SDSU May Have Another Tough Season Ahead : Basketball Team Begins Practice With Little Experience and Lots of Questions

San Diego State’s basketball season may have seemed tough last year when the Aztecs finished 10-19.

But, it won’t be any easier this season.

As the Aztecs begin practice today, they will be without four starters from their 1985-86 team. They lost their top five scorers, top three rebounders and two assist leaders from a team that finished sixth in the Western Athletic Conference.

Other than that, everything is rosy at Peterson Gym.

“I’m going to throw some raw meat on the floor and say go get it,” SDSU Coach Smokey Gaines said.

“At the end of the tunnel, there is a light. And there is no train behind me.”

Who’s back?

Gerald Murray, a center, is the lone returner junior, though he redshirted last season because he underwent surgery for a fractured right kneecap. Murray, whose right kneecap has been fractured three times in the past two years, is still waiting to be cleared to play by the SDSU medical staff.

“He’s making progress,” Gaines said.

As a sophomore in 1984-85, Murray averaged 3 points and 2.3 rebounds a game.

“He’s the oldest guy around with the most experience,” said Gaines. Gaines hopes for progress on this team of four freshmen, five sophomores and three juniors in addition to six walk-ons.

Note the absence of seniors. Gaines says this is the first team he has ever coached that did not have at least one senior.

Other than Murray, the only returning Aztecs are sophomores Josh Lowery, Kevin Brown, Tracy Dildy, Johnny Scruggs and Darryl Gaines.

Brown, a 6-foot 9-inch center, is the only returning starter, but he averaged 2.9 points and 4.6 rebounds. He is the leading rebounder among the returning players.

If there is a budding offensive star on this club, it might be Lowery, a 6-4 shooting guard. Lowery averaged 6.1 points, but had 18-point games against Arkansas and Arizona and scored 10 points, including a jumper at the buzzer, to beat Utah in the WAC tournament.

Point guard Dildy (5-11) was third in assists last season, and might be the playmaker Gaines needs to replace Creon Dorsey and run the kind of up-tempo offense Gaines hopes to employ.

“We won’t know if we have a leader until we’ve been in practice at least a week or so,” Gaines said. “We’re looking for one.”

Swingman Gaines, Smokey’s son, averaged 11 minutes and 2.8 points coming off the bench last season. Johnny Scruggs is a physical player who appeared in all 29 games, averaging 3.9 points.

Freshmen include John Baskin, 6-9, who averaged 28.1 points and 14 rebounds for Steamboat Springs (Colo.) High School; Kent Bryant, 6-6, who averaged 19.5 points, 12 rebounds and 5 assists for Holy Cross in Flushing, N.Y.; Tony Ross, 6-3, who averaged 26 points and 4.4 assists for Grant High in Portland, Ore.; and Gary Kline, 6-6, who averaged 18 points and 8 rebounds for Lebanon High in Lebanon, Pa.

However, the biggest--or at least tallest--story among freshmen is 7-foot 1-inch Darrell Fuller from Ontario High. Fuller, who averaged 19 points and 12.3 rebounds last season, was to become the first 7-footer in Aztec basketball history. Instead, he will redshirt for academic reasons.

“He’s only around 205 pounds,” Gaines said, “and probably would have redshirted anyway.”

Instead, size will come from community college transfers. Forward Juan Espinoza (6-8) played at Helix before averaging 15.1 points and 8.5 rebounds for Grossmont last season. Forward Rodney Hawkins (6-8) averaged 14.6 points and 9 rebounds for Colby Community College.

“We’ve got some height coming in this season and that should help improve our rebounding numbers as well as our inside game,” Gaines said. “When I’m the tallest guy in the huddle during timeouts, you know we were in trouble.”

The Aztecs’ inside game will center on Murray, whose status remains up to the medical staff. Actually, the entire team is a question mark.

“We have to get them (the players) on the same page,” Gaines said. “We have to get the right chemistry together. This is the best group as far as doing what they are told in terms of classes and going to study halls.”

The problems figure to begin when the games do.