College Basketball ‘87-88 : Aztec Basketball Lacks Seasoning : Making Big-Time Moves Could Take a Little Time

The question doesn’t go away. Not because Jim Brandenburg can’t answer it. But because with each day comes another reason to ask it.

The latest incident happened earlier this week when Gerald Murray, the most experienced player and projected starting center on the San Diego State basketball team, was suspended indefinitely from the team after his arrest on suspicion of drug violations.

So, Jim, why did you leave a potential Final Four team at Wyoming to coach at SDSU, a team that is down to four returning players from a season in which it finished 5-25?

“Sometimes I wonder myself,” Brandenburg said, smiling.

His gallows humor is not without reason.

When Brandenburg accepted the job in March he inherited a team that returned all 11 of its lettermen. But since then he has lost seven players who have either been suspended, transferred, quit or were dropped.

These include three of the top five leading scorers--guard Josh Lowery, who was suspended by the school for a year because of fighting in a pickup basketball game; guard Darryl Gaines, son of former coach Smokey Gaines who transferred to Grossmont College, and Murray.

The Aztecs open their season tonight against Kansas State in the first round of the Sun Met tournament in Fresno without a player with more than one season at SDSU.

Tony Ross is the only returning player who averaged in double figures. Ross, a sophomore guard, averaged 16.3 points.

Rodney Hawkins and Juan Espinoza return at the forward spots. Both are seniors who transferred from community colleges before last season.

The other starters will be two junior transfers, point guard Bryan Williams and center Mitch McMullen. The bench will consist of three transfers, two freshmen, and forward Jon Baskin, who played in only 16 games and averaged 1.3 points last season.

The outlook is so bleak Brandenburg has gone to calling the season more than a rebuilding project. “It’s a major, major reconstruction job,” he has said.

The reality of his task aside, Brandenburg said he sees the same kind of challenge at SDSU that he faced at Wyoming. He took over a Wyoming team that had only one winning season in its previous eight and turned the Cowboys into a team that did not have a losing record in his nine seasons as coach. Three times the Cowboys earned at least a share of the Western Athletic Conference title.

Last season, the Cowboys defeated UCLA in advancing to the final 16 of the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. tournament, where they lost to Nevada Las Vegas.

Wyoming opens its season tonight at home against the University of Denver with a new coach, Beeny Dees, but almost every player is back from a team that finished 24-10.

If Brandenburg has any regrets about his decision, they do not show.

“I can’t go back,” he said. “I’ve turned the corner. People can probably tell that. Those are those guys, and this is my guys.

“San Diego State has a real chance to get going in the right direction. I see a lot of positive things taking place. A lot of people are working hard to make this work. It might not show now, but for us the improvement will come in spurts.”

Whether that will show in the Aztecs’ record is another question. Brandenburg is taking over a struggling program at a time when the WAC coaches are saying the league is as strong as it has been in this decade.

Wyoming is loaded. New Mexico already has beaten UCLA. Brigham Young returns its top two scorers from a team that defeated Wyoming twice. Texas El Paso is young, but the Miners have won at least a share of the past five WAC championships. Utah has four starters back from its National Invitation Tournament team of last year. And Colorado State has its three top scorers back and a new coach, Boyd Grant, who was 194-74 in nine seasons at Fresno State.

Add to that a nonconference schedule that includes at least five teams that were in postseason tournaments, starting tonight with Kansas State, and it is clear why Brandenburg is guarded about his team’s chances.

He is concerned about a schedule that has the Aztecs playing on the road in tournaments on consecutive weekends and meeting city rivals U.S. International and University of San Diego in the first three weeks.

The only break could be the home opener Dec. 1 against Cal Poly Pomona, a NCAA Division II team. The game was inserted early at Brandenburg’s request.

“We really need some wins early,” Brandenburg said. “That’s why I moved the game. I just demanded it. We had those two tournaments and some other tough games. I didn’t want to put us in the position of going 0-6 or something like that, because at that point we’d be history. This is a team that needs to have some success early to build its confidence.

“We’ve been throwing so much new at them, the players need to see some results.”

The Aztecs have been practicing since Oct. 15, but their progress has not always impressed Brandenburg. He, however, has been encouraged by their effort.

“I’ve got a lot of guys who really want to please,” he said.

Unfortunately, sometimes they try too hard.

“If I get my expectation level really high in practice and then things aren’t going well, they see the frustration in me. And that just runs through the team,” Brandenburg said. “They see me getting frustrated, so they become frustrated.

“I’ve tried to keep my frustration down, which has enabled us to get a little more done at practice. The intensity may not be there in a few things, but things have flowed a lot better.”

Brandenburg said one of his difficulties has been to instill a tough-minded defensive approach to the players.

“I’m going to have to drive that into them because we don’t have that many players who have an image of themselves as defensive players,” he said. “Most of our players see themselves as offensive players.”

That might not be a problem if they Aztecs weren’t having so much difficulty on offense. But since they looked confused in a 94-65 exhibition game loss to the Soviet Union national team Nov. 10, Brandenburg has emphasized offense.

Some of what he has found has been encouraging.

“Most of the players are much better fundamental shooters than I anticipated,” he said.

Ross proved himself one of the nation’s top three-point shooters last season when 104 of his 152 field goals came from that range. Brandenburg also is counting on the outside touch of Ty Walker, a transfer from Garden City (Kan.) Community College.

Both Ross and Walker, however, also will be counted on to take some of the ball-handling load from Williams, who is the team’s only point guard.

Espinoza and Hawkins will be backed up at the forward positions by Caldin Rogers, a junior transfer from Ellsworth (Kan.) Junior College; and Sam Johnson, a junior transfer from Eastern Michigan. But Johnson, who is coming off knee surgery, has been slowed by a groin pull, arthritic knees and a sprained ankle.

“That has really kept Sam from where he needs to be,” Brandenburg said. “His slow physical progress has hurt us because we were expecting some good things out of Sam.”

With Murray suspended, the center postion is left to McMullen, the only player at the position with any college experience. McMullen averaged 10.5 points and 6.0 rebounds as a freshman at Point Loma Nazarene before transferring to College of the Canyons in Valencia for his sophomore season.

Behind McMullen are two freshmen, Mark Pollard and Neil Steinly, who played only three total minutes against the Soviets.

Before the loss of Murray, Brandenburg had been considering playing Murray and McMullen together to give his team some bulk. Now he is thinking of going the other way and using a three-forward lineup.

The personnel changes have kept Brandenburg flexible. And despite the problems, he has kept touches of optimism.

“Every once in a while in practice, we do some nice things,” he said. “The other night we were working against a zone defense. We moved the ball right, moved it left, shot it, got it back to the point, sealed down the lane, kicked it right in and scored. That was a big-time college play.”

And that was what Brandenburg came to see.

SDSU FACTS & FIGURES

1987-88 ROSTER

Lettermen Returning (5)

No Player Po Hgt Wgt Yr FG% FT% Ast Reb Pts 32 Jon Baskin F 6-8 220 So .350 .636 0.6 1.4 1.2 40 Juan Espinoza F 6-8 210 Sr .524 .714 1.3 4.2 7.2 23 Rodney Hawkins F 6-8 205 Sr .507 .500 1.3 6.0 9.2 57 Gerald Murray C 6-8 265 Sr .538 .603 0.8 7.9 10.1 20 Tony Ross G 6-3 170 So .418 .746 1.3 2.2 16.3

No Hometown (High School) 32 Steamboat Springs 40 La Mesa (Helix) 23 Chicago (Colby CC) 57 Detroit (Kettering) 20 Portland(Grant)

Other Players Returning (1)

No Player Po Hgt Wgt Yr 1985-86 Status Hometown (High School) 42 Sam Johnson F 6-7 220 Jr Redshirt Detroit (E. Michigan)

Newcomers (6)

No Player Po Hgt Wgt Yr Hometown (High School) 52 Mitch McMullen C 6-10 240 Jr Valencia (Point Loma Nazarene) 45 Mark Pollard C 6-11 223 Fr Orem, Utah (Mountain View) 33 Caldin Rogers F 6-6 207 Jr Detroit (Ellworth CC) 54 Neil Steinly C 6-10 226 Fr Yuma (KOFA) 30 Ty Walker G 6-4 185 Jr Ingalls, Kansas (Garden City) 11 Bryan Williams G 5-10 165 Jr Playa del Rey (Cerritos CC)