The Colleges : CS Northridge Keeps a Tight Rein on Operating Costs in Basketball

Cal State Northridge may be less than 2 years removed from Division I status in men’s basketball but make no mistake, it still practices fiscal restraint.

The Matadors will play important California Collegiate Athletic Assn. games at Cal State Bakersfield tonight and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo on Saturday. But instead of traveling directly from one city to the next, the team will return to Northridge between games. All to save a few bucks on the costs of an extra night’s lodging and meals. Class time is not a consideration because CSUN is on semester break.

As a result, the team will arrive home from Bakersfield in the early morning hours Friday. The Matadors will practice later in the morning before boarding the bus again for a 3-hour drive to San Luis Obispo. After staying the night Friday, the team will have a shoot-around at the Cal Poly gym Saturday morning, then rest until game time. They will return to Northridge immediately after Saturday night’s game.

Streaking Kingsmen: Steve deLaveaga cannot remember being more frustrated than he has been during the past 2 months during Cal Lutheran’s 7-game basketball losing streak, which includes its first 3 games in Golden State Athletic Conference play.

“I would like to say that the losing streak is not on my mind, but I would be lying,” deLaveaga said.

DeLaveaga said that the Kingsmen’s play has suffered because they are overly concerned about ending the losing skein.

“It’s time now to put this aside and just play hard,” deLaveaga said. “We are worrying so much about our shooting that it is affecting us.”

Some things never seem to change, however. DeLaveaga, Cal Lutheran’s career scoring leader, is averaging 25.7 points a game to lead NAIA District 3 players.

Add Kingsmen: Cal Lutheran (6-11, 0-3) has a chance to improve its GSAC record to .500 during the next 2 weeks when it faces 3 of the conference’s weakest teams. Azusa Pacific (0-3 in GSAC play), which plays host to the Kingsmen on Saturday, Point Loma and Christ College all have losing records along with Cal Lutheran.

Weak sister: Each CCAA men’s basketball team plays a 14-game schedule--a game at home and another on the road against 7 other conference schools. The format is designed to preclude any team having a schedule advantage over another. That is not always the case, however.

The way the schedule is currently organized, each school ends up with what in effect is a partner. For example, while Northridge is playing at Bakersfield on Thursday, Cal State L. A. will be at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. On Saturday, CSUN will play at San Luis Obispo and CSLA travels to Bakersfield.

The past 2 seasons, Northridge has been teamed with Cal State L. A. which, in the opinion of at least one CCAA coach, is not an enviable position. The Eagles were far and away the conference’s worst team last season (0-14 in conference games, 2-23 overall) and seem well on their way to a similar record (0-1, 2-12 so far) this season.

As a result, opponents can spend more practice time preparing for CSUN than perhaps any other team. “It allows teams to focus in more on Northridge, no question,” Coach John Masi of Riverside said.

CSUN Coach Pete Cassidy was reluctant to comment on the situation other than to say, “If we had to play San Luis Obispo and Bakersfield and San Luis Obispo was down and not very good, 90% of our preparation would probably be for Bakersfield. I would think that would put Bakersfield at a great disadvantage.”

Bad foot forward: Alan Fraser is listed as questionable for Northridge’s basketball games this week. Fraser, a starting forward who is averaging 7.2 points and 5.3 rebounds, sustained a sprained left ankle in a game at Cal Lutheran on Jan. 4.

Fraser practiced lightly Tuesday for the first time since incurring the injury, but Coach Pete Cassidy said that it has not been determined whether the 6-6 senior will play tonight at Bakersfield. Northridge (10-4) has lost 2 of 3 games that Fraser has missed this season.

Statwatch: Men’s basketball teams from the CCAA have won 63 of 102 nonconference basketball games this season, a .618 percentage. Of the CCAA’s 8 teams, only Cal State L. A. (2-11) has a losing nonconference record. Excluding the Eagles, conference teams are winning nonconference games at a .685 clip. . . .

Jeff Logsdon, a senior point guard at Cal Lutheran, is shooting 93% from the free-throw line and ranks second in District 3. Logsdon, who has converted 30 of 32 free throws, also leads the Kingsmen in assists with a 4.9 average. . . . CLU is second in District 3 in free-throw shooting at 73.5%. . . . Charles Jackson has scored 10 points in each of the past 2 games since being promoted to Cal Lutheran’s starting lineup. The freshman out of Verbum Dei High has split time between center and forward. . . . Cal Lutheran has received only 10 points from its starting forwards in the past 2 games. Loren Rodrick did not score against either Southern California College or Fresno Pacific, and both Rodrick and Blake Miraglia were held scoreless by Southern California College on Saturday.

Collegiate pioneers: While Don MacLean is making a big splash at UCLA as a freshman, Shawn DeLaittre, the other half of the twosome that led Simi Valley High to the Southern Section 4-A Division championship last season, is waiting his turn.

DeLaittre, a 6-foot, 5-inch swingman, is redshirting at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo this season.

Meanwhile, MacLean leads the Bruins in scoring (20.8) and rebounding (8.4). Trevor Wilson, a junior from Cleveland High, is second in both categories for the Bruins, averaging 19 points and 8.2 rebounds.

Football awards: The Glendale football banquet was held Tuesday and several players were honored. Mark McMillan, who had a team-high 42 tackles and 5 interceptions, was named most valuable player. Other winners included: Sean Hampton (honorary offensive captain, offensive back of the year), Steve Heiber (honorary defensive captain, most inspirational), Doug Dragomer (most valuable freshman), Brian Kaloustian (receiver), Andres Washington (linebacker), Chris Allen (offensive lineman), Doug Bledsoe (defensive lineman), Geoff Thran (special teams), Tim Hull (coaches’ award), and Rick Gomez (most improved).

Honor roll: Guard Vicki Mallett of Northridge was selected CCAA women’s basketball player of the week after scoring 20 points and adding 7 rebounds and 7 assists in CSUN’s 66-62 victory over Cal State Los Angeles on Friday.

Comedy of errors: She can laugh about it know, but Leslie Milke, CSUN women’s basketball coach, did not like what she saw in the last minute of the Lady Matadors’ victory at Cal State L.A. in a CCAA opener.

What she saw was her team unravel.

CSUN was clinging to a 6-point lead with less than a minute left when it committed a pair of errors that could have proved costly.

First, Bridgette Ealy handed, instead of passed, the ball to a teammate while taking it out of bounds in the backcourt. Cal State L. A. assumed possession.

Then, on CSUN’s next possession, Chris Cavalin was set to attempt a free throw when teammate CeCe Landsgaard was whistled for stepping into the key too early. The violation negated the free-throw opportunity and CSLA again took possession.

Fortunately for Northridge, the Golden Eagles didn’t capitalize on their chances.

“It was just nerves,” Milke said. “We made a lot of crucial errors, and to still win after doing that, I’m pleased.”

And had CSUN lost?

“That would have been horrible,” Milke said. “That was a big game for us, the biggest of the year. It wasn’t pretty, but at this point I don’t really care.”

Northridge improved to 13-3 with the victory and is ranked 16th in this week’s Division II rankings.

Staff writers Mike Hiserman, Ralph Nichols and Sam Farmer contributed to this notebook.