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Biggest Game in Years on Thursday Night THE QUICK SCENARIO: The Titans (17-8, 11-5) close out the regular season by hosting first-place and No. 17-ranked Pacific and Cal State Northridge, with whom the Titans are tied for third place. Considering that Pacific is nationally ranked, unbeaten in conference play and carries the second longest winning streak in the nation at 19 games, and that Fullerton (with a 4-game winning streak and 9 wins in the last 10 games) still is playing for a No. 2 tournament seed and byes into the semifinals, this is the biggest game in Titan Gym in many years. Another win will give the Titans 18 victories and make this the winningest season since the 1982-83 team of Leon Wood, Ricky Mixon, Tony Neal, et al, went 21-8 and finished second to Fresno State in the 9-team Pacific Coast Athletic Association. And an 11th conference win would be the most since the 1984-85 team went 11-7. BIGGEST GAME SINCE?: A very subjective issue. The last highly ranked team to play in Titan Gym was No. 4 Utah (with senior Keith Van Horn), which won, 74-67, on Nov. 30, 1996. There was Freedom Bowl Saturday on Dec. 29, 1990, when Colorado State fans swelled the crowd to 3,729 for an afternoon 62-60 Titan win (Joe Small jumper at the buzzer) before an evening CSU football win over Oregon at Anaheim Stadium. The last full house (4,128) was March 6, 1993, an 84-83 win over UNLV (it came in 20-5, ranked No. 14) with J. R. Rider. Any game in the Jerry Tarkanian Era at UNLV (thru 1991-92) brought out the fans, most notably when 5,015 crammed in on Feb. 24, 1983, when Fullerton beat the unbeaten and No. 1-ranked Rebels, 86-78. Thursday night’s game has the added dimension of relevance in the standings. Fullerton hasn’t finished as high as second place since 1982-83, when the Titans finished 3 games behind UNLV and 2 in front of Utah State. And only since last year has there been a prize like a second tournament bye at stake, particularly critical for a team with little depth such as Fullerton.. 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. Justin Alderson is the play-by-play announcer, joined by Patrick Alog vs. Pacific. The game also will be live on Sirius Satelite Channel 110 with UoP announcers Tod Bannister and Mike Millerick. PROBABLE STARTERS: OFF THE BENCH: SIDELINED: SERIES HISTORY: Pacific leads it, 38-29, after a 94-88 victory in Stockton on Dec. 30. The Tigers have won three in a row and 11 of the past 12 meetings including five in a row in Titan Gym. However, the last three have been extremely close -- 66-64 in OT last year, 62-61 the year before and 67-61 in 2001-02. On Dec. 30, Fullerton was down by a single point entering the final minute. THE COACHES: Bob Burton is 28-25 in his second year at Fullerton and career. Burton is 0-3 vs. Bob Thomason and Pacific. Thomason is 282-211 in his 17th year at Pacific and 334-238 career. He is 24-10 vs. Fullerton including 8-8 in Titan Gym. DEFENSE WINS: While the Titans continue to lead the Big West Conference in team scoring at 75.1 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. 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 is holding opponents to .423 field goal shooting (256-for-605) over 11 games. 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 plus 4 in rebounding margin and has almost 100 more offensive rebounds than its opponents. In the last three games, Fullerton has 38 offensive rebounds to 17 for the opposition (only 2 by Utah State). 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 17-8. UCLA is 16-9. Among all California schools, only Pacific (23-2) and Saint Mary’s (24-7) are better. THREE-PART SEASON: The Titans consider themselves 9-4 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. 5-3 IN CRUNCH TIME: The Titans are 5-3 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 on Feb. 10. 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. King was the hero again at Cal Poly on Saturday, making a 3-point play with 9.1 seconds to go. 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: Appears headed toward becoming 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 now he is prominently positioned at No. 4 in scoring (16.3 ppg) and No. 2 in rebounding (8.0 rpg). He was named Big West Player of the Week for two more double-doubles in 79 minutes of play in wins at UCSB and Cal Poly last week. He posted virtually identical numbers to conference player of the previous week, Bobby Brown, with 37 points and 17 rebounds. He has had six double-doubles in the past 11 games. YAPHETT ADDS TO SCORING ‘POWER’: The loss of Hardy Asprilla has turned Yaphett King into the power forward. For the past 10 games, he has improved his scoring, averaging 15.1 ppg 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. 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 (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. 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 142 3-point field goals and only 69 2-pointers this season. In conference play the breakdown is 82 treys and 32 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 14 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 from the Gauchos. His defense on opponents’ top perimeter shooter has been solid. BOBBY BROWN: Garnered Big West Conference Player of the Week honors two weeks ago 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 recent shooting slump, he still is the conference’s No. 2 scorer (16.4 ppg) and No. 2 assists man (5.08 apg) and co-leader in 3-pointers made per game (2.68). He is two free throws made from qualifying for the Big West leaders (2 made per team game) and his .857 percentage (48-of-56) would put him right near the top (David Doubley of Pacific is at .885). With 67 3-point field goals, he now has the No. 6 Titan single-season total and is approaching the 70 of last season, which rank No. 4. He ranks No. 5 career with 137. Richard Morton (1984-85 thru 1987-88) ranks No. 4 with 140. JAMAAL BROWN ON A ROLL: Jamaal Brown’s play the past 10 games is probably the biggest reason for the Titans’ 9-1 record. After averaging 8 points (8-for-23 FGs) in the 3-game losing streak, he’s had 125 points (54-of-94 FGs, .574) in the last 10 games with 69 rebounds (6.9 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. 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. 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 9.5 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 (6), 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. NOT MUCH SCORING FROM BENCH: Conversely, the Titans’ bench is not much of an offensive threat. In the last 8 games, the bench has produced only 48 TOTAL points -- in reverse order: 5, 7, 6, 4, 3, 7, 9, 7. Of course, the starters don’t leave the floor much. In the last 11 games the starters are averaging 32.4 minutes per man (Holmes = 35.5; B. Brown = 34.9; J. Brown = 31.0; Harper = 31.0; & King = 30.9). STUDENTS GET FIRST LOOK: Remarkably, Cal State Fullerton played its first home games of the season with students in session on Feb. 17 and 19. 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 7.6 makes (to lead the Big West) and 21.7 attempts per game. Those numbers project over a 27-game regular season to 205 makes and 585 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 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 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 Feb. 19. The season disparity is 511 vs. 342. 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.
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