Middleton Stands Tall in Chapman’s Post Position : College basketball: Panthers’ sophomore, at 6-4, may not have NBA size, but he is second in the CCAA in rebounding.

Some say if Rog Middleton were a few inches taller, he could become a rich professional basketball player.

Although he stands barely 6-feet-4, Middleton is a dominating post player for Chapman College. He is second in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. in rebounding, averaging 10.1 a game, second in shooting percentage (66.3%) and third in scoring, averaging 19.9 points.

“If he were 6-7, who knows how good he’d be,” said Rich Prospero, a Chapman assistant coach. “I don’t even want to speculate.”

Chapman Coach Bob Boyd, who has almost 30 years of college basketball coaching experience, is of similar mind.

“I think that Roger is what he is--perhaps a Division I quality player at a Division II school,” Boyd said. “Of course, if he were 6-8 and had relatively the same quickness, then he’s a power forward in the pros.”

Leo Rogers Middleton Jr. isn’t overly concerned that he didn’t grow into an NBA-sized post player, or that he isn’t even as tall as his father, who as a 6-6 center averaged in double figures in scoring and rebounding as a three-year starter at the University of the Pacific in the early 1960s.

But he occasionally lets a few what-ifs sneak into his head.

“It has been a little disappointing because I think if I was that height I would be a really, really, really good basketball player,” Middleton said. “So it’s kind of been a disappointment. But on the other hand, I’m making the best out of it. I’m 6-3 1/2, 6-4 and I’m just going to keep coming out and playing hard and try to do the best I can do.

“You can’t change your physical characteristics.”

Middleton, a sophomore who transferred after one semester at the University of Utah, has thoroughly dominated his CCAA defenders at times this season. But at other times, he has been shut down.

Two performances best illustrate this.

Against UC Riverside last month in the conference opener, he made all nine of his shots from the field and scored 25 points.

About a week later, against Cal State Northridge, Middleton made the only shot he took from the field and finished with eight points.

The performances were his high and low of the conference season and Chapman lost both games.

In conference games, opponents have discovered that a good way to stop Chapman is to stop Middleton.

Because the Panthers (11-14 overall, 3-9 in the conference) haven’t been able to shoot well from the outside consistently, opponents have been able to pack the middle and shut down Middleton and Frantz Reyes, Chapman’s other starting post player.

Out of necessity, Middleton has played almost 38 minutes a game in the 12 conference games. In all games, he has averaged 33 minutes.

The constant beating he takes by playing most of the games with at least one defender leaning on his back has taken its toll. He has tendinitis in both knees and ices them after every game.

“I think I’m getting hammered down there and I’m not getting too many calls, but that happened in high school a lot too,” he said. “I’m pretty used to it.”

Boyd, who says Middleton works as hard in practice as any player he has ever coached, said Middleton will improve as he learns to better handle the fatigue that comes with playing most of the game and with the distractions, such as calls with which he disagrees.

Boyd, who is in his first season at Chapman, also said Middleton will be more effective when the team has more offensive weapons, which Boyd promises next season.

“I think under the circumstances he has done quite well,” Boyd said. “I just think we need to get him more help.”

This season has been frustrating for Middleton. Last year, when he was depended upon less, Middleton averaged 15 points and seven rebounds, and the Panthers won 17 games and qualified for the four-team postseason CCAA tournament. This year, going into the last weekend of the season, Chapman is in seventh place and already has been eliminated from postseason play.

But Middleton says he is happy to be at Chapman, and that he believes the team has a strong nucleus of players and is confident that Boyd will recruit some more for next season. More important to his happiness, however, is that he is living in Orange County instead of Salt Lake City.

After averaging 23 points and 10 rebounds a game for Tustin High School, Middleton accepted a scholarship to Utah after being recruited by a number of other Division I schools, including UC Irvine and Utah State.

On his recruiting trip to Utah, he had liked the coach, the players and the area. A couple of months into the semester, however, he decided he didn’t want to stay. He said he wasn’t happy and wasn’t meeting many people other than athletes and coaches. A committed short-pants wearer, he also missed the California weather.

He asked for and was granted a redshirt year in December of 1986 and in January transferred to Chapman, were Rich Prospero, his freshman coach at Tustin, was an assistant.

Middleton said his regrets at not being at a Division I school soon were overshadowed by how much he enjoyed the intimate Chapman campus. No more large lecture classes for Middleton, who is majoring in public relations. At Utah, he said, there were people to wait in line for him; at Chapman he is treated as another student.

“I like that because I have other good qualities aside from basketball,” Middleton said. “Just being a basketball player isn’t very rewarding.”

Friends and coaches say Middleton, 20, is far from a one-dimensional person. They describe him as fun to be around, someone who is a bit shy around people he doesn’t know, but nevertheless enjoys attention.

Tim O’Brien, who coached Middleton at Tustin, remembers that after Middleton signed a letter of intent to go to Utah, he showed up at school wearing a three-piece suit and carrying a briefcase.

“He said he was practicing to be a college student,” O’Brien said.

After laughing at the memory, Middleton corrected it a bit and said he is a very casual dresser. “It wasn’t a three-piece suit; it was a blazer. I didn’t do it because of Utah, I just wanted to do it to see what people would say.”

Middleton still sports the bald head that he started shaving before his junior season at Tustin to cultivate an intimidating image. The look, which goes through occasional modifications, belies Middleton’s good nature, his friends say.

“He looks crazy on the court,” said Leo Parker, a Ventura College center who played with Middleton at Tustin. “If I was playing against him and I didn’t know him, I think I’d be afraid to elbow him.

“But since I know Rog, I know he wouldn’t hurt a fly.”