COLLEGE DIVISION : Dyer Has Golden Eagles on Right Track

Compared to the rest of the teams in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn., the record of the Cal State Los Angeles men’s basketball team this season may not seem impressive.

With three games remaining in the conference season, the Golden Eagles are in a three-way tie for third place at 6-5 in the eight-team conference and are barely above the .500 mark overall at 13-11.

The Golden Eagles are virtually eliminated from the regular-season title picture but, at the moment, that doesn’t appear to matter.

Considering how the program has struggled in recent years, the Golden Eagles are making giant strides in the right direction.

The team already has more victories, both in conference play and overall, than it did in the last three seasons combined.

Over that span, Cal State L.A. posted records of 11-66 overall and 2-40 in the CCAA. The program hit rock bottom last season, when the Golden Eagles staggered to 2-25 overall and 0-14 in the conference.

Henry Dyer, in his third year as coach of the Golden Eagles, traced the program’s difficulties in his first two seasons to a lack of personnel.

“When we first got here (after the team had been 7-18 the previous season), we didn’t have a lot of players,” said Dyer, a former running back for the Rams. “I took the program over in July of that year and we didn’t have a chance to recruit.

“When you get hired in July, it’s impossible to do much recruiting. It was like a nobody year for us. I just did what I had to do to get through with the season.”

After a 2-23 record two seasons ago, the Golden Eagles didn’t fare any better last season.

“Last year we were able to get a couple of players who could help us, but we still weren’t ready to compete at this level,” Dyer said.

The coach said that transfers have helped change the program’s fortunes this season.

“This year, we finally have the players who can keep us competitive at this level,” Dyer says. “We seem to be playing a lot more as a team and we have better depth. In a nutshell, we have better talent and the team is playing harder and playing together.”

The most important addition has been senior forward LaVar Ball, a transfer from Washington State who is averaging 16.4 points and nine rebounds. Cal State L.A. has also been sparked by forward Bruce Turner and junior college transfer Mike Varos at guard.

The Golden Eagles are the surprise team in the CCAA this season. They have shown the greatest improvement of any team in the conference and are in position to earn a spot in the four-team CCAA postseason tournament.

Only Dyer says he is not surprised by his team’s improvement.

“I kind of expected us to be there,” he said. “I knew we could be in the middle of this conference and that’s where we are. I thought we had enough talent to make the conference playoffs.”

It didn’t look that way after two transfers left the team in January. Dyer said guard Darron Jackson left ‘by mutual agreement” and guard Darrin Reese was dismissed fter missing classes and practices.

But the outlook changed for the better when the Golden Eagles responded with three consecutive victories.

“Right now we have a better team without those two guys,” Dyer said. “We just don’t have the quickness. . . . I think it made the team a lot tighter as a group and it gave some kids a chance to play a few more minutes.”

Dyer also thinks that the team benefited from an 84-82 double-overtime loss to his alma mater, Grambling, in December.

“We had just lost to LSU (82-57) the night before, but they knew they should’ve beaten Grambling,” he said. “But at least it gave them the understanding that you have to play well all the way to the end. It might have been better than if we had won because it helped them mature as a team.”

The coach said his team’s maturity showed in a game against Chapman last week, when the Golden Eagles gave up most of a 16-point lead before holding on for a 53-51 victory.

“Last year if we had a game like that, we probably would have lost,” Dyer said.

With two key starters, Ball and Turner, graduating after this season, Dyer said he is not ready to predict a conference championship for the Golden Eagles in the near future.

But there is little doubt that the program is finally headed in the right direction.

The Cal State San Bernardino athletic program has formally accepted an invitation to join the California Collegiate Athletic Assn., starting with the 1991-92 season, and the reaction from conference officials has been overwhelmingly in favor of the move.

“Everybody is very pleased about the move,” conference Commissioner Tom Morgan said. “We think it’s a tremendous move for us as a conference. Anytime we can add competitive programs, we think it’s a good move.”

Karen Miller, athletic director at Cal Poly Pomona, said the addition will especially benefit Pomona and UC Riverside because of the proximity of San Bernardino to the schools and the chance for another natural rival.

“We think that it will benefit the CCAA and we think that Dave Suenram (San Bernardino athletic director) has done an excellent job of expediting everything,” Miller said.

With Cal State Northridge leaving the CCAA to move up to Division I after this season, Morgan said it will be nice to have an eight-team conference again.

But he did not dismiss the possibility of adding more schools to the conference in the near future, and already has a school in mind.

“We’d like to see UC San Diego come in time because they’re a very large school (about 18,500 students) and we’re hoping that could happen within the next two years or so,” Morgan said.

College Division Notes

The Cal State San Bernardino women’s basketball team took a big step toward earning an NCAA Division III playoff berth with a 79-65 win over Colorado College last week in San Bernardino. The win moved San Bernardino (19-3) up to No. 3 in the NCAA West Region rankings and dropped top-ranked Colorado to No. 4. The top four teams in the region will earn playoff berths. The victory also extended San Bernardino’s school-record winning streak to 18 games.

Biola pitcher Tim Worrell made a big impression in his first two outings of the season. Worrell, whose brother Todd pitches for the St. Louis Cardinals, posted two complete-game victories, 24 strikeouts, a 2.25 earned-run average and allowed only two walks.

Lance Harter, women’s track and cross-country coach at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, has been named an assistant women’s coach on the 1992 U.S. Olympic team. Harter’s teams have won eight straight NCAA Division II titles in cross-country and four track titles . . . David Rubio of Cal State Bakersfield, who guided the Roadrunners to their first NCAA Division II title last season, has been named coach of the year for Division II by Volleyball Monthly.