UPCOMING:
Mon., Feb. 7 -- at UC Davis, The Pavillion (7,600), 7 p.m.
Thurs., Feb. 10 -- at UC Irvine, Bren Center (5,000), 7:05 p.m. - KVMD
television
Sat., Feb. 12 -- at Long Beach State, The Pyramid (5,000), 5:05 p.m. -
FOX Sports Net West 2 TV
THE QUICK SCENARIO: The Titans (11-7, 6-4) try to top last year’s
(11-17) victory total in a non-conference game Monday night at future
Big West Conference member UC Davis. The Titans are 4 games over .500
again with a current 3-game winning streak cancelling out a preceding
3-game losing streak. They complete a 4-game road “trip” with
games Thursday and Saturday at UC Irvine and Long Beach State, respectively.Fullerton’s
11-7 overall record is its best 18-game mark since the 1992-93 team was
12-6 after 18 games.
TELEVISION: Thursday’s game will be televised live on KVMD television,
Ch. 23 and available on many cable outlets. Saturday’s game will
be televised live on FOX Sports West Net 2.
“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. Mel Franks is the announcer
at UC Davis; Justin Alderson calls the game at UC Irvine and Todd Reeves
is the voice at Long Beach State.
PROBABLE STARTERS:
No. Name Ht. Yr. ppg rpg Quick Notes
PF 2 Yaphett King 6-4 Sr. 13.7 5.3 Creating matchup problems at power
forward; averaging 21.3 pts last 3 games
SF 15 Ralphy Holmes 6-4 Sr. 16.2 7.3 Pair of double-doubles in last four
games
C 32 Jamaal Brown 6-7 Jr. 12.2 7.8 Had only 2 points, 2 boards in first
game vs. UC Davis
SG 14 Jermaine Harper 6-3 Jr. 10.0 3.3 Go figure? -- three games with
20+ points, seven games with 4 points or less
PG 3 Bobby Brown 6-1 So. 16.5 2.2 Solid game at UCR, snapped shooting
slump with 6 of 10 effort
OFF THE BENCH:
G 23 Vershan Cottrell 6-2 Jr. 2.1 1.1 Played season-high 23 minutes vs.
Cal Poly, 21 at UCR
PG 22 John Clemmons 6-0 Jr. 2.4 1.2 January transfer from El Camino College
who didn’t play last year
F 5 Justin Burns 6-6 So. 3.1 2.5 Got first start of the season at Utah
State and blocked 3 early shots
C 42 Derek Quinet 6-9 So. 3.5 2.3 Started first five games of the season;
hasn’t played in last two
F 21 Danny Lambert 6-6 Jr. 0.7 1.0 Transfer from Irvine Valley College
has played only 15 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 State
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 AGGIES: UC Davis is a provisional Div. I program playing a nonconference
schedule featuring most of the Big West Conference schools on a home-and-home
basis until it becomes an official member in 2007. The Aggies are 8-12
going into a Saturday night home game vs. UC Riverside. Ryan Moore (16.9
ppg) and Fowzi Abelsamad (16.3 ppg) provide a two-pronged scoring attack.
THE COACHES: Bob Burton is 22-24 in his second year at Fullerton and career.
Burton is 1-0 vs. UC Davis and Gary Stewart, a finalist for the Fullerton
job in 2000-01, who is 26-21 in his second year at UCD and career.
SERIES HISTORIES: Cal State Fullerton leads UC Davis, 2-0, but the games
were played 43 years apart. Orange State College, as CSF was then known,
beat the Aggies, 85-56, back in 1961-62. The Titans won this season on
Jan. 8, 89-61, in Titan Gym. CSF leads UCI, 41-37, after a 97-81 loss
to the Anteaters on Jan. 15 in Titan Gym. The teams have split the season
series in each of the past two seasons. CSF has played Long Beach State
more than any other opponent and trails in the series, 51-36, but has
won the last three meetings.
CAN CSF WIN BACK-TO-BACK ROAD GAMES? You have to go back to the 1996-97
season again to find the Titans winning consecutive road games -- they
won at Montana on Dec. 3 and at Loyola Marymount on Dec. 7. Three times
since then they have won two road games in a row, but there were one or
more home games sandwiched in between.FLYING HIGH: With two wins this
year on trips requiring air travel, the Titans have almost as many “airplane”
victories this season as in the PAST SEVEN SEASONS COMBINED. Fullerton
is 5-53 since winning at BYU and Montana in the first two road games of
the 1996-97 season (0-5 in 1996-97 after the first two road games; 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; 2-4 so far in 2004-05 with only the
UC Davis game remaining on the “flying” schedule.
3-2 IN CRUNCH TIME: The Titans are 3-2 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 when EWU couldn’t get off a last shot. At
Cal State Northridge, Yaphett King gave the Titans a 1-point lead with
8 seconds left and Davin White missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer for the
Matadors. And vs. UCR, Justin Bell missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer after
Jamaal Brown had made two free throws with less than 5 seconds to play.
Hardy Asprilla’s 3-point play with 51 seconds left was the key.
RALPHY IS BACK: With the exceptions of his first game back and Jan. 15
vs. UC Irvine, Ralphy Holmes has looked like his first-team All-Big West
Conference (2002-03) self after a one-year hiatus. After a humbling debut
at San Diego State, where he went scoreless on 0-for-9 shooting, he averaged
19.5 points over the next six games including 25 points in 27 minutes
off the bench vs. Denver. His 6-point game vs. UCI was only the fifth
time as a Titan he failed to score in double figures. On the last road
trip he led the Titans in scoring and rebounding in each game including
a career-high 13 rebounds at Idaho. In the current 3-game winning streak
he is averaging 18.7 points and 8.0 rebounds while shooting 57.5 percent
from the floor and 40 percent (4-for-10) from the 3-point line. He needs
to play two more games to qualify for the Big West leader board (75 percent
of his team’s games).
YAPHETT ADDS TO SCORING ‘POWER’: The loss of Hardy Asprilla
has turned Yaphett King into the power forward for the past six games
and he has improved his scoring, averaging 17.2 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. In the five games prior
to Cal Poly, he had been a second-half scoring machine with 56 of his
76 points coming after intermission. 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.
JEKYLL-HYDE ACT?: Junior guard Jermaine Harper continues to post erratic
scoring totals. The University of Virginia transfer has scored 4 points
or less seven times this season yet he has had three games of 20 or more
points. After scoring 24 including the game-winning bucket at Eastern
Washington on Dec. 10, he scored a TOTAL of 6 points on 2-for-19 shooting
overall and 0-for-11 from 3-point range over the next three games. Coming
off the bench at Pacific on Dec. 30, he made 9 of 15 shots including 5
of 10 attempts from behind the arc to post a new career high of 25 points.
But then he failed to score at home vs. UCR, missing all 4 shots in 19
minutes. His consecutive games in double figures vs. Cal Poly and UCSB
was the first time he had done that since the first three games.
BOBBY BROWN SLUMP OVER?: Bobby Brown’s scoring is down of late,
a combination of a lower shooting percentage and more focus on getting
teammates involved. He made only 9-of-29 shots on the last road trip and
then went only 5-for-17 (3-for-11 treys) at home last week. But at UC
Riverside on Thursday night he made 6 of 10 shots overall (2 of 6 treys)
for 14 points and he had 6 assists. Brown’s 12 assists vs. Long
Beach were only one shy of his career-high of 13 vs. Hope. His 3 points
vs. UCSB were the second lowest of his Titan career. He failed to score
(0-for-4 FGs) in 26 minutes last year at UCSB.
JAMAAL BROWN ON A ROLL: Jamaal Brown’s play the past three games
was probably the biggest reason for the Titans’ turnaround. After
averaging 8 points (8-for-23 FGs) in the 3-game losing streak, he’s
had 35 points (15-of-28 FGs) in the three wins with 25 rebounds. His double-double
(13 points, 14 rebounds) vs. UCSB was his fourth of the season.
DOUBLE FIGURES: With five players averaging double figures, 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 8 times, Holmes (4), King (3), Harper (2), J. Brown (1) 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).
3-BOMBS AWAY: Fullerton is averaging 8.1 makes and 22.3 attempts per game.
Those numbers project over a 27-game regular season to 219 makes and 601
attempts and both of those numbers would be school single-season records
(196 makes last season and 551 attempts in 1996-97). 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. They went 0-for-5 in the first half and 7-for-12
in the second half vs. Long Beach State. On the last road trip they made
only 12 of 48 (.250) and then hit 18 of 53 (.340) last week at home. The
14 3-pointers vs. UCI tied the school single-game record originally set
on Dec. 9, 2003, vs. USC. The 29 attempts vs. UCSB 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 Thursday
night.
ABOUT TIME: Vs. UCSB, the Titans were 15-of-24 (season-high attempts)
at the foul line compared to 3-for-9 by the Gauchos. In the previous 3
games, the Titans had shot 29 free throws to 69 by their opponents. The
seasonal disparity is 229 vs. 397.
LATE FIRST-HALF MELTDOWN: In the final 4:00 of the first half this year,
the Titans have been outscored a combined 136-91 in all games and 81-36
in conference games. In one recent stretch of four games the tally read:
Long Beach, 14-4; UC Irvine, 13-5; Utah State, 11-0; and Idaho, 6-3, for
a total of 44-12. Possible reasons? Foul trouble for starters, only the
opponent in bonus situation and fatigue. Only vs. Colgate, second game
vs. Denver, vs. UC Davis and vs. Cal Poly have the Titans “won”
the last four minutes before the half.
HELLO, CAMERAS: The UCI (KVMD) and Long Beach State (FOX Sports Net West
2) games will be Nos. 4 and 5 on TV for the Titans this season out of
a scheduled total of six. The first was on a local station at San Diego
State on Dec. 21. The Titans hope to add to that total with a run at the
Big West Conference post-season tournament.
SPEAKING OF CAMERAS: 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.
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.
BIG VICTORY MARGINS: With a 34-point win (107-73) over Hope International
and a 28-point win (89-61) over UC Davis, the Titans have a pair of 28-points
or more wins in the same season for the first time since the 1986-87 season
when George McQuarn’s Titans beat Cal State Bakersfield (83-46)
and Southern Utah (100-58) in back-to-back games on Dec. 5 and Dec. 8.
