SAN DIEGO COLLEGE BASKETBALL PREVIEWS : SDSU Will Court Brandenburg’s Work Ethic

When Jim Brandenburg left Wyoming for the sun and beaches of San Diego, he left behind more than snow and wide-open prairie. He walked away from a basketball program that would return five starters from a team that had reached the final 16 of the NCAA tournament.

That team will open practice in Wyoming today without its architect. Brandenburg will not be there to greet Fennis Dembo, the Western Athletic Conference player of the year. He will not be running practice in the Cowboys’ modern 15,000-seat arena. He will not preside over a team ranked in the top 20 by most of the major preseason publications.

Instead, he will be at San Diego State, in its antiquated Peterson Gym, welcoming what is left from a team that won five games and lost 25 last season. To hear him talk, he wouldn’t want to be coaching anywhere else.

“I can’t wait to get on the court,” Brandenburg said. “That’s when I’m happy. I love being around the team, coaching them, traveling with them, playing games.”

The games will have to wait until Nov. 27, when the Aztecs will open the season in the Sun-Met Classic in Fresno against Kansas State, but the practices officially start today. It is a time Brandenburg has awaited since he resigned as coach at Wyoming and accepted the job as the successor to Smokey Gaines in March.

“He has something to prove,” said point guard Bryan Williams, a junior transfer from Cerritos College in Norwalk. “He is going to be tough on us. He has his reputation on the line.”

In 11 seasons as a major college coach, the past nine at Wyoming, Brandenburg has never had a losing season.

Those involved concede that it will not be easy this year, even though the Aztecs return four starters--center Gerald Murray, off-guard Tony Ross and forwards Juan Espinoza and Rodney Hawkins. Only point guard Josh Lowery, who last summer was suspended from school for one year for disciplinary reasons, is missing. But that does not mean the positions are settled.

“The first few days we will use to decide what we’ve got,” Brandenburg said. “We have to get the players on the court and see just how much team quickness we have, how much of the floor we can cover, what kind of offensive skills we have. A lot of that will determine just what we’ll be able to do.”

Brandenburg is unsure whether Murray, a 6-foot 8-inch senior who led the team in rebounding last season at 7.9 per game, will play center or power forward. But he is sure of one thing: Murray must lose weight. Murray said last week that he weighed 285 pounds.

Brandenburg said, “I’ll tell you something about Gerald, he is one of those big guys who is light on his feet. He can leap a foot over the rim. Can you believe that a man his size can jump that high?”

Brandenburg said Murray’s position will depend on the development of Mitch McMullen, a 6-10 junior transfer from College of the Canyons. McMullen played his freshman season at Point Loma Nazarene College before he transferred to College of the Canyons, where he averaged 16.5 points and 9.8 rebounds last season.

“He has got to step in and give us immediate help,” Brandenburg said. “He has been foul prone. That is something we have to teach him to stop.”

Brandenburg expects two new players to join Espinoza and Hawkins among the top front-court players. They are Sam Johnson, a 6-7 junior who sat out last season after transferring from Eastern Michigan, and Caldin Rogers, a 6-6 junior transfer who averaged 11.0 points and 8.6 rebounds at Ellsworth College in Iowa Falls, Iowa.

The Aztecs’ only other returning front-court player is Jon Baskin, a seldom-used 6-8 sophomore. But Brandenburg has recruited two 6-10 freshmen--Mark Pollard of Orem, Utah, and Neil Steinly of Yuma, Ariz.--who he hopes will provide depth.

The backcourt is thin, however, as only Ross returns. Ross was used as an off-guard last season, but Brandenburg said he expects him to learn to play point guard as well.

The only other guards are Williams and Ty Walker, a junior transfer who averaged 18 points per game at Garden City Community College in Ingalls, Kan. Walker is another off-guard who Brandenburg said must learn to play point. “We don’t have that many guards, so we have to some versatility,” Brandenburg said.

Brandenburg said there is an urgency about his preparation because the Aztecs will play the Soviet Union in an exhibition game Nov. 10 at the San Diego Sports Arena. He said he plans three-hour practices during the week and likely will work the team for two hours on Saturdays. “It’s very important that the players adapt to our coaching style quickly so we don’t have to go through a lot of ego struggles,” Brandenburg said. “We need to have a group we can start teaching right from the start.

Aztec Notes

Two players are not eligible to play this season under NCAA rules for transfers--Michael Best, a guard from Clemson, and Shawn Bell, a forward from Chicago State and Morse High School. . . . Pairings for the Aztecs’ other two tournaments have been set. SDSU will play Arizona State and Tulsa will play Richmond in the first round of the Kactus Classic Dec. 4 in Tempe, Ariz. SDSU will play Bucknell and Fresno State will play Texas Tech in the opening games of the Holiday Bowl Classic Dec. 27 in the Sports Arena. . . . The women’s team also will begin practice today, led by sophomore forwards Jessica Haynes and Brooke Meadows, and Chana Perry, an All-American center as a freshman who sat out last season after transferring from Northeast Louisiana.