CAL STATE FULLERTON NOTEBOOK : Hill’s Steady Shooting Helps Make Points With Titans’ Coaching Staff

More than once at the Cowboy Shootout in Wyoming last weekend, coaches stopped to assess Cal State Fullerton’s basketball talent.

“They have some awfully good players,” one offered, “Hill and Ceballos.”

In that order.

Cedric Ceballos is Fullerton’s marquee player--perhaps the best-known unknown player in America.

But Mark Hill has been the steady hand. Even when his shooting touch is off the mark, Hill gets his points. And in five of the past six games, Hill, rather than Ceballos, has been the Titans’ leading scorer.

Last season, Hill made a believer out of such nonbelievers as the Titan coaching staff. He wasn’t even projected to start when he arrived at Fullerton last season from L.A. Harbor College. But since he has been at Fullerton, his outside shooting touch and his leaping ability have kept him near the center of the Titans’ plans. In 38 games, he has been out of double figures only once--and he had nine points that time.

Ceballos and Hill finished one-two in Big West scoring last season: Ceballos at 21.2 and Hill at 19.3.

After nine games this season, Ceballos is averaging 22.7 points. Hill is at 20.4.

Hill has picked up the slack lately during Ceballos’ mini-slump, but if he takes pride in his growing recognition, he doesn’t admit it.

“If I have to be last in scoring or the second or third to last, just so we win,” Hill said. “That’s when you get notoriety, by the team winning.”

Hill says the Titans have a specific bit of notoriety in mind. They intend to be playing come mid-March.

“We’re trying to get to the NCAAs. That’s our goal,” Hill said. “Or the NIT. Some postseason tournament. We could have made it last year, but we slipped up and lost seven in a row.”

An occasional slip-up, Hill knows, is a certainty.

“I know every game you’re not going to have your shot, but you just have to go out every game and play hard,” he said.

For instance, Hill made only six of 21 shots in the Titans’ loss to Wyoming Saturday--but he hit four three-pointers and ended up with 19 points.

Against UCLA, he made only five of 18 from the field--but made 12 of 16 from the line and finished with 24 points.

And then there are nights such as the one he had against Cal State Northridge. He made 10 of 17 shots, including eight of 12 three-pointers, and he hit one of two free throws to finish with 29 points.

“I try to do the best I can,” Hill said. “If my shot is missing, I’m still going to shoot. I’m a shooter. . . . You can’t worry about the last shot, even if it’s an air ball. . . . If you can shoot the ball, it’ll come.”

Fullerton opens its Big West Conference season tonight--but not the easy way. Fullerton plays 10th-ranked Nevada Las Vegas in the Runnin’ Rebels’ Thomas & Mack Center, where Fullerton has never won.

“We’re excited about going up there,” Coach John Sneed said. “It’s a big game and a fun trip.”

It’s also a challenge.

“You’ve got to play above your head and be a little lucky on a given night to be in the game with them,” Sneed said.

The Titans should be a bit more prepared for the spectacle of Thomas & Mack Center tonight than they were a year ago, when Ceballos, Hill and Wayne Williams were all making their debuts in Las Vegas.

But Sneed is taking the Fireworks Factor into account.

Center John Sykes, who missed the past two starts with an allergic reaction in his eyes, probably isn’t ready to start. That leaves freshman Aaron Wilhite, who has started the past two games, or senior David Moody, who played well in the Titans’ victory over Middle Tennessee State. Sneed hadn’t decided who would start Tuesday afternoon, but Moody could get the nod.

“I don’t know if a freshman can handle the fireworks,” Sneed said.

Genia Miller has been named the Big West Conference player of the week for the second time this season. Miller scored 48 points in two games last week, including 33 in a victory over Wisconsin Green Bay.

Miller, a 6-foot-3 junior center, made 22 of 24 free throws last week and had 11 blocks in the two games.

Her 93.8 free-throw percentage leads the Big West.

Spot the Problem: Despite outshooting its opponents, 47% to 37%, and despite being almost even in rebounding, the women’s basketball team has a 5-4 record.

The key statistic: Fullerton is averaging 24 turnovers a game. They haven’t turned the ball over fewer than 15 times in a game all season, and in one game they committed 31. The Titans are still looking for capable ballhandling from their guards. Point guard Jeannine Battaglia is averaging 5.5 turnovers a game. Jill Matyuch, a swing player who has been forced to play more at guard, is averaging 5.9.

Fullerton has a key game on Sunday--against ninth-ranked UNLV at Titan Gym.

Titan Notes

Cal State Fullerton’s wrestling team meets a number of top 20 teams this season, but the only remaining home match against a ranked team will be on Saturday, against Northern Iowa, which is ranked 10th by the Amateur Wrestling News. Heavyweight David Jones, ranked 10th by the same publication, leads the Titans with a 10-2 record. Lyndon Campbell, ranked 16th in the 142-pound class, is 10-4-1. . . . Eli Rodriguez, the top all-around performer on the men’s gymnastics team, will miss the Titans’ season opener this weekend in the Spartan Open at San Jose State because of an ankle injury, but is expected to return in about a week. . . . Jim Chaney, the recruiting coordinator for the football team, says Fullerton expects to sign a handful of community college players in the signing period that ends this month. One of the Titans’ particular needs is at center, where Marc Hauser started the past two seasons. Fullerton’s recruiting was slowed by Coach Gene Murphy’s involvement in coaching searches at Utah and Nevada Las Vegas, where coaches now have been hired.