|
|
|
|
|
|
Third-Best Season Could Get Even Better Sat., Mar. 12 - finals at 9 p.m. THE QUICK SCENARIO: The Titans (18-9, 12-6) finished the regular season with a buzzer-beating victory over Cal State Northridge to earn a share of third place in the Big West standings and the No. 3 seed in the post-season tournament. This has been arguably the third most successful season in Div. I Titan basketball (1977-78 team was 23-9 and went to the Final Eight and 1982-83 team was 21-8 including 13-0 at home and went to the NIT) and now the opportunity arises to erase about 15 years of futility in the post-season tourney. ACCOMPLISHMENTS TO DATE: The 2004-05
Titans have... HILLS TO CONQUER: The Titans’
recent success in the Big West Tournament has been quite limited -- 0-5
since winning in first round in 1998 and 1-12 since winning in the first
round in 1990-91. Of course, the Titans have been the lower seed in 11
of those last 13 games. The last Titan to make the all-tournament team
was Cedric Ceballos in 1990. Overall, Fullerton is 14-25 and won only
the 1978 tournament -- as the No. 3 seed -- beating No. 6 San Jose State,
No. 2 San Diego State and No. 5 Long Beach State, which had eliminated
No. 1-seeded Fresno State in the semifinals. Tournament breakdowns: TELEVISION: The quarterfinals and semifinals are live on KVMD-TV and the championship game is on ESPN at 9 p.m. on Saturday. PROBABLE STARTERS: OFF THE BENCH: SIDELINED:
THE COACH: Bob Burton is 29-26 in his second year at Fullerton and career. He is 0-1 in Big West Tournament play. DEFENSE WINS: While the Titans continue to lead the Big West Conference in team scoring at 75.5 points per game, their improved defense has been the glaring strength in the late-season success. They held UCR and UC Davis to back-to-back 55-point games, lowest by an opponent all season. On Feb. 24, 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. Beginning with the Jan. 22 game at Idaho, Fullerton was holding opponents to .423 field goal shooting (256-for-605) over 11 games but Pacific went 31-for-54 (.574) and CSUN went 26-for-56 (.464) to boost that number to .438. For the first 14 games of the season opponents were shooting .491. SO DOES REBOUNDING: Despite a diminutive roster and perimeter oriented attack, the Titans have found rebounding a strength in this memorable season. Fullerton is almost plus 4 in rebounding margin and has 109 more offensive rebounds than its opponents. In the last five games, Fullerton has 61 offensive rebounds to 28 for the opposition (only 2 by Utah State). THREE-PART SEASON: The Titans consider themselves 10-5 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. 6-4 IN CRUNCH TIME: The Titans are
6-4 in games this year that went down to the final shot... RALPHY HOLMES: Selected to the All-Big West Conference second team despite leading the BWC in rebounding (8.3 rpg) and ranking No. 2 in scoring (to Idaho’s Dandrick Jones at 16.5 ppg). Finished the season strong with four double-doubles in the last 6 games topped by the school’s first (at least back to 1980-81... no older records) Div. I triple-double with 14 points, 13 rebounds and a careeer-high 10 assists vs. CSUN. Failed to become only the second player in conference history (UNLV’s Stacey Augmon in 1989 and 1991) to earn first-team all-conference honors in non-consecutive seasons. 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 he has been in the top five of the two major categories from that point on. He was named Big West Player of the Week (thru Feb. 27) for two double-doubles in 79 minutes of play in wins at UCSB and Cal Poly. He has had seven double-doubles in the past 13 games and was one rebound shy of another vs. Pacific with 24 points and 9 rebounds. YAPHETT ADDS TO SCORING ‘POWER’: The loss of Hardy Asprilla turned Yaphett King into the power forward and he ended up a second-team All-Big West Conference selection. He averaged 15.8 points over the final 12 games to end up No. 7 in the BWC in scoring at 13.7 ppg. He has been explosive -- a 19-point first half vs. Cal Poly, a 17-point first half vs. UC Riverside, a 17-point first half vs. Pacific, a 15-point first half vs. CSU and a 15-point second half vs. UC Davis, a 16-point second half vs. Long Beach and a 14-point second half vs. UCI. Three times 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 to hold off a Colgate rally. At Northridge, he scored 8 of the team’s final 12 points in regulation and added 4 more points in overtime including the game-winning bucket. At Cal Poly on Feb. 26 he personally erased a 3-point SLO lead in the final minute with a bucket and then a 3-point play with 9.1 seconds to play. And against Utah State on Feb. 19, his 3-pointer with 39 seconds to play was the back-breaker for the Aggies, turning a 1-point lead into a 4-point cushion with 39 seconds left. JERMAINE HARPER: The University of Virginia transfer has taken 154 3-point field goals and only 73 2-pointers this season. In conference play the breakdown is 94 treys and 36 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 16 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 had 8 second-half points (3-of-4 shooting) to help the Titans pull away from the Gauchos. His defense on opponents’ top perimeter shooter has been solid. BOBBY BROWN: Last year’s freshman of the year in the Big West Conference made the honorable mention list this season. He garnered Big West Conference Player of the Week (thru Feb. 20) honors for his role in the home wins over Idaho and Utah State. He had 37 points (14-for-28 shooting) and 10 assists. 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 late-season shooting slump, he still is the conference’s No. 4 scorer (16.1 ppg) and No. 2 assists man (5.11 apg) and runnerup in 3-pointers made per game (2.56). He is five free throws made from qualifying for the Big West leaders (2 made per team game) and his .845 percentage (49-of-58) would put him right near the top (David Doubley of Pacific is at .892). With 69 3-point field goals, he has the No. 6 Titan single-season total and is approaching his 70 of last season, which rank No. 4. He ranks No. 5 career with 139. Richard Morton (1984-85 thru 1987-88) ranks No. 4 career with 140 and Mark Hill is No. 3 at 145. JAMAAL BROWN ON A ROLL: Jamaal Brown’s play the past 12 games is probably the biggest reason for the Titans’ 10-2 record. After averaging 8 points (8-for-23 FGs) in the 3-game losing streak, he’s had 156 points (68-of-123 FGs, .553) in the last 12 games with 81 rebounds (6.8 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 vs. Utah State in the second half on Feb. 19 was critical in the Titans’ rally from an 8-point deficit at the intermission. And he won the home finale with a buzzer-beating tip-in for a game-high 19 points. He earned honorable mention all-conference honors. 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 (.452) for the 1994-95 thru 2002-03 seasons. But Fullerton was 10-2 (.833) this sseason, its best home mark since the 1982-83 team was 13-0. The Titans have won 15 of the last 18 at home. Last year’s team was 8-6 at home after a 3-5 start. ROAD MILESTONES: Fullerton finished Big West Conference play with a 5-4 road record, its first winning season away from home at the Div. I level (dates to 1974-75). At 7-6 (8-7 with neutral court games), the Titans have a winning overall road record for the first time since the 1988-89 team went 8-6. DOUBLE FIGURES: With five players averaging 9.6 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 (7), King (4), Harper (2), J. Brown (4) and five 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. NOT MUCH SCORING FROM BENCH: Conversely, the Titans’ bench is not much of an offensive threat. In the last 10 games, the bench has produced only 55 TOTAL points -- in reverse chronological order: 3, 4, 5, 7, 6, 4, 3, 7, 9, 7. Of course, the starters don’t leave the floor much. In the last 13 games the starters are averaging 32.7 minutes per man (Holmes = 35.9; B. Brown = 34.9; J. Brown = 31.2; Harper = 31.2; & King = 31.3). STUDENTS GET FIRST LOOK: Remarkably, Cal State Fullerton did not play its first home game of the season with students in session until Feb. 17. 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 in January. A crowd of 2,076 showed up Feb. 17 for the Idaho game, making it the largest home gathering since 4,128 saw a win over UNLV on March 6, 1993. The Idaho total was later topped by the UoP game of March 3 when 3,576 showed up and the north balcony bleachers had to be utilized for the first time in years. 3-BOMBS AWAY: Fullerton is averaging 7.7 makes (to lead the Big West) and 21.9 attempts per game. The current totals of 209 made and 592 attempted are school single-season records (old marks: 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 Titans made 10 in the second half of the UCI game and 9 in the first half at UCR on Feb. 3. ABOUT TIME: Fullerton has shot more free throws than its opponent only five times all season -- in wins vs. UC Santa Barbara, at UC Davis, at UC Irvine, vs. Idaho and vs. CSUN. Both Utah State and CSF shot 12 on Feb. 19. The season disparity is 548 vs. 373. In the two Pacific games, the Tigers shot 58 free throws to 19 by Fullerton. 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. NIT FEELERS: Should the Titans not win the Big West Conference Tournament nor receive an at-large NCAA bid (written in jest), the NIT is a possibility. The Titans have made two appearances -- in 1983 at 21-7 after an upset loss to Long Beach State in the opening round of the PCAA Tournament and in 1987 with a 17-12 record. The latter team had a 20-point home win over Washington (which cancelled the return game in Seattle) and also beat BYU and TCU in the pre-season and lost by one point at UCLA. It also had Bay Area products Richard Morton and Henry Turner and the team was sent to Cal, where Kevin Johnson and the Golden Bears scored a 72-68 win in overtime. The 1983 team was sent to Arizona State where Byron Scott and Company won by the same 4-point margin, 87-83. HUGE RECRUITING CLASS: The Titans
signed probably their largest class of November recruits -- both in height
and numbers -- ever. These six newcomers will join the program for next
season (comments by Asst. Coach Andy Newman):
|
|
||||||||
|
|
|
||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
