CSUN Looks for Fast Start in Division I : College basketball: Matadors to showcase run-and-gun offense when they open their season on the road against Colorado.

It will not take long for Cal State Northridge to find out where it stands in its inaugural basketball season at the NCAA Division I level. The Matadors’ toughest trip is their first, against Colorado tonight, Colorado State on Saturday and New Mexico State on Monday.

Colorado (12-18 last season) has finished last in the Big Eight Conference five years in a row but has a powerful one-two punch in Shaun Vandiver and Stevie Wise.

The Buffaloes also sport a new up-tempo offense under first-year Coach Joe Harrington, a former Cal State Long Beach coach.

The 6-foot-10, 240-pound Vandiver averaged a Big Eight-leading 22.3 points and 11.2 rebounds a game last season and was an honorable mention All-American.

Wise averaged 20 points and can be very effective from the three-point line where he shoots at a 34% clip. Last season, he hit 76 three-point shots, including seven in one game.

“They want to run and we want to run, so let’s see what happens,” Matador Coach Pete Cassidy said.

As for handling Vandiver, Cassidy said: “We’ll see if we can encourage them to take an outside shot before he gets the ball. If they want to post him up, we’ll sag on him and he’ll have to beat us.”

Matador guard Kyle Kerlegan sees a difference between CSUN’s running game and that of the Buffaloes.

“They (Colorado) try to run but not like we do,” Kerlegan said. “And I question how long (Vandiver) can run. He is big.”

Obviously, the Matadors are not awestruck.

“If we go in intimidated, then we’re in trouble,” point guard Keith Gibbs said. “We’ve heard all year long that we’re not going to win games. If we believed that, we might as well pack it in. We’re going in thinking we’re going to win.”

According to Kerlegan, the most important factor is the level of the Matadors’ effort.

“It’ll be a gut-check time, the first time we can gauge ourselves,” he said. “But the effort and the desire doesn’t come from who you are playing against.”

Colorado State (21-9 in 1989-90) will present a different challenge. The Rams will attempt to slow the Matadors with Coach Boyd Grant’s patient passing game. Grant emphasizes careful shot selection and man-to-man pressure defense.

The Rams’ strength is at guard with Mark Meredith and Lynn Tryon, both of whom returned from a team that tied for the Western Athletic Conference championship with Brigham Young. Meredith hit 84 three-point shots last season at a 46% accuracy rate and Tryon sank 42.

Colorado State will have difficulty replacing Mike Mitchell and his 19.5 scoring average, but Chuckie White, a transfer from Indiana, could pick up the slack.

The pace will pick up again when Northridge meets New Mexico State, which is ranked 16th by Sports Illustrated. The Aggies have three starters back from a team that went 26-5 overall and shared the Big West Conference title with national champion Nevada Las Vegas last season.

Randy Brown is the team leader. Last season he averaged 13.2 points and 3.5 assists and made 91 steals.

Although the trip is expected to be difficult, Cassidy is conceding nothing.

“You can’t look at it negatively,” Cassidy said. “It is exciting. I am curious to see how we respond to a competitive environment. Hey, it is a game. It is not a life-and-death situation. All I am asking is that they go hard for the team.

“I try to drum it into them, you can’t afford the luxury, if you make a mistake, to put your head down. It is not what happens to you, it is how you respond to it.”

Cassidy plans to use all 12 players, including Peter Micelli, a 6-8 freshman who has been an on-again, off-again redshirt candidate.

With the absence of Percy Fisher, who is academically ineligible, and the back pain that is bothering junior college transfer Brian Kilian, the Matadors need Micelli.

The probable starters are Gibbs at point guard, Kerlegan and David Keeter at shooting guards, Todd Bowser at power forward and Shelton Boykin or Kirk Scott as the other power forward. Boykin is a better rebounder, but Scott has more of a scoring touch.