National Invitation Tournament : Fullerton Gets Another Chance, Plays at Cal

The first order of business for Cal State Fullerton when it got an unexpected phone call from the ego rebuilders at the National Invitation Tournament was to make sure that players were informed that their season had been extended. In some cases, this was a little easier said than done.

Herman Webster, the Titans’ center and team captain, was in San Diego visiting friends and relatives on Sunday when school officials tried to reach him at his mother’s home. Webster got the word . . . sort of.

“My mother called me and said, ‘You guys got a knit bid,’ ” Webster said. “It took me a while to figure out what she was talking about. I said, ‘Oh, you mean an NIT bid.’ ”

Guard Alexander Hamilton was informed Monday morning while grocery shopping. Guard Richard Morton heard the news Sunday night when he had a phone call from teammate David Moody. “He said, ‘Rich, guess what?’ I didn’t believe him at first.”

There was plenty of disbelief and surprise to go around when the NIT announced its second-chance teams Sunday, and that Fullerton was discovered to be among them. Tonight, one week after a 99-65 loss to No. 1-ranked Nevada Las Vegas in the semifinals of the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. tournament, the Titans meet Cal in the first round of the NIT. Tipoff in Cal’s Harmon Arena is 7:30.

The defeat to UNLV was Fullerton’s worst loss since a 100-65 drubbing by Portland in 1980 in George McQuarn’s first game as Fullerton’s coach. When Friday’s game was over, McQuarn talked more about next season than postseason, figuring that the 1986-87 season was over. Webster and Hamilton, both seniors, assumed that they had played their last college game, although it was not the final bow Webster had in mind.

“After that loss, we wanted to get another shot at something . . . anything,” he said. “That was such a devastating loss. We didn’t want the season to end that way.”

So it is off to the Bay Area, where two Titans began their basketball careers. Morton was the Bay Area Player of the Year as a senior at Balboa High School in San Francisco. Junior forward Henry Turner left Fremont High School in Oakland as that school’s all-time leading scorer.

Their return has prompted several requests for tickets from family and friends and has put them in high demand with the Bay Area media. “They haven’t given us any air,” Morton said, only half complaining.

The question now is whether Cal will be as attentive to Morton, Turner and their teammates. This will be the first meeting ever between these two teams, and it will be the Golden Bears’ first game against a PCAA team under Coach Lou Campanelli. Campanelli has seen enough videotape of the Titans to form an opinion of them, though.

“Other than Nevada Las Vegas, they’re certainly the most athletic team in (the PCAA),” he said. “They would probably be the most athletic team in the Pac-10.”

Before the season began, the Bears were thought to have as much chance as anyone of winning the Pacific-10 title. But when junior forward Leonard Taylor went out on Jan. 4 with what was later diagnosed as a congenital spinal disorder, he took some important statistics with him. Taylor was the Bears’ leading scorer in nine of their first 15 games and led the team in scoring, rebounding and field-goal percentage. With him, the Bears were 9-5. Without him, they went 9-9 and lost to UCLA in the semifinals of the Pac-10 tournament, dropping to 18-14 overall. But, as Campanelli points out, it could have been much worse.

“A lot of people expected us to fold,” he said. “I think that’s a credit to our team. Many teams would have had difficulty even being competitive after losing a player like that. (Taylor) was probably the one kid we couldn’t afford to lose. He was leading the team in six different categories at that point.”

Fullerton (17-12) may not have expected to be playing in the postseason, but Campanelli doesn’t seem to feel that the Titans are undeserving.

“Unfortunately, we’re playing a team loaded with athletes,” he said. “They’re a lot of things we’re not. They present some difficult matchups.”

NIT Notes

Tonight’s game will be carried live on KWRM (1370) and KWOW (1370), with coverage beginning at 7:10. . . . Should Fullerton win tonight, its second-round opponent would likely be Boise State or Washington--both first-round winners Wednesday night--or the winner of tonight’s game between Oregon State and New Mexico. A game against Boise State would pit the Titans against Coach Bobby Dye, who took Fullerton within a breath of the NCAA Final Four in 1978. . . . UCLA and Washington are the only opponents the Titans and Cal have in common. The Bears lost three games to UCLA by a total of 17 points and split with Washington. Fullerton lost, 72-71, at UCLA and beat Washington in Titan Gym, 75-55. . . . Former Saddleback High School standout Bryant Walton has enjoyed a successful freshman season at Cal. Walton is the Bears’ leading three-point shooter (33 of 82) and has scored in double figures in seven games.