COLLEGE NOTEBOOK / ALAN DROOZ : A Tough Road Ahead: Lions to Be Tested Early

The Loyola Marymount basketball team had better learn to make itself at home on the road, because it appears the Lions will be building up frequent flyer miles for the holidays.

By the time 1991 arrives, the Lions and Coach Paul Westhead will have traveled from Maui to Norman, Okla., to Atlanta and Baton Rouge, La., with quick in-state trips up to Santa Barbara and Stockton included as well.

In fact, with only one date to be filled, the Lions do not expect to play an official home game before Christmas.

The Lions’ schedule of 11 consecutive road games, which features several attractive matchups, opens at the Maui Classic, where they will play three games Nov. 23-25. The eight-team field includes national powers Syracuse and Indiana, who are expected to be seeded 1-2. After Thanksgiving, Loyola will play in the UC Irvine tournament along with Bradley, Idaho State and the host Anteaters on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1. Then it will travel to Westwood Dec. 2 to play UCLA.

During the next two weeks, the Lions travel to UC Santa Barbara and play a home exhibition game against Athletes in Action. On Dec. 15, the Lions travel to Norman, Okla., for a televised game against the equally run-loving Oklahoma Sooners. Then it’s on to Louisiana State on Dec. 20 and Georgia Tech on Dec. 22--both teams figure to be in the top 20--before returning to California for a brief Christmas break. On Dec. 27, the Lions play at at University of the Pacific.

Seven consecutive home games begin on Dec. 29 when the Lions play St. Joseph’s of Philadelphia, Westhead’s alma mater. On New Year’s Eve, Loyola plays LaSalle and on Jan. 5, U.S. International visits. Loyola and Oklahoma have set virtually every NCAA scoring record against USIU in the past two years. Westmont College, the only non-Division I opponent on the schedule, visits in the last nonconference tuneup.

West Coast Conference play starts Jan. 11 with the Lions playing Santa Clara. Then comes San Diego and Pepperdine. The traditional home-and-away week with archrival Pepperdine comes early, at Loyola on Jan. 16 and the Jan. 19 game at Malibu.

The season concludes with the WCC tournament, March 2-4, at Santa Clara, where the Lions will be shooting for their fourth consecutive tournament title and the WCC’s automatic berth into the NCAA tournament.

At least six of Loyola’s games are scheduled to be televised.

A new feature this season in conference play will be men’s and women’s doubleheaders, with the women’s game usually preceding the men’s game.

It might be the off-season, but Cal State Dominguez Hills basketball Coach Dave Yanai is managing to stay busy. Yanai returned from the U.S. Olympic Festival in Minneapolis, where he was an assistant for the West team, and this week he’s scouting summer leagues and tournament games and running his basketball camp at the school.

Although the West team went 1-3 in Minnesota, its losses were so close that it actually had a positive scoring differential. And, Yanai is glad to report, “I would say Western basketball is alive and well. I thought we had some very fine players, I would say some of the (college) coaches who are getting these players are very lucky.”

Yanai said he enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere of the Festival camp, which allowed players and coaches from all the sports to mingle.

“It was an interesting opportunity to see a variety of other sports and other athletes, and see the kind of dedication those other athletes go through to get here” he said. “Sometimes we get caught up in our own sports and kind of forget the others that are going on. I also enjoyed getting a chance to meet coaches from the other sports, informally, in the village and at meals. That’s the kind of atmosphere they try to create.”

Yanai, who is one of the nation’s most respected Division II coaches, also liked talking basketball with the festival’s other coaches. “It’s good to have a chance to exchange basketball ideas and experiences,” he said. “We had a lot of nice talks about basketball. We all got along well. It was a nice experience.”

Yanai will be closing in on his 200th career victory when the Toros’ season opens in the fall, and has high hopes for a strong team thanks to a solid core of veterans and a strong recruiting class.

“We should be pretty good if the old coach doesn’t screw them up,” he said.

Los Angeles can’t seem to get enough of recent Loyola Marymount graduate and Clipper first-round draft choice Bo Kimble. The County Board of Supervisors declared Tuesday “Bo Kimble Day” and presented him with a plaque.

As Kimble watched, the supervisors cited him “not only for his accomplishments on the court, but for providing a positive role model for Los Angeles’ youth.”

A month ago, Loyola Marymount Athletic Director Brian Quinn said that baseball Coach Chris Smith had such a good staff, he feared it would be difficult to keep it intact. Quinn’s premonitions were correct. In the past few weeks, Rick Ragazzo took a job scouting for the San Francisco Giants, Bill Geivett is expected to take an assistant coaching position at another school and Dave Kato has decided to teach school.

That wipes out the coaching staff of Smith, who is hurriedly conducting interviews. And the sudden turnover might not be over: Smith, who has led the Lions to NCAA regional appearances in his two seasons at Loyola, said that if contacted he would consider the head coaching opening at Cal State Fullerton, although he said this week he hasn’t actively pursued it. “You’d have to be interested,” he said.

The good news for the Lions was that they came out of last month’s pro draft unscathed. None of their eligible juniors--notably outfielders Rick Mediavilla and Tim Williams--left school and none of Smith’s top recruits signed contracts.

“We didn’t get hurt at all,” Smith said. “We saved all our freshmen. We’ll return seven starters and some guys with pitching experience.”

Now he’s back recruiting--a coaching staff.

College Notes

Carin Jennings, the former Palos Verdes High and UC Santa Barbara soccer All-American, was a member of the North squad that won the U.S. Olympic Festival title last weekend. She is also a member of the women’s national team that is in training for next year’s first Women’s World Cup. Jennings, who graduated from Palos Verdes in 1983, holds the CIF girls’ record of 226 career goals. At Santa Barbara, she became the first women to score 100 goals, finishing with an NCAA record 102. Santa Barbara retired her jersey in 1988. . . . Bruce Meyers is the new sports information director at Loyola Marymount. He was previously an assistant at Nevada Las Vegas. . . . Loyola baseball players Joe Ciccarella and Chris Gomez, playing for a touring U.S. junior national team, each homered in a 15-0 victory over Nicaragua. Ciccarella’s blast was a grand slam.