College Division : Gene Victor Is Passing Test as Caltech Coach

It has been more than a subtle change of scenery this season for Gene Victor, longtime successful basketball coach.

Victor, in his 41st year of coaching, has moved from Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut to Caltech in Pasadena.

Talk about taking a 180-degree turn.

Nothing against Mt. San Antonio, a two-year community college. But it is rarely mentioned in the same breath as Caltech, which is one of the most highly regarded academic schools in the nation. In fact, the average Scholastic Aptitude Test score of 1,405 for Caltech students is the highest among U.S. colleges.

The two schools are also far apart on the basketball court, where Mt. San Antonio has had its share of success and Caltech has struggled.

Victor had a 671-392 record in his first 40 years of coaching, including the last 28 seasons at Mt. San Antonio.

But after retiring from Mt. San Antonio at the end of last season, the 61-year-old Victor decided that he didn’t want to retire from coaching. So he was more than happy to accept when offered the job at Caltech, which had finished 7-17 last season and has never won more than 14 games in a season.

“I just like basketball, and I like to work with the kids,” Victor said. “This gave me an opportunity to stay in coaching.”

So far, Victor’s first year at Caltech can be labeled a success. Although freshmen and sophomores predominate on his team, Victor’s team has a 3-3 nonconference record against varsity opponents.

“We have a young team, and if we stay together we’ll be pretty decent down the line,” Victor said.

Caltech has competed in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference as a junior varsity team the last three years but is playing its nonconference schedule against varsity teams this season. Victor is hoping the Beavers will be able to compete in the SCIAC as a varsity team next season.

“We have applied to the conference to get back to varsity status,” he said. “I don’t know if we will win all the time, but I think we can be competitive.”

Although Victor has maintained his winning ways, the new surroundings have brought about a change in his expectations.

“At Mt. SAC, we had a lot of players who have gone on to play Division I basketball and have hopes of playing in the NBA, like Jarvis Basnight at UNLV,” he said. “None of these fellows have any aspirations of playing pro basketball.

“Basketball is just a secondary thing. All I ask of them is to give me two hours a day and they’ve done that.”

The coach said he does not have any athletes who approach the skills of Basnight, but added, “They’re great learners. They pick up on things very quickly, and they’re a pleasure to work with. They work very hard at improving.”

Victor said that improvement has been most satisfying for him.

“I get a different satisfaction from coaching here,” he said. “You literally see these kids improve from day to day. Some of these kids didn’t play high school ball, so it’s enjoyable to watch them grow. They’re out there because they want to play, not because they have a scholarship.”

Victor realizes that Caltech will never have the caliber of talent that his teams enjoyed at Mt. San Antonio, but that has not dampened his enthusiasm.

“We’ll still give it everything we can while staying in the framework of the school,” he says. “I don’t have an ego. I just want to do the best I can with the players I have and keep coaching.”

With the regular season approaching the midpoint, one lower-division men’s team from the Southland is still undefeated.

Biola, a National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics team, is 13-0 after edging Lee of Tennessee, 67-66, in the Point Loma Nazarene tournament Thursday night.

Among the Eagles’ other victims are Northern Arizona, a Division I team, and three Division II teams from the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. All of which is not surprising, considering that the Eagles have most of their top players back from last year’s 29-2 team that was ranked No. 4 in the NAIA, which is also their current ranking.

Biola, led by All-American forward Johnny Griffin and center Paul Horn, tonight faces Southern Nazarene of Oklahoma, which 12-0 after an 82-72 win over Point Loma Thursday night.

Going into Thursday night’s games, Lee, now 8-4, was averaging 110.2 points a game, Southern Nazarene 94.7.

UC Riverside, expected to be rebuilding with only one starter returning from last year’s 19-9 squad, had won its first 10 games and was ranked third in the first Division II poll of the season before narrowly losing to Division I Southwestern Louisiana Wednesday night, on the road.

Despite the 63-62 loss at Lafayette, La., and a 98-79 loss to Division I Southern Mississippi Thursday night, Riverside, now 10-2, is still off to its best start.

The Highlanders are led by guards Maurice Pullum and Julius Thomas.

College Division Notes Cal Poly Pomona has the top field goal shooter in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. in both the men’s and women’s divisions. Junior forward Marcine Edmonds has made 66.1% of her shots for the women and senior center Tony Theisen has made 61.9% for the men. . . . With its 57-41 win over Loyola Marymount Sunday, the Cal Poly Pomona women’s basketball team concluded a 10-game road stretch with nine victories. The Broncos, who finished second in NCAA Division II last year, are 10-2 overall and 6-1 against Division I teams.

Ed Charles, an Division II All-American in 1984 and 1985 at Cal State Northridge, has been named men’s tennis coach at Cal State Los Angeles. Charles, 26, replaces Tom Yamaguchi, who will coach the women’s team after having coached both squads last year. . . . Actor Bernie Casey, a former all-pro wide receiver for the Rams and San Francisco 49ers, will be keynote speaker at the fourth annual Cal State Los Angeles Athletic Hall of Fame Dinner Jan. 22 on the Queen Mary in Long Beach. Seven former Cal State L.A. athletes, coaches and administrators, including world-class hurdler Sam Turner, will be inducted during the ceremony.

The Biola men’s basketball team has a 22-game winning streak at home, dating back to last February. . . . Claremont-Mudd senior Bob Moore was the only non-Division I player named to any of the first three NCAA All-American water polo teams. Moore, who made the third team for the second year in a row, has led the Stags in scoring the last three years and has been named the SCIAC’s most valuable player two straight seasons.