THE QUICK SCENARIO: The Titans (13-8, 7-5) will play their first
home games of the season with classes in session when they host for the
final time in conference play departing Big West members Idaho and Utah
State this week. The athletics department has issued a challenge to the
student body to support in person the Titans’ improved squad. The
Idaho contest is critical in the fight to hold onto fourth place in the
Big West Conference standings since the Vandals won an earlier meeting
in Moscow. Fullerton has three other home games, all against the three
teams ahead of it in the standings. The Titans need two more wins to clinch
their first winning season since 1992-93.
“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 this week.
PROBABLE STARTERS:
No. Name Ht. Yr. ppg rpg Quick Notes
PF 2 Yaphett King 6-4 Sr. 13.2 5.9 No. 6 scorer in Big West games only
at 14.2 ppg
SF 15 Ralphy Holmes 6-4 Sr. 16.0 7.5 No. 3 scorer and No. 3 rebounder
in the Big West Conference
C 32 Jamaal Brown 6-7 Jr. 12.4 7.6 30-for-48 FGs during 5-game win streak;
had game-winning points at UCI
SG 14 Jermaine Harper 6-3 Jr. 10.0 3.1 Only 4-for-15 from the floor (3-for-12
treys) at UC Irvine and Long Beach
PG 3 Bobby Brown 6-1 So. 16.4 2.2 No. 2 scorer in BWC only 12.5 points
over last 8 games; 33-for-96 FGs (.344) OFF THE BENCH:
G 23 Vershan Cottrell 6-2 Jr. 2.0 1.2 Played season-high 23 minutes vs.
Cal Poly, 21 at UCR
PG 22 John Clemmons 6-0 Jr. 2.1 1.1 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. 3.5 2.3 Started first five games of the season;
hasn’t played in 4 of last 5 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 VANDALS: Idaho (8-16, 6-7) is coming off an 0-2 homestand
vs. Pacific and Cal State Northridge. Forward Dandrick Jones leads the
Big West in scoring both in conference games only (17.8 ppg) and overall
(16.8 ppg).
STUDENTS GET FIRST LOOK: Remarkably,
Cal State Fullerton this week will play its first home games of the season
with students in session. The Nov. 27 Hope game came during Thanksgiving
Holiday. The Dec. 23 game vs. Denver came during the Christmas recess.
The Jan. 6-15 homestand came during intersession. A concerted effort by
student groups (and a winning record) suggests the biggest crowd of the
year for Thursday’s key game with Idaho in Titan Gym.
DEFENSE WINS: While the Titans continue to lead the Big
West Conference in team scoring at 75.5 points per game, their defense
was the glaring strength in the recent 5-game winning streak. They held
UCR and UC Davis to back-to-back 55-point games, lowest by an opponent
all season. And Long Beach shot an opponent season-low .367 from the floor
in victory on Saturday. Beginning with the Jan. 22 game at Idaho, Fullerton
is holding opponents to .410 field goal shooting. For the first 14 games
of the season opponents were shooting .491.
SERIES HISTORY: Idaho leads the series, 8-5, and has won three
of the last four meetings. The teams have split their season series in
each of the past two seasons with the home team prevailing all four times.
THE COACHES: Bob Burton is 24-25 in his second year at Fullerton
and career. Burton is 1-2 vs. Idaho. Leonard Perry is 44-66 in his fourth
year at Idaho and career. He is 5-2 vs. the Titans.
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).
THREE-PART SEASON: The Titans consider themselves 5-4
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 and 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. Hardy Asprilla’s
3-point play with 51 seconds left was the key in that game. 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: Finally qualified for Big West Conference statistical
rankings (75 percent of team’s games) and jumped in as No. 3 scorer
and rebounder. 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. 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 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 recent 5-game winning
streak he averaged 17.8 points and 8.0 rebounds while shooting 58 percent
(36-for-62) from the floor. He had 14 rebounds at UC Davis on Monday for
a career high. In the loss at Long Beach he had 13 points on 6-for-11
shooting with 9 rebounds.
YAPHETT ADDS TO SCORING ‘POWER’: The loss of Hardy
Asprilla has turned Yaphett King into the power forward for the past nine
games and he has improved his scoring, averaging 14.9 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. In the other 11 games he has had between 7 and 16
points. His consecutive games in double figures vs. Cal Poly and UCSB
were the first time he had done that since the first three games of the
season.
BOBBY BROWN LOOKING FOR TOUCH: Bobby Brown is in the
throes of a shooting slump that has covered most of the last 8 games,
in which he is 33-for-96 (.344) from the floor and 17-for-55 from the
3-point line (.309). He still is the conference’s No. 2 scorer (16.4
ppg)and No. 2 assists man (5.24 apg) and No. 2 in 3-pointers made per
game (2.71). He is one free throw made from qualifying for the Big West
leaders (2 made per team game) and his .891 (41 of 46) would put him at
the top (David Doubley of Pacific is at .873). Bobby was 14-for-14 last
week.
JAMAAL BROWN ON A ROLL: Jamaal Brown’s play the
past six games is 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 76 points (34-of-57 FGs, .625) in the last six games with 45 rebounds.
His double-double (13 points, 14 rebounds) vs. UCSB was his fourth of
the season. He made 10-of-11 shots at UC Irvine last week including the
game-turning field goal with 25 seconds left and two clinching free throws
with 6 seconds left.
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 9 times, Holmes (4), King (4), Harper (2), J. Brown
(2) 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 7.8 makes and 22.0
attempts per game. Those numbers project over a 27-game regular season
to 210 makes and 594 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. They went
0-for-5 in the first half and 7-for-12 in the second half vs. Long Beach
State. On the USU-Idaho road trip they made only 12 of 48 (.250) and then
hit 18 of 53 (.340) 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 Feb. 3. At UC Davis last week they were 0-for-9 in the
first half and 6-for-9 in the second half. At UCI 4-of-21 to win, at Long
Beach 8-of-22 to lose.
MAGIC NUMBER: It’s not baseball, but Cal State
Fullerton’s “magic number” is two -- the Titans need
two more wins to clinch their first winning season since 1992-93’s
team went 15-12. They already have matched the most wins in any season
in that period (13-14 in both 1996-97 and 1998-99).
ABOUT TIME: Fullerton has shot more free throws than
its opponent only three times all season -- in wins vs. UC Santa Barbara,
at UC Davis and at UC Irvine. The season disparity is 449 attempts by
opponents to 280 by Fullerton. But in the 5-game winning streak, CSF was
53-of-75 compared to 50-of-68 by opponents.
HELLO, CAMERAS: The Long Beach State (FOX Sports Net
West 2) game was No. 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. TV helped out last week when replays from the
KVMD feed persuaded the officials to award Ross Schraeder only two free
throws instead of three with less than 2 seconds to play.
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.
