Small Colleges / Alan Drooz : Chapman Teeters on Razor’s Edge

The hottest team in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. basketball race is Chapman College, winner of five of its last six games including Friday night’s upset of No. 13 UC Riverside.

But if the Panthers go on to win the CCAA title or do well in the postseason tournament, it won’t be a close shave.

Going into tonight’s home game against third-place Cal State Dominguez Hills, the Panthers and Coach Kevin Wilson haven’t shaved in more than a week. After the Panthers beat Riverside and Cal Poly Pomona last weekend, Wilson walked into the locker room and saw a directive from the players on the blackboard: “No shaving--Beards forever.”

Or at least until the Panthers lose.

Wilson, in his third season at Chapman, likes the team’s new mean look, although he wouldn’t mind a shave himself.

“We’ve got the nicest guys in the conference,” he said. “The guys are too nice. They’re a little timid. We’ve got no hell-raisers on the team. We’re a nice little private school. There are no phys ed majors, they’re all studying business and communications.

“Last Monday, I told the guys they couldn’t shave (for Friday’s Riverside game). We won at Riverside. The next night at Pomona, the kids in the stands all had electric razors, like they were going to shave us. We won again. We will keep the beards until we lose. Hopefully, we’ll have them into March.”

Wilson has an unusual program on several levels beyond grooming. Chapman is the only private school in the CCAA, and Wilson is one of the few coaches who prefers to have no assistant.

He must be doing something right. The Panthers are 12-9 overall--their nonconference schedule included several Division I teams that the Panthers played competitively--and 5-2 in the conference, only a game behind Riverside.

Wilson primarily plays seven players and counts heavily on veterans Karl Tompkins, Kelly Huston and Jon Samuelson, and freshman Dave Roth, who had 27 points against Riverside.

Wilson says having no assistant has allowed him to get closer to the team. “I think it’s been good for us, especially for me,” he said. “Usually, the assistants are younger and get closer to the players and the head coach is sort of removed. I sweep the floor before practice, pass out gym bags. Last week, I carried the uniforms. I’m right down on their level.”

Wilson also thought that bringing in a new assistant this season would divert his attention from the team.

“I felt that better than bringing in somebody new, having to break somebody in, teaching him and passing on energy in that direction, I could give it all to the team. I’m probably going to put hundreds and hundreds of assistant coaches out of business, but I’ll probably stay this way unless the school says something to me.”

Wilson, an Ohio native, landed an assistant’s job at San Francisco State in 1977 and was head coach there two years before replacing Walt Hazzard at Chapman. He said he has no ambitions to continue in Hazzard’s footsteps. “I love it here,” he said. “I’d like to sign a 30-year contract.”

It might have been little consolation to William Alexander because he got his record in a loss, but the Cal State Dominguez Hills small forward became the CCAA’s career scoring leader Saturday when he got 33 points against UC Riverside. The Toros lost, however, 88-70, and were deprived of the chance to move into a first-place tie with Riverside. Instead, they’re two games behind at 4-3 going into tonight’s game at Chapman.

Since Alexander set his record on the road in the middle of an important game, little note was taken of it. For the record, Alexander became the CCAA scoring leader on a layup four minutes into the game. That shot gave him 1,552 points, unseating Eric Butler, who graduated from Chapman in 1982.

Alexander added another 28 points and needs 62 to become the career scoring leader in conference games. He also needs six minutes to become the conference leader in minutes played.

Alexander is averaging 21.6 points for the season and nearly 24 points in CCAA games on 58% shooting. In his last four games, he has increased his production to 27 points a game. The 6-foot-4 inch senior from Washington High School would be an even more prolific scorer except for his Achilles’ heel: foul shooting. Alexander’s free-throw percentage of .538 is lower than his field goal mark.