CS Dominguez Hills Basketball Team to Play Louisiana State in 1992

Cal State Dominguez Hills, a Division II school, has signed to play a basketball game in 1992 at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.

The rare meeting resulted from a conversation last summer between Dominguez Hills Coach Dave Yanai and LSU Coach Dale Brown while both men served as coaches at the United States Olympic Festival in Minnesota.

“It was a chance for me to ask him for a game,” Yanai said. “It was nice of Coach Brown to let us take the opportunity to play them.”

A spokesman at LSU, traditionally a Southeastern Conference power, said that the university usually plays one or two small schools each season. Chapman College, like Dominguez Hills a member of the California Collegiate Athletic Assn., plays at Baton Rouge on Dec. 7. Another CCAA school, Cal State Los Angeles, played in Louisiana last season.

“Very few (coaches) reach out and help other programs,” Brown said. “I like to help my friends. . . . I liked Dave Yanai. He seemed like a nice man who wanted to improve his program and I wanted to help him do that.”

According to Dominguez Hills Athletic Director Dan Guerrero, the university will receive $10,000 for the game, about the cost of the trip. The real benefit, said Guerrero, is that playing LSU will demonstrate that Dominguez Hills is committed to improving the caliber of teams it plays. Other 1991-92 games include trips to the universities of Denver and Northern Colorado and to the Grand Canyon University Tournament in Phoenix. Guerrero also said Dominguez Hills will invite several top Division II teams from the Midwest and East to play preseason games in Carson.

“This is all part of what we feel we have to do to be consistently recognized as a nationally competitive basketball team,” Guerrero said.

Strength of schedule has become increasingly important in the last three seasons when postseason Division II playoff berths have been selected. Currently, only conference champions receive automatic berths in the 32-team Division II playoff system, leaving the majority of first-round spots to be determined by vote of a national selection committee, which has few criteria other than to compare the schedules of potential participants.