NCAA Women’s West Regional : CS Long Beach Really Has a Home-Court Edge

Chris Gobrecht, women’s basketball coach at the University of Washington, was asked Wednesday if playing the West Regional tonight at Cal State Long Beach’s Campus Gym, and not a neutral, more spacious, arena, might be a factor.

“It must be a factor because I’ve never won there,” she said.

Few have. Gobrecht’s sentiments were echoed by the three other teams here. Not only is the Campus Gym the smallest--by half--regional venue in the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. tournament, men’s or women’s, but it is also the loudest, most raucous gym in the area. Other teams shudder at the prospect of playing in the 2,200-seat relic.

Second-seeded Long Beach (26-5) plays third-seeded Washington (25-4) at 6 p.m., and top-seeded Iowa (28-1) plays fourth-seeded USC (22-7) at 8 p.m. The championship game is set for 7 p.m. Saturday.

To hear some players and coaches talk Wednesday, the games will be easy. The gym and the crowd will be the difficulties.

USC Coach Linda Sharp has nothing but bad memories of the place, having won just one game at Long Beach in her entire career. That was this season against Toledo in the 49ers’ tournament.

“It’s a tough place to play,” Sharp said. “The fans are like the sixth player. It’s gotten so loud in there that I’ve really thought about getting flash cards. The players can’t hear what I’m saying.”

Iowa Coach C. Vivian Stringer had never seen the Long Beach gym, but has heard the tales. She said she knows what’s in store because she used to coach a team in a similar gym.

“I have coached at Cheyney State (in Pennsylvania) and we packed a 2,400-seat gym with 3,000 people,” she said. “We’d love to have people come in and cry. I’ve prepared my team for that. I don’t believe there’s any place louder than St. John Arena at Ohio State. There are 13,000 people screaming, screaming, all together so it’s like a hum. I stood up and felt the vibration in my legs. You can’t hear anything anyone is saying.”

Washington’s Gobrecht used to come to the Long Beach gym when she was coaching at Cal State Fullerton. She remembers a dilapidated, noisy place.

“If you think it’s bad now, you should have seen it a few years ago,” she said. “It’s a pretty nice place now. Long Beach is one of the great places in Southern California to play. When I was down here, you never wanted to miss the big game. You wanted to see the humidity coming down the sides of the walls. You wanted to stand in the aisles, and you wanted to be on top of your neighbor. It’s exciting.”

The floor was relaid two years ago, but the gym still gets hot, especially if there is a full house, which is all but guaranteed, since tickets have been hard to come by.

Each of the four teams was given 100 tickets. There was a pool of about 250 tickets more, to be shared among the three visiting teams. In addition to its 100 automatic tickets, Long Beach, as the host school, was given about 700 more, bringing its total to 800.

Washington and Iowa, as distant visiting teams, were given 83 tickets each from the pool, making their total 183. Since USC is a local visiting team, it was allotted 200 additional tickets, theoretically making its total 300. USC Athletic Director Barbara Hedges said Wednesday, however, that the Trojans’ total was 383.

“All our tickets are sold, believe me,” she said.

Now, consider that Iowa’s average attendence this season has been 5,579. Consider that some Hawkeye fans who were here for the men’s games last week at UCLA stayed in town to watch the Iowa women.

Consider, too, that there is a strong Iowa Alumni Assn. in this area and that Long Beach is home to one of the largest communities of former Iowans in the country. The annual Iowa Club picnic in Long Beach draws thousands of former Iowans.

Obviously, there is significant interest in tonight’s Iowa game.

“I’ve been in contact with our Iowa alumni here and they seem to want tickets,” Lucy Broadston, Iowa assistant athletic director said. “I’m acting as the ticket manager with this thing. It would have been nice if we would have had more than a couple of days to sell our tickets at home, but we’ll do the best we can.”

According to Paul Stalma, Long Beach athletic ticket manager, there will be 1,938 printed tickets. That reduced number will accommodate six rows of media representatives, 60 seats for the bands, and cheerleaders’ seats. In addition, some seats will be removed to make room for television, since ESPN will televise Saturday’s final.

After all the subtraction, Stalma said there will actually be 1,750 tickets available to fans.

So how did such a popular regional come to be awarded Long Beach? Simple. It was the only local school to bid.

West Regional Notes

Iowa has three injured starters. Shanda Berry, a 6-foot 3-inch center, has a torn ligament in her right knee and has not practiced for a week. But Iowa Coach C. Vivian Stringer said: “If she can walk, she will start.” Jolynn Schneider, a 6-2 forward, has a back injury, and Jolette Law, a 5-3 guard, has a knee injury. Both are expected to start. . . . Stringer was named this week as national coach of the year by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Assn. . . . USC and Iowa have played only once, in 1985. The Trojans won, 77-57. . . . Washington and Long Beach both will try to establish a running game. The Huskies are younger and the 49ers will rely on the experience they gained from last season’s Final Four appearance.