UCSD Plans Winning Sequel

There is an athletic shoe commercial in which a well-known Mr. Robinson shows his stuff, then looks into the camera.

“Can you say contract renegotiation?” he says.

As the 1990-91 small-college men’s basketball season dawns, there are no contract renegotiations. In many cases, there aren’t scholarships.

But in 1989-90, UC San Diego showed its stuff, and it wouldn’t be surprising if the team looked into a camera--any camera--and quipped, “Can you say re-peat?”

The Tritons had their best season--a seemingly annual progression under Coach Tom Marshall--and finished 20-7, reaching the NCAA Division III playoffs.

UCSD’s season ended in the second round, but most of the players will get a chance to redeem themselves this season because nine of 12 players return. None of the missing three averaged more than 1.1 points per game.

Can they say repeat? Heck, they can probably enunciate.

“I’ve never had a team go as far as we did last year and then come back with so many players,” Marshall said. “It’s what every coach wants. Now, the only thing is that we have to live up to expectations.”

But Marshall, whose teams have been 55-24 the past three years, knows it won’t be easy.

“Everybody expects you to be the second coming and it just doesn’t happen like that,” he said. “We’re not UNLV. We’re not going to wow you by walking in the gym. (Our players) work hard, play fundamentally sound basketball, team offense and team defense. We don’t have a 6-8 monster to dominate the game. We just win games because everybody does their job.”

Two returning players made significant contributions to last year’s Tritons, senior guard Tim Rapp (6-foot-4) and junior forward Rick Batt (6-7).

Rapp set single-season records for total points (646), free throws made and attempted (151 for 203) and minutes played (923). He also has the second-leading career scoring average (18.7) and is sixth-leading scorer all time (897).

Batt set a season mark for field-goal percentage (.663, 161 of 243) and had the second best marks for rebounds, both offensive (89) and defensive (140). He is ninth all-time in rebounding (401) and fourth in rebound average (7.7). He averaged 15.0 points.

Others with significant single-season marks include Gordon McNeill (6-8), second all-time in blocked shots (20) and Darvin Jackson (5-9), fifth in steals (59). McNeill averaged 9.7 points per game, Jackson 6.1.

And unheralded senior guard Tom Shawcroft (6-2), from Granite Hills High, is the glue who holds the team together.

“He’s the one who gets the key block or steal or the extra couple of rebounds when you need them,” Marshall said.

This team also has more depth than last year. The first player off the bench, 6-6 sophomore forward Chris Moore is joined by three redshirt freshmen, Eric Johnson (6-4, guard), Bryan Van Noy (6-7, forward) and Chris Ressa (6-0, guard).

Christian Heritage College

Christian Heritage’s finest season ended with the National Christian College Athletic Assn. national championship, but defending it could be a struggle for Coach Swen Nater. The NAIA District 3 Hawks (33-6) return only one starter, 6-6 senior center Rob Meeter, who averaged 10.6 points per game and 7.3 rebounds.

Nater hates the word rebuilding.

“You’re telling the guys who are here that you don’t expect much from them,” Nater said. “We do. This team does have the potential to be a very good team in district. We are trying to rebuild the team to be as successful as it was last year, but that takes time.”

But he cited four reasons why Christian Heritage can continue to win:

--The team works very hard.

--The players are in excellent physical condition.

--They play fundamentally sound basketball.

--They play very well together.

Some of the other reasons they could win are Shane McKim (6-2, Fr.), a point guard from Indiana whom Nater said “is a good shooter, handles the ball well, penetrates and is very much a team player;” guard Vernaldo Butler (6-0, Jr.), who should get seven or eight rebounds a game in addition to scoring; forward Jeff Martin (6-2, Soph.), a sharp-shooter who knows how to get open; and Curt Hallberg (6-3, Soph.), a 23-year-old dairy farmer/rebound specialist whom Nater said has spent the past three years near the Canadian border wrestling cows.

“All five guys are capable of scoring 20 points on any given night,” said Nater, 57-15 in two years at CHC. “The main thing we’re trying to do offensively is get somebody open. We want the best possible shot. We don’t care who gets it.”

That includes the top players off the bench, guard Lance Roark (6-2, Soph.), center John Leibel (6-5, Fr.) and forward Matt Angrove (6-1, Soph.).

Point Loma Nazarene College

It has been a long haul since Point Loma Nazarene College (8-21, 2-10) won the 1986 NCCAA championship. Last year was its third consecutive losing season in the District 3 Golden State Athletic Conference, hardly the norm in the 15 years Ben Foster (287-197) has been coach. But the winds of change are blowing.

“The thing I feel most strongly about is the attitude and the direction this team is going,” Foster said. “I really stress a non-star approach, and I believe our players are responding to that in a very positive manner.”

They also have to respond to adversity, including a back problem that has limited the one returning senior, 5-10 point guard Brad Davis, to three practices this season. Others with injuries: junior guard James Kinzler (6-2), coming off knee surgery, has practiced twice; Gary Litten (6-3), a junior forward whose broken toe from the summer did not heal immediately; and freshman Travis Teagle, a 6-5 center from Fallbrook, expected to be out for the year after undergoing ankle surgery Friday.

Those picking up the slack are point guards Nate Barker (5-11, Jr.) and Julius Coleman (5-8, Jr.), shooting guard Mark Bulgin (6-2, Jr.), center Mike Flores (6-10, Jr.) and forwards Rusty Fallin (6-4, Jr.) and Frank Dews (6-4, Soph.). Forwards Donnie Buettner (6-6, Jr.), John Greer (6-4, Jr.) and Litten also fit favorably into Foster’s team-oriented style.

All but Buettner, Fallin and Coleman are returnees. Fallin was the leading scorer the past two years at Phoenix College and Buettner the second-leading scorer and leading rebounder at Central Arizona.