THE QUICK SCENARIO: Fullerton (7-4, 2-1) is off to its
best start since the 1996-97 team started out 7-4 and 8-4 before finishing
13-14. The Titans host local rivals Long Beach State and UC Irvine to
complete a 4-game homestand. They are 4-0 at home after beating UC Riverside
and UC Davis last week and have won nine of their last 10 in Titan Gym.
“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
and Troy Bardy are at the microphones for the Long Beach State contest.
Todd Reeves handles the play-by-play vs. UC Irvine. The UCI feed of Saturday's
game also can be heard on Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 143.
PROBABLE STARTERS:
No. Name Ht. Yr. ppg rpg Quick Notes
F 2 Yaphett King * 6-4 Sr. 11.2 5.1 Keyed rally at CSU Northridge with
12 points in final 8 1/2 minutes
F 24 Hardy Asprilla * 6-5 Sr. 8.4 8.8 Career-high 16th rebound led to
decisive 3-point play vs. UC Riverside
C 32 Jamaal Brown 6-7 Jr. 13.5 6.5 Had a pair of double-doubles in first
two Titan Gym appearances
G 15 Ralphy Holmes* 6-4 Sr. 16.7 7.2 Approached a triple-double vs. UC
Davis with 25 points, 8 rebounds, 8 assists
G 3 Bobby Brown * 6-1 So. 19.0 2.1 Leading the Big West Conference in
scoring OFF THE BENCH:
G 14 Jermaine Harper 6-3 Jr. 10.6 3.8 Erupted from 3-game scoring slump
with 25 points at Pacific
G 23 Vershan Cottrell 6-2 Jr. 2.1 1.0 Transfer from Ohlone College who
led state of Washington in scoring as prep
G 22 John Clemmons 6-0 Jr. 2.7 1.4 January transfer from El Camino College
who didn’t play last year
C 42 Derek Quinet 6-9 So. 4.0 2.5 Underwent surgery on Dec. 23 to re-set
broken nose; missed 1 game
F 5 Justin Burns 6-6 So. 4.5 2.0 Transfer from Cypress Community College;
father “Spider” played at UNLV F 21 Danny Lambert 6-6 Jr.
0.0 1.5 Transfer from Irvine Valley College has played only 7 minutes
SIDELINED:
F 12 Drew Awad 6-3 Sr. 1.7 1.0 Leukemia survivor sidelined by foot injury
has now suffered re-occurrence
C 43 Lloyd Walls 6-9 Sr. -- -- Transfer from Wright State sidelined after
multiple concussions
*letters earned
ABOUT THE 49ers: Long Beach State (2-11, 0-4) has lost four in
a row to open Big West Conference play. Shawn Hawkins (13.2 ppg) and Jibril
Hodges (10.3 ppg) are the only healthy double figure scorers. Center Anthony
Coleman (11.8 ppg, 5.6 rpg) is doubtful due to a leg injury.
ABOUT THE ANTEATERS: UC Irvine (6-5, 1-3) is coming off
a tough two games, a second-half meltdown to Cal State Northridge and
a last-second 2-point loss to Pacific. Ross Schraeder (14.1 ppg) and Aaron
Fitzgerald (14.1) lead the team in scoring from the perimeter and Greg
Ethington (13.0 ppg, 6.4 rpg) leads the front line players.
THE COACHES: Bob Burton is 18-21 in his second year at
Fullerton and career. Pat Douglass is 112-99 in his eight year at UCI
and 488-217 career. He is 1-1 vs. Bob Burton and 7-7 vs. Fullerton. Larry
Reynolds is 13-54 in his third year at Long Beach and 123-89 career. He
is 0-2 vs. Bob Burton and 1-3 vs. Fullerton.
SERIES HISTORIES: Fullerton has played Long Beach State
more than any other opponent and trails in the series, 51-35, but won
both meetings last season for the first time since 1998-99. Fullerton
leads UC Irvine, 41-36, with the teams splitting each of the past two
seasons.
GOOD START: Fullerton’s 7-4 start is its best since
the 1996-97 also opened 7-4 (after a 7-2 start) and then went to 8-4.
In conference play, the Titans opened 2-1 and then 3-1 (all victories
in overtime) in the 2002-03 season before losing the next four.
3-1 IN CRUNCH TIME: The Titans are 3-1 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 San Diego State, Jamaal Brown’s 3-point attempt
bounced off the rim at the buzzer and the Aztecs escaped with a 3-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, 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.
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.
HOME, SWEET HOME: Fullerton is 4-0 this season and was
8-6 last year in Titan Gym for its first winning season at home since
1998-99. The Titans have won 9 of their last 10 home games going to back
to last season and the loss came in double OT to UCSB. Christened vs.
Denver on Dec. 23, 2004, was a new state-of-the art sound system, installed
by the same company that did the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim and will be
doing USC’s new arena. That addition about completes the upgrades
possible for 40-year old Titan Gym. In the past five years, it has welcomed
new chair-back seats, new portable basket supports, new south balony bleachers,
new lights and a new scoreboard as well as updates of 12 national championship
banners and a jersey Wall of Honor.
THE OLD RALPHY: Holmes has looked like his first-team
All-Big West Conference (2002-03) self the past five games after a humbling
debut at San Diego State, where he went scoreless on 0-for-9 shooting.
Against Denver he led all first-half scorers with 16 points on 7-for-8
shooting. He scored about a point a minute -- 16 points in 14 first-half
minutes and 9 points in 13 second-half minutes -- and finished 11 of 14
from the floor. He has followed that up with 12 points at CSU Northridge,
23 at Pacific, 15 vs. UCR and 25 vs. UC Davis to average 20.0 over the
past five games.
YAPHETT DOWN THE STRETCH: King has been the Titans’
“go-to” guy down the stretch in two victories. 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 UC Davis he scored 15 points in the second
half to finish with 17 for the game.
HARPER DOING JEKYLL-HYDE ACT: Junior guard Jermaine Harper
has had three games of 20 or more points and five games with 4 points
or less. His other three games produced 15, 16 and 11 points. After scoring
24 points 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. But 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 vs. UCR, missing all 4 shots in 19 minutes. He had 11
vs. UC Davis.
B. BROWN LEADING THE WAY: Bobby Brown is the early scoring
leader in the Big West Conference. His seven 3-point field goals at San
Diego State (in 11 attempts) tied his career best (he also had 7 vs. UCSB
last season). He’s averaging 19.0 points per game. The last Titan
to break the 20-point barrier for a season was guard Joe Small in 1990-91
at 21.8 ppg.
BOMBS AWAY: After a season’s best 10-for-18 effort
vs. UC Davis (after a season’s worst 3-for-18 effort vs. UC Riverside),
Fullerton is averaging 21.0 3-point field goal attempts per game and is
making an average of 7.6. That projects to 567 attempts and 206 makes
over a 27-game regular season and both of those numbers would be school
single-season records (196 makes last season and 551 attempts in 1996-97).
DOUBLE FIGURES: Six Titans scored in double figures (B.
Brown 21, Asprilla 16, Harper 16, King 15, Burns 14 and Quinet 10) 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).
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 5-51 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; 2-2 so far in 2004-05).
NEW OVERTIME STRING STARTING?: Fullerton snapped a 5-game
losing streak in games that ran more than 40 minutes with its win in Cheney,
Washington, and the Titans made it 2-for-2 this year with the Dec. 28
OT win at Northridge. The Titans WON five OT games in a row in the 2002-03
season before losing in that fashion in the season finale and the swan
song for Coach Donny Daniels. Bob Burton was 0-4 last season including
one double overtime defeat.
AWAD LEAVES SCHOOL: Senior forward Drew Awad withdrew
from the University on Dec. 6 when he learned of a reoccurrence of his
acute lymphocytic leukemia. He was informed at the end of practice that
day of the results of a morning blood test. He had been sidelined with
a nagging foot injury and felt tired as he had when originally diagnosed
in August of 2002. He immediately went home to Fresno where he faces another
six months of treatment and hospitalization.
TITAN GYM GOES HOLLYWOOD: ABC's Top Ten Nielsen TV show
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition came to Titan Gym on Dec. 8 to tape a tribute
to Rodney Anderson, the former Titan basketball player, whose family received
the full treatment from the show between Dec. 4 and 14. The taping featured
the retirement of his jersey No. 4 and will be included in an episode
scheduled to be aired Sunday (Jan. 16) at 7 p.m. in back-to-back one-hour
episodes. Anderson was shot in a mistaken identity gang shooting near
his Los Angeles 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.
RING NIGHT: During halftime of Thursday’s game
vs. Long Beach State, the Titans’ baseball team will receive their
2004 NCAA Championship rings and the school’s 12th national championship
banner will be unfurled.
STATISTICAL LEADERS: Besides Bobby Brown leading the
conference in scoring and 3-point field goals made (3.18 per game), the
Titans have the Big West’s leading offensive rebounder in Hardy
Asprilla (3.18 per game) and the team is No. 1 in scoring at 77.3 points
per game, in 3-point field goals made at 7.64 and in offensive rebounding
at 13.64 per game. Asprilla ranks No. 2 in overall rebounding at 8.8 rpg
to Vili Morton of UC Riverside at 9.3. Bobby Brown is No. 2 in assists
at 5.18 to Aaron Fitzgerald of UCI at 5.45. If he had enough games to
qualify (75 percent of team’s games, or Feb. 10 if he plays in every
game), Ralphy Holmes would be the No. 2 scorer at 16.7 ppg. In conference
games only, he is No. 5 at 16.7 ppg and B. Brown is No. 3 at 17.3 ppg.
