Sneed Had No Excuse for Penalizing Ceballos

Cedric Ceballos was late for practice Tuesday afternoon, but he had an excuse.

Wednesday night, he wore it on his right arm.

A black armband, wrapped around Ceballos’ bicep, told the story simply in four large white capital letters:

HANK.

Hank Gathers was the 11th leading scorer in NCAA basketball history, but he had more friends than points. Ceballos considered himself one of them. The two met four years ago and played together in the collegiate summer league at Cal State Los Angeles. Last summer, they were teammates.

“We were very, very close,” Ceballos says.

Tuesday, memorial services for Gathers were held in Westchester and Ceballos had to be there. He could not, however, be two places at once. When the service ran long into the afternoon, Ceballos knew he wouldn’t be able to make the drive back to Cal State Fullerton in time for the start of the Titans’ 3 o’clock workout.

So, Ceballos said, “I phoned ahead. I called Coach Sneed and informed him I was going to be late.”

John Sneed is either the most rigid disciplinarian since Lombardi or the most cold-hearted boss since Scrooge, because he made Ceballos pay for his tardiness with his starting assignment Wednesday night.

That’s right. Fullerton began the Big West tournament--and, potentially, the final game for its standout senior forward--with Ceballos on the bench.

Because he went to Hank Gathers’ memorial service.

“I still don’t understand it,” Ceballos said. “I was maybe 10 minutes late. (Forward) Agee Ward and I were both late coming back from the service and (Sneed) sits both of us.”

Sneed, weary from a long season of spotty attendance at his workouts, insisted he would make no exceptions and accept no excuses.

“It might be a little late in the season to discipline a senior,” Sneed conceded, “and I knew it could hurt us, but it’s something I felt we had to do. Maybe this will help him next year and down the road.”

Doubtful. Most NBA coaches would have cut Ceballos the necessary slack if he had been their player Tuesday afternoon.

Sneed tried to laugh it off when a reporter asked him how late Ceballos had been.

“How late?” Sneed shot back. “Late is late. When a policeman pulls you over for running a red light, you don’t tell him, ‘I almost made it.’ You either did or you didn’t.”

This drew a few chuckles from the audience in the interview room, but not from Ceballos. Seated a few chairs down from his coach, Ceballos didn’t even acknowledge the words, staring, stone-faced, into the distance.

“I don’t think it’s funny,” Ceballos said when questioned about it later. “I didn’t enjoy it.”

The benching didn’t last long--just four minutes--but it was long enough. By the time Ceballos was permitted into the game, he was fuming.

By halftime, Ceballos already had a double double. Fourteen points, 10 rebounds. It was a case of getting mad and getting even, for Ceballos was the main reason Fullerton was able to avenge last month’s 18-point loss to UC Irvine at the Bren Center.

This time, Fullerton led, 44-22, at intermission.

This time, Fullerton would win--for the first time in eight games--and would win in a walk, 82-63.

Ceballos would finish with 19 points, 12 rebounds and three steals, making the most of the moment and earning his teammates one more moment in the Long Beach Arena.

His timing was less than exceptional, however. The reward for snapping the Titans out of their month-long malaise now is an all-expenses-paid ouster at the hands of Nevada Las Vegas in the quarterfinals Friday night.

Fullerton already has played Las Vegas twice this season. The Rebels won both games, by margins of 28 and 18 points.

“I guess you don’t mind playing them,” Sneed said, considering his mixed blessing. “If we play as well as we did tonight, we’ve got a chance. You’ve got to play ‘em to win ‘em.”

Irvine Coach Bill Mulligan was less generous in his assessment of the Titans’ chances.

“Fullerton might do a good job and hang in there with them, but I still call Vegas a Final Four team,” Mulligan said. “Fullerton would have to play an absolutely unbelievable game, but they might be able to hang with them for a while.”

It might also help if Ceballos played the entire game.

Ceballos didn’t apologize for anything about Tuesday. If it cost him one spotlight and four minutes of playing time, he felt it was the least he owed Gathers.

He smiled as he recalled some of the fantasizing he and Gathers did in summers past. “We used to always joke about playing against each other in the NBA,” Ceballos said.

When that dream was shattered Sunday by a malfunctioning heart, Ceballos found it unbearable to even think about UC Irvine and the game at hand.

So he strapped on a black armband and did what he could.

“Every time I looked at my arm, I thought of Hank,” Ceballos said. “If this was going to be my last game, I wanted to go out like he went out. Strong and competitive.”

Ceballos hasn’t gone out yet. One game to go, at least.

Wednesday night, Ceballos held his own private memorial service for a friend and, once again, he refused to leave early.