SAN DIEGO COLLEGE NOTEBOOK : Batt-Rapp Making Sure the Beat Goes On For Triton Basketball

Directed by Tom Marshall--no relation to Garry or Penny--Batt--Rapp at UC San Diego is drawing rave reviews around the nation and rising in the charts.

But don’t get the wrong idea. This is not a play or the dynamic duo doing a song-and-dance routine, and you have not picked up the Calendar section by mistake. This is men’s basketball.

Batt and Rapp--Rick and Tim, respectively--are basketball players. Marshall is the coach.

Together and with the help of a strong supporting cast, they have UCSD off to its best start ever at 6-0 and a No. 3 ranking among the nation’s Division III teams.

Coming off a best-ever 20-7 record, which included two losses to Division I teams, UCSD, a team with zero seniors last year, expected to have a good season, but the quick start has taken even Marshall by surprise.

“At this point, we expected to be no worse than 4-2,” Marshall said. “But 6-0? We’ve played even better than I thought we would.”

Included in the 6-0 record are back-to-back championships at the UCSD Tip-off Tournament and the Redlands Tournament. Batt and Rapp have been exceptional.

Batt, a 6-7 junior, finished third in the nation last year with a .663 shooting percentage. This year, he’s at .711.

Rapp, a 6-foot-4 senior guard, is averaging 26 points per game, up two from his team-leading average a year ago. Since his sophomore year, Rapp has played in seven tournaments and has made the all-tournament team all seven times, including four times as the most valuable player.

“The big thing about the team that I’m most pleased about is the bench play,” Marshall said. “I think we’re getting better play from them from an efficiency standpoint.”

After a week and a half layoff for final examinations, the show resumes at 7 tonight against La Verne in La Jolla.

Missing the mark: U.S. International, which once led the nation in scoring and has a goal of scoring at least 100 points in every game, has done it only one time in eight games this season. That time was Saturday, but the Gulls (1-7) still lost, 114-104, to Chico State.

Strangely, USIU’s lone victory came on the road, where the Gulls had lost 17 straight. That was 72-67 over Campbell in the Cardinal Varsity Club tournament in Muncie, Ind.

The big reason for the lack of scoring--USIU is averaging only 79.8 points per game as opposed to 97.8 last year--is that only one player, Isaac Brown, is shooting above 50% from the field. Brown, a sophomore guard, is making 55.7% of his shots. The next highest is senior forward Kevin Bradshaw at 42%.

Hitting the mark: Gary Litten, a junior forward on the Point Loma Nazarene men’s basketball team, leads the NAIA District 3 in field-goal percentage at .941. Litten, a 6-3 junior forward, has missed only one of 17 shots.

Litten and 6-6 junior forward Donnie Buettner, who is averaging 19.3 points and 12 rebounds per game, are two reasons PLNC has a new outlook.

Last year after six games, PLNC was 1-5 and staring at an 8-21 season. This year, the Crusaders are 4-2.

Hitting and missing: University of San Diego guard Geoff Probst has made six of nine three-point shots this year, but is zero for seven from the free-throw line.

USD forward Kelvin Woods is three for three from three, but has missed seven of his last 10 free throws.

Two out of three isn’t bad: Punctuating its best season in history, the University of San Diego men’s soccer program took two of the three highest postseason honors in the West Coast Conference.

Seamus McFadden was named coach of the year as the Toreros finished 16-3-5 and advanced to the semifinals of the NCAA West Region playoffs, where they lost to eventual champion UCLA, 2-1 in overtime.

Senior sweeper Trong Nguyen was named the WCC’s defensive player of the year. Nguyen, a three-time first team all-WCC selection, sparked a defense that allowed fewer than a goal per game this season.

Santa Clara’s Jeff Balcher was the offensive player of the year.

Also named to the first team from USD were junior forward Paul Gelvezon (12 goals, seven assists), sophomore forward Chugger Adair (eight goals, nine assists) and senior midfielder Tom Crane (six goals, seven assists).

Senior midfielder Leo Ronces, freshman midfielder Toby Taitano and freshman goalie Tom Tate were named to the second team.

Thou shalt steal: The San Diego Mesa women’s basketball team set a school record for steals last week with 42 in a 76-38 rout of San Bernardino Valley. The old record was 38 set in the 1984-85 season.

Sorii Epps had a game-high 12 steals, which tied Mesa’s record set in 1978 by Tami Inabinett. Epps also scored 28 points.

Forgive them: One would think a school named St. Mary’s would get this right.

Tammy Tavares, a freshman guard from Our Lady of Peace, is listed as having played for Our Lady of Angels in the WCC women’s basketball media guide.