Spartans Find a Few Good Men

The few.

The proud.

The San Jose State basketball team.

So what if it lost to Cal State Fullerton, 82-60, Thursday evening at Titan Gym. That was a given, though you would have never known it for the first 10 minutes or so of the game.

For a half of a half, the Spartans played as if they didn’t know they were missing 10 scholarship players, thanks to a mysterious and still not fully explained walkout Wednesday. They didn’t know (or didn’t care) that San Jose Coach Bill Berry was this supposed on-court ogre, this monster who wears a coat and tie for effect. And they certainly didn’t fear Fullerton, which is understandable because, at times, the Titans performed like the team short a starting roster.

“We hung in there,” said Tom Desiano, formerly of Mission Viejo High and one of only four San Jose players who ignored the boycott. “I thought that we were very competitive for being a rag-tag group of guys.”

This wasn’t the mismatch Fullerton had every right to expect.

For instance, San Jose showed up missing four regular starters.

Not to be outdone, Fullerton Coach John Sneed showed up with the worst slicked-back hairdo this side of Eddie Munster. A Pat Riley look-alike, he wasn’t. Someone has to teach Sneed that a little dab of axle grease will do you.

San Jose also showed up with its athletic director, Randy Hoffman, in tow, which is great if you like the boss looking over your shoulder. Among the topics discussed at an impromptu pregame press conference were Berry’s job status (unclear after this season), the scholarship status of the 10 defectors (probably doomed) and the most pressing issue of the night--when Hoffman would like to do his ESPN interview (before tipoff, he said).

Fullerton countered with an ordinary effort for much of the first half and the first 4 minutes of the second. At times, the game had the look of an intramural clash between the Kappa Sigmas and your favorite dorm team.

But for all of its inadequacies--and there were lots--San Jose played surprisingly well for a single practice, a road game and an audience of 1,198 fans waiting for the team’s inevitable collapse. The Spartans entered the game hoping for something less than outright embarrassment. They left Titan Gym with much more, mainly their pride intact.

So unlikely and, in a way, satisfying was the effort, that the embattled Berry could allow himself a smile and a sense of humor. Asked where his team goes from here, Berry pursed his lips and said, “Utah State.”

And then he smiled the smile of someone who realizes the worst is over. What else could happen? This team wasn’t going to win the conference in the first place--with or without those 10 walkouts. At least now Berry knows he can field a team.

“I think we’ll be respectable,” he said.

If nothing else, they’ll be entertaining.

During Thursday evening’s game, Berry turned to his bench to make a substitution and found himself tongue tied. He couldn’t remember the name of the player going in and he certainly couldn’t recall the name of the player coming out. So Berry improvised.

“Get in for, uh, 32,” he said.

Berry wasn’t alone. Desiano, who made his first start Monday against Santa Barbara, was to run the San Jose offense, a neat trick considering San Jose didn’t have an offense Thursday. Tough to be a playmaker when nobody knows the plays.

But Desiano tried--with mixed results.

“One time, with Adrian (Manns, a newcomer), I told him to clear out,” Desiano said. “I was looking for his name, but I couldn’t think of it for the life of me. So I just said, ‘Get out!’ ”

So Manns got out.

Desiano remembered some of the others’ names, such as Johnny Johnson, a star running back on the football team and the second-leading all-purpose rusher in the nation behind Mr. Heisman himself, Barry Sanders. If anything, San Jose should be doing cartwheels over the addition of Johnson. Look at this way: it gets more for its scholarship dollar.

And Desiano knew Craig McPherson, who led the Spartans with 20 points, but only because McPherson’s sister plays on the San Jose volleyball team.

Other than that, Desiano would have been hard pressed to recite the new roster.

“I honestly . . . couldn’t,” he said. “All the other players I met (Wednesday) night.”

Desiano, as well as the rest who stayed--Dwain Daniels, Kevin Logan and Jan Svoboda--can be forgiven. In fact, they ought to be applauded. It isn’t easy to stick to your convictions when 10 of your former teammates, your pals, are asking you to jump the fence.

“It was really difficult, especially at the time they said, ‘Either you’re with us or you’re not,’ ” Desiano said. “But I wanted to keep playing basketball, so there wasn’t really anything else I could do.

“I look back at it and I believe it was the right decision. The only thing I regret is that I miss some of the guys.”

Don’t worry. Before it’s over, they’ll miss him back and basketball, too.