Green Light Helps These Titans Go : Basketball: With Ceballos and Hill gone, other Fullerton players are getting the chance to score, resulting in a surprising 5-2 start.

Postcards from the edge of Titan Gym:

Dear Cedric and Mark,

Having a great time at Cal State Fullerton this season. We don’t wish you were here.

Sincerely,

The Titans

Nothing personal guys, but the Fullerton basketball team is getting along just fine and dandy without you.

The big question going into the 1990-91 season--Who would fill the offensive void left by departed scoring machines Cedric Ceballos and Mark Hill?--has been answered in chorus:

We will!

Gone is that two-man attack, in which Ceballos (23.1 points per game) and Hill (18.2) were the only Fullerton players averaging in double figures. The Titans now have an equal-opportunity offense and are off to a surprising 5-2 start.

Four players--guard Joe Small (20.6), center Aaron Wilhite (13.0) and forwards Ron Caldwell (11.1) and Agee Ward (10.9)--have double-figure averages entering tonight’s game against Chapman College in Titan Gym.

Two others, forward Bruce Bowen (9.1) and guard Wayne Williams (7.3), are averaging at least seven points. Last season, only three players, including Ceballos and Hill, averaged seven or more.

Almost everyone has the green light to shoot as opposed to last season, when only Ceballos and Hill had carte blanche on offense.

Though no current player is even in the same constellation as Ceballos, now a Phoenix Sun reserve, the Titans have more of a democratic star system. Any player can be the hero on any night.

Ward scored 25 to lead Fullerton past Butler. Small and Caldwell each scored 16 in a victory over San Francisco. Small had 29 in last Saturday’s victory over Mississippi Valley State, but J.D. Green and Bowen, who share the small forward position, combined for 29 points and 20 rebounds.

When Small, the team’s best outside shooter, went cold in the second half of Thursday’s game against Portland, Bowen and Caldwell picked up the slack, scoring 21 and 16 points.

Unlike last season, everyone is involved in the offense.

And unlike last season, everyone seems to be happy.

“Last year the whole team was structured around Cedric and Mark--they were the only two guys who really shot,” said Wilhite, a sophomore. “You could feel the jealousy and tension between everybody. Right from the first day, no one was happy, and that affects you. This year everyone is happy, and that makes you want to play harder.”

Of the 1,815 shots the Titans took last season, Ceballos and Hill combined for 941; the other 12 players combined for 874. Ceballos and Hill accounted for more than half of Fullerton’s points and seemed to cause a fair amount of dissension.

“They were good people--everyone liked them personally,” Wilhite said. “But once we got on the floor, attitudes changed. People talked behind their backs. They’d say, ‘Mark never passes the ball. Cedric never passes.’ Everyone was for themselves.”

Players say a one-for-all attitude pervades this year’s team. Small has taken the most shots, but he is also averaging four assists. The wing players are getting the ball inside more, and Wilhite, Ward and Caldwell have capitalized, going from role players to offensive threats.

“Our inside game was next to invisible last year,” said Caldwell, a senior. “Now we’re playing inside and outside. Whatever the opponent gives us we take. When things are going bad, there’s a feeling anyone can step up and take over at any time. That helps, because defenses have to play us honestly.”

More players shooting and scoring, more players contributing in other ways, has added up to more happy Titans.

“It’s a lot more fun because no one is out to prove anything,” Caldwell said. “We’re just out to have fun. All the personalities seem to fit together. Last year, people tried to attain individual goals rather than look at the big picture, and the chemistry just wasn’t there.”

Wilhite said he could sense from the start of workouts that players would get along better this season.

“No one is on an ego trip,” he said. “Everyone is relaxed and has a good sense of humor. There’s not a tense person on the team to mess up chemistry.”

Most coaches would say good chemistry is a prerequisite for a successful team. Sometimes success fosters good chemistry; sometimes good chemistry fosters success.

A 5-2 record at this point doesn’t constitute a successful season, but Coach John Sneed knows his players get along.

“Some coaches call it camaraderie, others call it jelling together,” Sneed said. “Call it what you want--it’s an atmosphere around a team. You have to get along before you get it on, and this team gets along well.”

Sneed didn’t want to dwell on last season, but it’s clear that this team has been easier to coach.

“This season has been much more fun for me,” he said. “There are times we have a lot of fun in practice, but they also know when it’s time to get serious. It takes a special type of team that can turn it on and off like that.”