Rancho Santiago Keeps Rolling

Long after the shooting had stopped, two members of the 1990 state champion Rancho Santiago College basketball team shot off their mouths.

Mike Hunter and John Guerrero, outgoing sophomores, looked at the slim pickings due back in 1991 at the valley of the Dons and forecast grim, dark, depressing days ahead.

“They told us that we were going to lose four or five games this year,” says guard LaVern Broadnax.

Can you believe those guys?

From 32-3, Rancho Santiago had nowhere to go but down. With four of the Dons’ top six players leaving school in June, disaster surely awaited. They were going to have to lower expectations. They were going to have to rebuild.

They were going to lose four or five games .

Such insolence had to be met head-on, Broadnax insists. When you’re defending state champs and 20-1, rallying cries are apparently hard to come by.

“That’s what’s been pushing us,” Broadnax said Saturday night after Rancho Santiago summarily dispatched Saddleback, 100-77, at Bill Cook Gymnasium. “It hasn’t happened yet. I’m just hoping we can put it off till after the state tournament.”

So far, so good. In a game in which nobody repeats, the Dons are ranked No. 1 again, have lost only once--to Cerritos, in overtime, by three points--and have won their past 17. Next up: The school record of 18 straight. That should fall next Saturday at Orange Coast.

Nobody repeats in California community college basketball because nobody stays together long enough. Dynasties are tough to maintain when you’re turning over the starting five every other year.

It’s been exactly 25 years since Riverside City College last won back-to-back titles. Actually, the Tigers won back-to-back-to-back titles between 1964 and 1966--and the three-peat has been out of reach ever since.

“Somebody told me that at Christmastime,” said Rancho Santiago Coach Dana Pagett. “Before that, I hadn’t heard or thought anything about it . . .

“There’s such a tremendous turnover of players every year. Just like our team this year. We had only three players coming back.

“We were fortunate enough to get some good people to transfer in.”

Traditionally, community college athletic programs exist to feed athletes into four-year schools. This year, Pagett and the Dons have the process backward.

From Texas Christian University came 6-6 forward Erik Martin, the Dons’ leading scorer and rebounder.

From UC Irvine came Brett Pagett, the Dons’ leading gun from three-point land.

Fortune was only partially involved. Family ties were the strongest bonds in these transfers.

Pagett coached Erik Martin’s brother, Chris, at Rancho Santiago two years.

He also coached Brett Pagett all his life, or at least since Brett was old enough to dribble and dribble at the same time.

Dana is dad to Brett Pagett.

“You know, I always thought it might happen,” Dana says wistfully about the father-and-son reunion. “But once Brett went to Irvine, I kinda ruled that out. I thought I’d never coach him.

“It’s been good, having him here.”

Brett helped bail the Dons out of their first-half lethargy against a so-so (10-8) Saddleback team. Rancho Santiago missed its first seven shots and committed five turnovers in the first 10 minutes before Brett shook the game by the collar with three three-pointers, helping the Dons pull away to a 46-33 halftime lead.

From there, Martin put the game away. Averaging 22.4 points and 9.3 rebounds for the season, Martin bettered both figures against the Gauchos, slamming in 26 points and pulling down 12 rebounds, which fit in nicely with his two blocks and three steals.

“Erik’s added a lot,” said Broadnax, who admitted some nervousness after last summer’s departure of all-state center Matthew (String Bean) Lien to the University of California. “For a while, we had nobody coming in. We weren’t getting any (new) freshmen. I was afraid we might be in trouble up front.

“But toward the end of the school year, Chris (Martin) came by and told us Erik was thinking of transferring back to California and that he wanted to play for Coach Pagett. That put a big, ol’ smile on our faces.”

Teamming inside with 6-9 center Corie Blount, a holdover from the 1990 champions, Martin gives Rancho Santiago a muscle game the Dons aren’t used to. “Rebound-wise, our inside people are much stronger,” Broadnax said. “Matt was a so-so rebounder. Someone like Erik, he can’t be pushed around the way Matt was.”

More rebounds have meant more long outlets, which has meant more fast-break baskets. Already, the Dons have scored 100 points 12 times this season. In 1989-90, they did it four times.

“That’s a shock right there,” Broadnax said with a grin. “I didn’t think we’d ever score like that, so consistently. How many did we score tonight?”

One-hundred, exactly, Broadnax is told.

“Geez,” he said, shaking his head again.

It is almost proceeding too smoothly, this rebuilding year at Rancho Santiago. Hard to believe, but these Dons might be better than the Dons that preceded them.

Four or five losses?

Is that cumulative for the decade, or what?