Cal State Long Beach Wants to Start Something : 49ers’ Game Against UCLA Tonight Could Lead to a Series Between the Teams

Cal State Long Beach views tonight’s game with UCLA at Pauley Pavilion as essential for its basketball program, which has been in a rebuilding mode for more than a decade, but 49er Coach Ron Palmer says the game is also important to the future of the game on the West Coast.

“This game is necessary for Southern California, which has fallen so far behind the East Coast in terms of what it takes to attract basketball enthusiasm,” Palmer said. “It’s important that local teams play each other. We’re so busy playing teams in other areas of the country that our fans have become television addicts.

“USC and UCLA is a big game. But why can’t UCLA and Long Beach, or USC and Long Beach be big games?”

This is only the second time that UCLA and Long Beach have scheduled a game, but Palmer said that he and UCLA Coach Walt Hazzard have talked about a meeting every season.

Palmer added, however, that a regular series would generate enthusiasm only if fans perceived both teams as capable of winning. That isn’t the case now because Long Beach has had four straight losing seasons.

“It’s important that we win some games from each other to attract attention,” Palmer said.

“This isn’t North Carolina playing Kentucky, but it is Southern California, and it’s important to Walt and myself that we contribute to re-establishing the image of West Coast basketball to where it was 10 or 15 years ago.”

Long Beach started building a basketball tradition in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s but never followed through on it. That remains the only era of prominence in 49er history. The coach was Jerry Tarkanian, and the stars were Ed Ratleff and Glenn McDonald, now 49er assistant coaches.

But since then, the 49ers have been mired in mediocrity. Two years ago, Palmer, who had won 271 games in 11 seasons at Long Beach Poly High School, was hired to get the 49ers unstuck.

He was given a rude welcome. The 49ers won only four games last season and lost even to San Diego’s little United States International University. That was USIU’s only victory of the year.

“That was the bottom,” Palmer said.

But things are looking up for the 49ers.

“Palmer is a coach I respect a lot,” Hazzard said. “I know that his team this season is much improved over last year. It will not be an easy game. They are well disciplined and well drilled. They’ll play well against us.”

Long Beach has already won two games--against Bucknell and Hawaii Pacific--to go with losses to the University of San Diego and Hawaii. Last year, the 49ers didn’t win until Dec. 22.

After last season, Palmer went out and got what he wanted--big players who can rebound, notably Vince Jefferson, a 6-8, 225-pound junior forward from the College of the Sequoias, and Jeff Nolan, a 6-8, 222-pound sophomore forward from L.A. Trade Tech, who scored 20 points in an 83-81 victory over Hawaii Pacific Wednesday night.

Palmer will probably use 10 players against the Bruins. None has an average as high as 12 points. Reggie Miller is averaging 26 points for the Bruins (2-1), and Corey Gaines is averaging 15.

Notes The Bruins are not expected to change their starting lineup of guards Corey Gaines and Montel Hatcher (10.7 points a game), center Jack Haley (0.7) and forwards Reggie Miller and Kelvin Butler (7.7). . . . The game, at 7:30 p.m., will be televised by Prime Ticket, with Chick Hearn doing the play-by-play. It will also be broadcast by KMPC (710). . . . The Bruins hold a 4-0 lead in the series. The last time the teams met was in the 1983-84 season, when Larry Farmer’s UCLA team beat Dave Buss’ Long Beach team, 65-59, at Pauley Pavilion. The three other games matched UCLA Coach John Wooden against Jerry Tarkanian, current coach at Nevada Las Vegas. In 1970, UCLA won, 88-65, in a West Regional game at Seattle. In 1971, UCLA won, 57-55, in a West Regional game at Salt Lake City. And in 1972, UCLA won, 73-57, in a West Regional game at Provo, Utah.