THE COLLEGES : Boykin Silenced by Coach in Wake of Texas El Paso Investigation

Anyone fishing for quotes from effusive forward Shelton Boykin will be able to reel in plenty as long as the topic is his play at Valley College. But should the conversation turn to Texas El Paso, Boykin has been instructed to clam up.

By decree of Jim Stephens, Boykin’s coach at Valley, Boykin cannot speak to the press--or to National Collegiate Athletic Assn. investigators--about possible rules violations at UTEP until the basketball season is complete.

A Times Valley edition feature on Boykin, in which he talked of possible violations, has been partly responsible for instigating an NCAA investigation of the UTEP basketball program.

The brouhaha over the quotes, Stephens claims, has distracted Boykin and affected his play.

Stephens said that he told NCAA investigators they would have to wait until the end of the season to interview Boykin. Ditto with everyone else.

Cuesta quest: A trip to San Luis Obispo for its Western State Conference opener turned into journey of epic proportions for the Moorpark men’s basketball team, which never did arrive for its game against Cuesta scheduled for last Saturday night.

Vans carrying the Moorpark team were traveling north on U. S. 101 when they were caught in a mammoth traffic jam caused by a tanker truck that overturned between Carpinteria and Santa Barbara at 12:53 p.m. A mere 40 gallons of fuel oil were spilled, but the freeway was blocked until nearly 9 p.m. The resultant traffic jam stretched back to Camarillo.

Although Moorpark finally escaped the 101, the team was unable to proceed north on a nearby frontage road because fire hoses that were being used to clean up the spill were stretched across the pavement.

At that point it was nearly game time, and the reeling Raiders simply returned to Moorpark, ending a trip that began at 1:30 in the afternoon.

“We left early so we’d have plenty of time in case there was traffic or whatever,” Moorpark Coach Al Nordquist said. Apparently, oil spills don’t fall under the rubric of “whatever.”

The game has been rescheduled for Jan. 15 at 7 p.m.

Picking up injuries: Lee Smelser, basketball coach at College of the Canyons, might want to institute a rule prohibiting his players from playing in pick-up games.

Two weeks ago, Canyons had to play without Steve Valenzuela during its own tournament. Valenzuela, who is averaging 16 points a game, suffered an ankle sprain during a pick-up game. Teammate Jeff Dorst suffered a similar injury in early November and has been sidelined since.

Smelser hoped that both would be able to play in the Canyons’ conference opener against Valley last Wednesday. Valenzuela did and scored 12 points.

“These guys are driving me crazy,” Smelser lamented. “I wish they’d get a job.”

Precautionary measure: When Derrick Gathers missed Cal State Northridge’s basketball game Friday at Southern Utah State, there was speculation that the 6-foot-3 senior swingman had been ruled academically ineligible.

Indeed, grades did have something to do with Gathers’ absence. He was attending interim classes at CSUN in order to improve his marks from last semester--grades that might jeopardize his eligibility when the spring semester starts later this month.

“It’s a wait-and-see situation,” said Pete Cassidy, Northridge’s coach. “Nothing will be final until the grades come out, and that may not be for another week or so.”

Gathers, who leads Northridge players in scoring (20.3) and rebounding (8.8), returned to the Matador lineup Monday night and led CSUN to a 59-37 victory over the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. He had game-high totals of 20 points and 12 rebounds.

Injury update: Guard Eugene Humphrey of Northridge can again walk without a limp, but he still probably will not return to CSUN’s lineup for at least another week and a half.

Humphrey, a starter who averages 9.4 points, 3.4 rebounds and 3.5 assists a game, severely bruised his right hamstring against Cal State Sacramento on Dec. 30. He has missed three games.

“He’s very doubtful for the start of conference,” Cassidy said. “He still can’t run on it. . . . Next weekend’s games are probably more realistic.”

Northridge (5-8) will open the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. season with a game at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo on Friday night. The Matadors will then travel to Cal State Bakersfield on Saturday.

Next week the Matadors will play host to Cal State Dominguez Hills on Friday and they will play at Chapman on Saturday.

Rout of the week: On paper, The Master’s 84-67 victory Monday over Northeastern Illinois--an NCAA Division II team--might have been a big win, but the Mustangs’ triumph was predictable considering the opponent.

Northeastern Illinois entered the game with a 2-12 record, and one of those losses was a 146-51 butchering at the hands of fourth-ranked Oklahoma on Dec. 2.

Now that is a big win.

Net return: Norm Chung is women’s basketball coach at Cal Lutheran. John Cort is his assistant. So how much money could their autographs possibly be worth?

To be exact, $5.

That’s what is won by the lucky holder of a game program bearing either of the pair’s signatures at Cal Lutheran home games.

“It’s just something we do for school spirit and to help build interest at our games,” Chung said.

That spirit must have hit an all-time low Friday after Cal State Los Angeles snapped the Regal’s school-record five-game win streak with an 80-66 victory.

Nobody stepped up to accept their winnings.

Hooping it up Down Under: Steve deLaveaga, a former Cal Lutheran basketball star, has joined a professional basketball team in Australia.

After leading NCAA Division II players in scoring his junior and senior seasons, deLaveaga originally tried out with the Lakers but ended up with the Nadawani club of the Southeast Basketball League.

Beginning Jan. 16, deLaveaga will train with the Eastside (Melbourne) Spectres, with which Nadawani is affiliated, until the SBL season starts in mid-February. The season lasts about seven months.

Although SBL teams are allowed to have two U. S. players, deLaveaga is the only U. S. player Nadawani is expected to sign.

Identity crisis: Chris Cooke, a freshman forward on the Glendale College basketball team, might have thought he was hearing things when he heard his name called during introductions for Santa Monica on Saturday night.

He wasn’t.

The Corsairs have a Chris Cook on their roster. Only the spelling was slightly different.

The confusion didn’t stop there. Santa Monica has two Marcus Websters on its roster. Rather, one Marcus Webster and another Marcus K. Webster.

Playing the percentages: In Glendale’s 75-74 loss to two-time defending Western State Conference champion Santa Monica, the Vaqueros shot 43% from the field on 22-of-51 shooting but were 67% (six of nine) from three-point range.

Beginning anew: The Occidental women’s basketball team will open play in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference on Tuesday against Redlands.

The Tigers fell to 5-8 earlier this week after a 61-47 loss to Colorado College, but Coach Sue Semrau said that her team will be in the race for the SCIAC title.

La Verne and defending co-champions Pomona and Claremont are favored and Redlands also is expected to challenge.

Gary Klein and staff writers Mike Hiserman, Brendan Healey, John Ortega and Kirby Lee contributed to this notebook.