THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS : Basketball Team’s Tall Order

Technically, Cal State Northridge is big-time Division I, right up there with the Dukes and the Georgetowns of the college basketball world.

The reality of it, though, is that CSUN is a poor-relation kind of Division I, and financial limitations almost guarantee a struggling infancy.

For example, Matador Coach Pete Cassidy has five fewer scholarships to offer than the maximum 15 allowed, and he must make do with only one full-time assistant. Most programs have two.

The recruiting budget? It’s not even coast to coast, much less a run for the border. All of Cassidy’s players hail from California.

And their dreams of playing in a packed arena die hard at CSUN, where the 3,000-seat gymnasium reminds them of high school.

This season, they won’t even have the advantage of a home court on a regular basis. CSUN will play 17 of its 28 games on the road as part of scheduling criteria for first- and second-year Division I teams that require two-thirds of their games be played on the road.

Another reality is Northridge’s lack of conference affiliation. Scheduling is a nightmare for Cassidy, who has only two Division I independent brethren west of Kansas City--United States International and Southern Utah State.

To compound matters, the Matadors will embark on the most important season in their history with a depleted coaching staff. Both of Cassidy’s assistants, Rusty Smith and Dave Fehte, resigned within the past two months to take positions at Eastern Washington and St. Mary’s.

Replacements Tom McCollum and Wayne Fluker are in the same situation as 10 of the team’s members. They’re all newcomers. Only four players return from a 12-15 Division II campaign. Four others left with eligibility remaining.

Even Cassidy, a fixture at Northridge, initially as a player and the past 20 years as coach, is of uncertain status. His three-year contract runs out after this season.

In determining whether to renew Cassidy’s contract, Athletic Director Bob Hiegert must determine to what extent Cassidy’s won-loss win-loss record reflects the financial handicaps under which he is working.

Hiegert already has put Cassidy and new women’s coach Janet Martin under the microscope by giving basketball top priority among all sports at CSUN.

“I would imagine those coaches feel the strain and pressure of the Division I setting more than the other coaches,” Hiegert said. “But we have confidence in them and patience with them. When they are evaluated, their win/loss record will be a factor, but not a driving force.”

In concert with the move to Division I, the criteria have changed.

“Division I expectancies are different than Division II,” Hiegert said. “Not necessarily from a success factor. But from a time expenditure. How quickly is it going to be for us to fill a vacant position? How expensive is it going to be for us to buy someone out if it hasn’t worked out? It’s a completely different arrangement than it was in the Division II situation.”

Although the timing might appear poor for Cassidy, what with guiding his team into Division I in the final year of a contract, Hiegert doesn’t see a negative.

“We evaluate after every year with all of our coaches, whether they have a multiyear contract or not,” he said. “The best way to look at it is if a person is on a multiyear and we’re unhappy with them we’d rather pay them off and move on. That’s what’s done all across the country.”

Until 1986, all coaches at Northridge worked under one-year contracts. That year, Cassidy became the first Northridge coach to receive a two-year deal. After it expired, he signed his current three-year contract.

“When my contract is up I will be treated fairly,” said Cassidy. “I think the athletic administration and the university are wise enough to know that we are not going to jump into Division I and win 20 games.

“We’re (an) independent, we have a lot of games on the road, but I don’t feel pressure.”

Cassidy’s confidence might stem from the support he receives from CSUN’s athletic association, a group of volunteer fund-raisers.

“I’ve been to the meetings and there is no mounting pressure on coach (Cassidy),” said Bob Allen, an association member and former CSUN player. “Internally, maybe, Pete feels pressure to win, but it’s not coming from us.”

Kerry Mayer, athletic association executive president, said: “People are going to expect a couple of Division I wins. “And it’s not a positive losing assistant coaches like Rusty (Smith) and Dave (Fehte). I don’t think it was too cool losing them so late. But I’ve known Pete for years and I’m a fan of his. It’s been shown with the right material that he can do a good job.”

Even Smith, whose departure is believed to have stemmed from fears that Cassidy--and his assistants--will lose their jobs after the season, publicly maintains that Cassidy’s job is not on the line.

“I think Coach Cassidy is pretty secure,” Smith said. “He’s a proven winner, an outstanding coach if given the opportunity. He needs to be given as much as anyone else to prove he can do it. He got the opportunity to go to Division I but he wasn’t given a full deck.”

Perhaps the area most affected by lack of funding is recruiting. Under the current budgetary system, no state or student fees go toward recruiting. Both the operating budget and the scholarship budget are derived from student fees.

That leaves fund-raisers and profits from Cassidy’s summer camp, for which he doesn’t receive a dime, and it explains why CSUN’s talent pool is limited to California.

Unfortunately, there’s an irony there. The more dollars Cassidy spends from his precious recruiting budget to lure key out-of-state players, the more money he takes out of his equally precious scholarship budget. Tuition and fees for an out-of-state student cost roughly $6,000 per year, $5,000 more than those for a California student.

“We wouldn’t want to think exclusively out-of-state,” Cassidy said, “but we do want to lure the impact players from out-of-state.”

Smith, the Matadors’ top recruiter until his June resignation, is adamant about expanding recruiting efforts for a program he still feels a part of.

“We’re competing in a market so over-recruited,” Smith said. “The Pac-10 gets the cream of the crop and the WCC (West Coast Conference) and the Big West are at the next level. We’re trying to compete with that, and then the Big Sky and other conferences are coming in, too.

“You have to get out-of-state. I’m talking about the Midwest -- Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas. There, the California mystique is still alive. For the California kids who’ve lived here their whole lives it’s nothing special.

“We can get a better athlete out-of-state than we can in-state. The things that we are recruiting to (stressing) are location and Division I basketball.”

The things that sometimes sabotage those efforts are CSUN’s second-class facilities, including locker room, gym and weight room. While most Division I teams have a separate team meeting room as well as a locker room, the Matadors don’t even have their own locker room.

“The football and baseball teams have locker rooms,” Smith said. “Why the basketball team doesn’t is beyond me. And I think a team room is really important. It gives a team identity and fosters togetherness.

“These are the things that recruits come and see and they ask themselves, ‘Why should I come here?’ ” Yes, it’s a nice location, but so are a lot of California schools. It’s a tough sell in California.”

This past off-season, Smith made his sell primarily to California junior college players; they represent six of the nine CSUN newcomers.

Nevada Las Vegas Coach Jerry Tarkanian filled his first Division I roster at Cal State Long Beach in the same manner. In that first year at the Division I level, his team was under budgetary limitations similar to those CSUN is facing.

“We had only eight scholarships and none of them were full,” Tarkanian said of his 1969 team. “I had only one assistant and he had to teach and I had to teach. We had almost no recruiting budget, $400 and a lot of shoes. We cut the (spending on) shoes in half and used the extra $200 for recruiting. We had no money for scouting.”

Somehow, Tarkanian’s team went 24-5 that first year.

Cassidy, whose 284-223 record includes four California Collegiate Athletic Assn. titles, the most recent in 1985, has no such illusions.

“I’m not saying we are going to lose every time out in the early going, but we do lack experience,” he said. “I recognize any time you have new people they are not as familiar with each other. The schedule is tough in November and December, but given that I’m happy with the people we have. I think we are going to be a happy family.”

Perhaps more like the new kids on the block, in Smith’s view.

“There is no tradition,” Smith said. “The school is only 32 years old. People don’t like to be associated with CSUN. It’s nasty to say, but in the interest of snobbery they would rather be associated with SC or UCLA.”

Tradition takes a back seat to winning, however. But in going Division I without the trappings, it might be a long wait for Cal State Northridge basketball fans.