since 1993-94. The win clinched fourth place in the
Big West and a bye into the quarterfinals of the post-season tournament.
Third or second place are not out of reach. By winning out, CSF would
have tie-breakers over both Cal State Northridge (11-4) and Utah State
(11-5).
“RADIO”: All games can be heard live on the internet on computers
with sound cards. Listeners may access the CSF Athletics home page at
www.titansports.org and follow the links to pick up Randy Scovill’s
call from the Cal Poly radio station.
PROBABLE STARTERS:
No. Name Ht. Yr. ppg rpg Quick Notes
PF 2 Yaphett King 6-4 Sr. 13.2 6.0 Had career-high 26 points in previous
meeting with Cal Poly
SF 15 Ralphy Holmes 6-4 Sr. 16.1 7.9 No. 4 scorer & No. 2 rebounder
in Big West Conference; 5 double-doubles
C 32 Jamaal Brown 6-7 Jr. 12.6 7.3 51-for-86 FGs (.593) during last 9
games; 7th in Big West at .515
SG 14 Jermaine Harper 6-3 Jr. 9.4 3.0 Went scoreless vs. Utah State (0-for-8)
but playing good defense
PG 3 Bobby Brown 6-1 So. 16.5 2.5 Big West Conference player of the week
with 37 points, 10 assists
OFF THE BENCH:
G 23 Vershan Cottrell 6-2 Jr. 2.0 1.1 Two buckets in 20-second span key
in win over Utah State
PG 22 John Clemmons 6-0 Jr. 1.9 1.0 January transfer from El Camino College
who didn’t play last year
F 5 Justin Burns 6-6 So. 3.4 2.9 Had “game” of year in first
half at UCI with 6 points, 10 boards in 11 minutes
C 42 Derek Quinet 6-9 So. 3.1 2.2 Started first five games of the season;
hasn’t played in 6 of the last 8 games
F 21 Danny Lambert 6-6 Jr. 0.7 1.0 Transfer from Irvine Valley College
has played only 17 minutes
SIDELINED:
F 24 Hardy Asprilla 6-5 Sr. 8.5 8.8 Out for the season; tore ACL in his
right knee vs. Long Beach St. on Jan. 13
F 12 Drew Awad 6-3 Sr. 1.7 1.0 Leukemia survivor sidelined by foot injury
has suffered cancer re-occurrence
C 43 Lloyd Walls 6-9 Sr. -- -- Transfer from Wright State sidelined all
season after multiple concussions
ABOUT THE MUSTANGS: Cal Poly (5-19, 3-12) remains alive in its quest to
qualify for the Big West Conference post-season tournament. The Mustangs
wrap up their home schedule against the Titans and finish up at Long Beach
State and UC Irvine. They trail both UC Riverside and Long Beach State
by one game after an 83-61 win over UCR on Thursday night. They have the
head-to-head tie-breaker over UCR and could get it vs. Long Beach. Dawin
Whiten (10.8 pg) and Mike Titchenal (10.0 ppg) lead the way offensively.
SERIES HISTORY: Cal Poly leads it, 24-16, after a 92-69 Titan win in Fullerton
on Jan. 27. The teams have split the season series in each of the past
four seasons. Cal Poly is ahead, 10-7, in games played after the 1973-74
season.
THE COACHES: Bob Burton is 27-25 in his second year at Fullerton and career.
Burton is 2-1 vs. Kevin Bromley and Cal Poly. Bromley is 51-73 in his
fifth year at Cal Poly and career. He is 4-5 vs. Fullerton, 2-2 in Mott
Gym.
DEFENSE WINS: While the Titans continue to lead the Big West Conference
in team scoring at 75.0 points per game, their defense has been the glaring
strength in the recent success. They held UCR and UC Davis to back-to-back
55-point games, lowest by an opponent all season. Thursday night UCSB
shot only .364 from the floor, an opponent low for the season. Utah State
got only 8 second-half field goals on Feb. 19 and UCSB went 2-for-13 in
the final 12 minutes on Thursday night. Beginning with the Jan. 22 game
at Idaho, Fullerton is holding opponents to .417 field goal shooting (228-for-547)
over 10 games. For the first 14 games of the season opponents were shooting
.491.
BEST RECORD IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: After 12 years of losing records,
the Titans suddenly find themselves with the best overall record among
Southern California Div. I schools at 16-8. UCLA is 15-9. Amon
g all California schools, only Pacific (22-2) and
Saint Mary’s (23-7) are better.
THREE-PART SEASON: The Titans consider themselves 8-4 in Part III (without
Hardy Asprilla) of a disjointed season. In Part I (without Ralphy Holmes
and Jamaal Brown) they were 3-2. In Part II (with a full roster) they
were 5-2
.
4-3 IN CRUNCH TIME: The Titans are 4-3 in games this year that went down
to the final shot with three different players being the offensive hero.
At Eastern Washington, Jermaine Harper made a 3-pointer with 4 seconds
left for a 2-point win. At Cal State Northridge, Yaphett King gave the
Titans a 1-point lead with 8 seconds left (Davin White missed a 3-pointer
at the buzzer for the Matadors). And vs. UCR, Jamaal Brown made two free
throws with less than 5 seconds to play after Hardy Asprilla’s 3-point
play with 51 seconds left put CSF ahead to stay. Jamaal Brown again made
the plays at UC Irvine last week. His bank shot with 25 seconds to go
put Fullerton ahead and he converted a bonus free-throw situation with
6 seconds left for the decisive points in a 1-point win. In each of the
three 3-point losses, the Titans had 3-pointers to tie in the closing
seconds but missed -- J.Brown at SDSU, Harper & Holmes at Idaho and
B.Brown at Long Beach.
RALPHY HOLMES: It took until the UCI game on Feb. 10 for him to qualify
for Big West Conference statistical rankings (75 percent of team’s
games) but now he is prominently positioned at No. 4 in scoring (16.1
ppg) and No. 2 in rebounding (7.9 rpg). With the exceptions of his first
game back and Jan. 15 vs. UC Irvine, Holmes has looked like his first-team
All-Big West Conference (2002-03) self after a one-year hiatus. On the
USU-Idaho road trip he led the Titans in scoring and rebounding in each
game including a then career-high 13 rebounds at Idaho. In the homecourt
rematches, he posted virtually identical numbers to conference player
of the week Bobby Brown with 37 points (14-for-28 shooting) and 17 rebounds.
He also was primarily responsible for holding Dandrick Jones to 6-for-20
shooting. He has had five double-doubles in the past 10 games.
YAPHETT ADDS TO SCORING ‘POWER’: The loss of Hardy Asprilla
has turned Yaphett King into the power forward for the past 12 games and
he has improved his scoring, averaging 14.5 ppg over that span with three
games of 21 or more points. He had a 19-point first half vs. Cal Poly
and a 17-point first half vs. UC Riverside. Twice he has been the “go-to”
guy down the stretch. Vs. Colgate on Nov. 20, he scored 9 of his 11 points
and 9 of the team’s final 13 (in the last 6:39) to hold off a Colgate
rally. At Northridge, he scored 8 of the team’s final 12 points
in regulation (in final 3:38) and then added 4 more points in overtime
including the game-winning bucket with 8 seconds to play. Against Utah
State last Saturday, he scored 14 points in the second half and his 3-pointer
with 39 seconds to play was the back-breaker for the Aggies.
JERMAINE HARPER: The University of Virginia transfer has taken 139 3-point
field goals and 66 2-pointers this season. In conference play the breakdown
is 79 treys and 29 deuces. His scoring has been all over the board --
he has scored 4 points or less eight times (going scoreless 4 times) this
season yet he has had three games of 20 or more points. In the other 13
games he has had between 7 and 16 points. He failed to score for three
consecutive halves (2 vs. Utah State and the first half at UCSB) but he
had 8 second-half points (3-of-4 shooting) to help the Titans pull away
to the victory. His defense on opponents’ top perimeter shooter
has been solid.
BOBBY BROWN : Garnered Big West Conference Player of the Week honors for
his role in the home wins over Idaho and Utah State. He had 37 points
(14-for-28 shooting) and 10 assists in the two games. He assisted on the
two buckets to put away the Idaho game in the final two minutes and vs.
Utah State he made a spectacular 3-point play to put Fullerton ahead for
good with 1:31 remaining. Despite a recent shooting slump, he still is
the conference’s No. 2 scorer (16.5 ppg) and No. 2 assists man (5.21
apg) and No. 2 in 3-pointers made per game (2.67). He is three free throws
made from qualifying for the Big West leaders (2 made per team game) and
his .865 percentage (45-of-52) would put him right near the top (David
Doubley of Pacific is at .882). With 64 3-point field goals, he has the
No. 10 Titan single-season total and is approaching his total of 70 of
last season, which ranks No. 4. He ranks No. 5 career with 134. Richard
Morton (1984-85 thru 1987-88) ranks No. 4 with 140.
JAMAAL BROWN ON A ROLL: Jamaal Brown’s play the past nine games
is probably the biggest reason for the Titans’ 8-1 record. After
averaging 8 points (8-for-23 FGs) in the 3-game losing streak, he’s
had 117 points (51-of-86 FGs, .593) in the last nine games with 63 rebounds
(7.0 rpg). He made 10-of-11 shots at UC Irvine on Feb. 10 including the
game-turning field goal with 25 seconds left and two clinching free throws
with 6 seconds left. His defense on Spencer Nelson in the second half
last Saturday was critical in the Titans’ rally from an 8-point
deficit at the intermission.
DOUBLE FIGURES: With five players averaging 9.4 ppg or more, it’s
not surprising to see the Titans spreading the scoring load around.All
five of the “current” starters have led the team in a game
-- B.Brown 11 times, Holmes (5), King (4), Harper (2), J. Brown (3) and
four times at least five players have been in double figures. Six Titans
(B. Brown 21, Asprilla 16, Harper 16, King 15, Burns 14 and Quinet 10)
did it vs. Hope International. Prior to that performance, the last time
the Titans had six players in double figures was Feb. 4, 1999, in an 88-78
home win over Utah State (Cunningham 23, Caldwell 12, Jarrett 12, Murphy
12, Fischer 11, Harmon 10).
NOT MUCH SCORING FROM BENCH: Conversely, the Titans’ bench is not
much of an offensive threat. In the last 7 games, the bench has produced
only 39 TOTAL points -- in reverse order: 9, 6, 4, 3, 9, 7, 4. Of course,
the starters don’t leave the floor much. In the last 10 games the
starters are averaging 32.6 minutes per man (Holmes = 35.3; B. Brown =
34.8; J. Brown = 31.4; Harper = 31.4; & King = 30.9).
STUDENTS GET FIRST LOOK: Remarkably, Cal State Fullerton last week played
its first home games of the season with students in session. A crowd of
2,076 showed up for the Idaho game on Feb. 17, making it the largest home
gathering since 4,128 saw a win over UNLV on March 6, 1993. The Nov. 27
Hope game came during Thanksgiving Holiday and the Dec. 23 game vs. Denver
came during the Christmas recess. The balance came during intersession.
3-BOMBS AWAY: Fullerton is averaging 7.5 makes and 21.8 attempts per game.
Those numbers project over a 27-game regular season to 203 makes and 587
attempts and both of those numbers would be school single-season records
(196 makes last season and 551 attempts in 1996-97). As goes perimeter
shooting, the results have seldom been “average.” They shot
a season’s worst 3-for-18 vs. UC Riverside on Jan. 6 and two nights
later a season’s best 10-for-18 vs. UC Davis. The 14 3-pointers
vs. UC Irvine on Jan. 15 tied the school single-game record originally
set on Dec. 9, 2003, vs. USC. The 29 attempts vs. UCSB on Jan. 29 equalled
a season high and were only two shy of the school record. The Titans made
10 in the second half of the UCI game and 9 in the first half at UCR on
Feb. 3. Over the last six games they are 5-1 despite shooting only 28.9
percent (35-for-121) from behind the arc.
HOME MAGIC BACK?: Titan Gym used to be a “pit” to opponents.
Between the 1981-82 and 1992-93 seasons, Fullerton had a winning home
record every year with a total of 118 wins vs. 43 losses (.733). Under
Bob Hawking (39-37) and Donny Daniels (13-26), the record fell to 52-63
for the 1994-95 thru 2002-03 seasons. But Fullerton is 9-1 this season
and has won 14 of the last 16 at home. Last year’s team was 8-6
at home after a 3-5 start.
ABOUT TIME: Fullerton has shot more free throws than its opponent only
four times all season -- in wins vs. UC Santa Barbara, at UC Davis, at
UC Irvine and vs. Idaho. Both Utah State and CSF shot 12 on Saturday.
The season disparity is 491 attempts by opponents to 323 by Fullerton.
But in the 5-game winning streak, CSF was 53-of-75 compared to 50-of-68
by opponents.
FLYING HIGH: Barring post-season play, the Titans are done with airplanes
this season. They flew home after a win three times -- vs. Colgate at
Central Connecticut, at Eastern Washington and at UC Davis. Those three
“air” wins match the PAST SEVEN SEASONS COMBINED, to wit:
1-6 in 1997-98; 0-8 in 1998-99; 0-7 in 1999-2000; 1-6 in 2000-01; 0-6
in 2001-02; 1-6 in 2002-03 and 0-5 in 2003-04 for a total of 3-44. Compare
that to this year’s 3-4 mark (also lost to Samford in Connecticut,
at Denver, at Utah St. and at Idaho).
NUMBER SWITCH: Jamaal Brown was going to wear No. 4 this season for the
Titans in honor of his former Western Kentucky teammate Nathan Eisert,
who committed suicide. Jamaal gave up that jersey at the TV taping and
opted for No. 32, a number his dad wore.
NETWORK EXPOSURE: ABC's highly rated Extreme Makeover:
Home Edition came to Titan Gym on Dec. 8 to tape a tribute to Rodney Anderson,
the former Titan player whose family received the full treatment from
the show between Dec. 4 and 14, getting TWO new homes to replace their
1911-built residence in South Central L.A. The taping featured the retirement
of his jersey (No. 4) and was included in a special two-hour episode that
aired on Jan. 16 and a one-hour segment on Jan. 17. Rodney was shot in
a mistaken-identity gang shooting near his home on Mar. 2, 2000, and is
paralyzed and in a wheelchair. He is scheduled to graduate in June with
a degree in human services. He and his girlfriend, Monique, were married
on Dec. 13 in their new yard as part of the show.
