The Colleges : Hankinson Plots an Active Summer Tour

Mel Hankinson is preparing to hit the road for a summer-long world tour, during which he will spread the gospel of basketball fundamentals and keep an eye out for potential recruits.

Hankinson, men’s basketball coach at The Master’s College, travels to Dortmund, Germany, on May 21 to address the European basketball community at Super Cup ‘89, one of the biggest tournaments on the continent. From there, he will jet to Hong Kong and China to speak with coaches and students before returning to California in June for a clinic in Sutter’s Creek in Northern California.

In July, Hankinson travels to Pula, Yugoslavia, to speak at the International Basketball Academy before returning home to work at a series of clinics and camps in August.

“I was talking to my wife today about how we couldn’t wait for next season to start so we can relax a little,” said Hankinson, whose team finished 15-15 overall and 5-9 in NAIA District 3 play last season. “We’re celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary with a phone call from Hong Kong.”

Hankinson also hopes to be calling upon international recruiting contacts along the way.

“We’ll have an opportunity to visit with every coach in Europe and work with a lot of international players,” Hankinson said. “If a kid would like to come from Australia who’s 6-foot-8, we have a nice little school for him in Newhall, California.”

The silent treatment: After nearly a month of almost monk-like silence, chatter has returned to the dugout of the Cal State Northridge softball team.

The rhythmic chanting and cheering that had long been a Lady Matador trademark got a little out of hand earlier this season, so CSUN Coach Gary Torgeson announced a ban after a tournament at Cal State Hayward in late March.

“It seemed like it was getting a little misdirected,” said Torgeson, who suggested that some comments aimed at opponents had earned his team a bad reputation. But without the chatter, a general malaise came over the Lady Matadors’ bench and the feeling eventually spread to the players on the field.

“We’ve been down, really flat,” Torgeson said. “The last six games, we’ve been really methodical.”

So after a couple of misplayed balls helped Cal Poly San Luis Obispo to a 3-1 win in the first game of a doubleheader Sunday, Torgeson lifted the ban.

The result? A noisy Northridge team won, 3-2, in 10 innings to hold on to first place in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. standings.

“Looks like I’m gonna have to turn ‘em loose,” Torgeson quipped.

Final fling: Rob Samuelson, a senior outside hitter for the Cal State Northridge men’s volleyball team, finished his collegiate career with a flurry.

Samuelson had 42 kills, 13 digs and four blocks on Friday when Northridge defeated fourth-ranked Cal State Long Beach in five games. He added 18 kills and 10 blocks in the Matadors’ five-game win over San Diego State on Saturday and was selected athlete of the week in the Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn.

CSUN finished the season 11-20 overall and 5-15 in the WIVA.

“I think we had a great year,” Northridge Coach John Price said. “In 19 of our 20 matches, we played great volleyball. We had never been particularly competitive with the top three teams in the league and this year we went five games with all of them.”

UCLA will play host to and represent the WIVA in the Final Four on May 6. Stanford meets USC and UC Santa Barbara plays Hawaii tonight at Loyola Marymount in semifinal matches of the NCAA Western Regional selection tournament that will determine an at-large representative to the Final Four.

Master’s blasters: The Master’s baseball team has struggled to a 14-28-1 overall record and 6-10 mark in NAIA District 3 play mostly because of ineffective pitching.

The Mustang staff has compiled a 6.56 earned-run average while the team’s batters have produced respectable numbers on offense.

Master’s is batting .281 as a team and has established a school record with 51 home runs, breaking the mark of 41 set last season.

Master’s has games left with Cal Baptist, Cal State San Bernardino and Pt. Loma Nazarene.

Postseason raiders?: The Moorpark baseball team, still in contention for a berth in the Western State Conference’s five-team Shaughnessy playoff tournament, picked a perfect time to snap out of its recent slump.

The Raiders have scored 20 runs and collected 28 hits in winning their last two games. Moorpark had lost four in a row and five of its last six before defeating Valley, 8-4, on Saturday to end the losing streak.

Fourth-place Moorpark (11-8 in conference play) concludes the regular season against Oxnard on Saturday at home.

It’s a wash: Pierce’s hopes of qualifying for Shaughnessy tournament were doused Tuesday when the Brahmas’ game against College of the Canyons was postponed in the second inning because of rain.

Pierce was leading, 4-0, and had a runner on base and nobody out when it started raining. A makeup game has been scheduled for Monday at Canyons.

“I think they got a break with the rain because we were really hot,” Lyons said.

The Brahmas (8-9), who have three games left, have lost three in a row but have beaten Ventura, Moorpark and Oxnard--three of the top teams in the WSC.

Said Lyons: “We are really a dark-horse to make the playoffs, but it’s still mathematically possible. We will have to play beyond our capabilities.”

Staff writers Kevin Baxter, Gary Klein, Mike Hiserman and Ralph Nichols contributed to this notebook.