Fullerton Is Losing a Returning Starter to McQuarn’s Law

Cal State Fullerton Coach George McQuarn, implementing a new policy under which players are not allowed to use summer school to regain academic eligibility, has dropped the only returning starter from last season’s 12-17 basketball team.

Van Anderson, who averaged 5.5 points a game last season, failed to meet academic eligibility requirements last semester. Under National Collegiate Athletic Assn. and university rules, athletes are permitted to regain their eligibility through summer school work.

But McQuarn told the team during the spring semester that anyone who was ineligible after the semester would not be back.

“Summer school was not an option,” McQuarn said. “(Anderson) won’t be back.”

Anderson, who said McQuarn made his announcement “about a month before school was out, when it was too late,” said he is “bitter” about the decision.

“I’m still having very bitter emotions,” he said. “I think it’s very unfair. Being the only returning starter and the only person with experience, I thought he would show some support and give me a chance. . . . It’s kind of hard for me to accept.”

Anderson said he thinks he could have regained his eligibility during summer school but that McQuarn told him he “wouldn’t be eligible to play for him.”

McQuarn said Anderson “did not fulfill his academic obligations” and was not attending class regularly.

“He didn’t do what he had to do. He let the university and his teammates down,” McQuarn said.

Anderson said he is looking for a place to play next season and that he has talked to some Division II schools. “If everything doesn’t work out, I might just go back to Fullerton and get my degree,” he said.

Anderson is the second returning player to leave the team since the end of the season.

Bobby Adair, who started 10 games and averaged 4.6 points a game, left Fullerton before the end of the semester for a number of reasons, including, McQuarn said, academic problems.

Fullerton lost four senior starters from last season’s team, including Richard Morton (22 points a game) and Henry Turner (17.3).

The Titans got a boost this summer when the NCAA granted an additional year of eligibility to Derek Jones, a starter two seasons ago who missed last season while recovering after being seriously wounded in a drive-by shooting.

But it appears likely that there will be at least two incoming players who will not be eligible next season.

Terry Nelson of Long Beach Poly High School and Agee Ward of Washington High are likely to be ineligible next year under NCAA Prop. 48 guidelines, McQuarn said.

The two players still are awaiting results of their final aptitude tests, but McQuarn said there is only a “very, very slim chance” that they will be eligible.

Two other freshmen--Wayne Williams of Manual Arts and Michael Brown of Westchester--will be eligible, McQuarn said.

Fullerton also signed three community college players.

With Anderson gone, the top returning scorer is Benson Williams, a walk-on player who did not play until the 20th game of the season and averaged 2.7 points a game.

Williams, who is bothered by ongoing knee problems, made the team as a non-traveling player but by late in the season was one of the Titans’ top reserves.

The other returning players who played substantially as substitutes are John Sykes (2.6 points) and Marlon Vaughn (2.0).

“I don’t think of us as having a top returning scorer,” McQuarn said.