WSC Division Adds Up to 2nd Conference Champion

The South has seceded from the North. It is hardly a civil war, but for basketball purposes the Western State Conference has split into two separate entities.

Unlike in the past when one Western State Conference champion received the conference’s top seeding in the state tournament, both the Northern and Southern Division champions will be considered conference champions at the state seeding meeting.

Western State Conference teams are now playing each other in what are essentially nonconference interdivision games. This is the last week of interdivision play, and next week teams will begin a double round-robin, Wednesday-Saturday schedule against division foes.

Competition gap: Baseball Coach Bill Kernen and softball Coach Gary Torgeson of Northridge no longer will have to scramble to find replacements for USIU on their schedule.

The Gulls’ baseball, softball and golf coaches were able to save their seasons by convincing USIU trustees that they would not require funding from the university, which filed for bankruptcy three weeks ago.

Northridge has six baseball games scheduled against USIU. The Matador softball team will play a doubleheader against USIU and will participate in a tournament at the school.

“Westchester” State Conference: Three of the top four scorers in the Western State Conference, according to the latest statistics, played on the same 1988-89 Westchester High team.

Booker Waugh of West Los Angeles leads conference players in scoring with an average of 24.2 points a game. Moorpark teammates Damian Wilson (20.7) and Sam Crawford (19.1) rank third and fourth, respectively. Zan Mason, a sophomore at UCLA, also played for that Westchester team.

Sign of the times: Northridge may be trying to improve its image in its first season in Division I, but there is a glut of misinformation in the lobby at Matador Gymnasium where the coaches and physical education teachers are listed.

A sign says that Leslie Milke is the women’s basketball coach, Rusty Smith a men’s basketball assistant, Rocky Railey the sports information director and Ran Railey the promotions director.

All four have left CSUN and have been replaced by people whose names do not appear--Janet Martin, Tom McCollum, Barry Smith and Paul Bubb, respectively.

There is also an advertisement for the Japan-USA volleyball exhibition that took place Nov. 2, 1990, and a schedule for CSUN men’s basketball that does not reflect changes in the coaching staff and has the wrong date of the Matadors’ season finale at Cal.

No experience needed: Forget about All-Americans, all-state selections or even all-area choices. Kathy Pudelko, Glendale College’s first-year women’s basketball coach, would be happy to have a high school letter-winner on her team.

Pudelko thought she had one team member with high school basketball experience, but those illusions disappeared the day of a 116-11 pasting by Moorpark.

“I thought she had (played in high school) because she’s a little better, but she hadn’t,” Pudelko said. The outlook is not any better on college experience; Glendale has only one returning player from last season.

Her winless team has taken its lumps this season, but Pudelko, whose teams won state basketball, track and volleyball titles while she was at Little Snake River (Wyo.) High, has pledged to stay the course and rebuild a program that has gone through coaches faster than Sybil changed personalities.

On the mend: Valley Coach Jim Stephens has been a man down on his bench after losing top assistant Jamie Dixon to an injury.

Dixon, a former player for Notre Dame High and Texas Christian, suffered an injury to his pancreas while playing in Europe over the Christmas holiday, according to Stephens. Dixon, who plays in New Zealand during the summer, had gone to Europe for two weeks of tournaments and exhibitions.

Stephens said he expects Dixon to return to the United States this week but has placed no timetable on his return to the sidelines.

The Freshman: Canyons’ Jeff Dorst took a step forward by taking a step back last week when he was transformed from a sophomore to a freshman by legislative fiat.

Dorst, a 6-foot-5, 205-pound center from Saugus, suffered a badly injured ankle and played in only two games last season. The school petitioned the Western State Conference to have that season restored.

The conference approved what was essentially a medical redshirt year for Dorst, and it has been welcome news for Coach Lee Smelser.

Dorst has made 19 of his past 22 shots from the field, including a nine-for-nine performance against Ventura.

Devilish decision: Freddie Bradley, Moorpark’s JC All-American running back, said he is “leaning toward” accepting a football scholarship to Arizona State. Bradley said he and teammate Peter Marine will visit Tempe this weekend.

Bradley already has visited Arkansas and Iowa State and said he is planning to travel to Houston and either Washington State or Oklahoma.

Great expectations: When Percy Fisher regained his eligibility last week, his Northridge basketball teammates were excited. However, Coach Pete Cassidy was cautious.

“I don’t want to put undue pressure on him,” Cassidy said. “It is unfair to the other guys. He doesn’t make or break us. He’s a fine athlete and just another weapon.”

So far, the 6-foot-7 center has been limited to five points and three rebounds in 18 minutes. He is clearly awkward and unsure of him self after a 10-month hiatus from competition, but it might be only a matter of a few weeks before he is willing to post up, put up some shots and grab some rebounds.

Meanwhile, senior guard Erik Cooper, the other CSUN player who was academically ineligible last semester, is still awaiting word on his fall semester grades.

Statwatch: Of the 17 independent teams in the nation, Northridge is third in steals with an average of 10.25 a game and third in rebounding with an average of 42.

Kyle Kerlegan is third in three-point baskets average at 3.58 and Keith Gibbs is fifth in assists average with 4.67. Gibbs is sixth in steal average at 2.17 and Shelton Boykin is eighth in rebound average at 7.58.

Playing it by ear: An unfamiliar voice from a familiar face can be heard at College of the Canyons basketball games. Aaron Clark, a two-time Western State Conference selection who led Canyons in scoring the past two years, is the Cougars’ announcer this season.

“I’m not that great, but it’s a lot of fun,” said Clark, who is unsure where he will play next year but is leaning toward Hawaii-Loa where he would rejoin former Canyons teammates Larry Allbritton and Kevin Price.

Air waves: KGIL 1260 will carry the Northridge basketball games Monday at Northeastern Illinois, Tuesday at Loyola-Chicago, and Jan. 17 at Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

The Feb. 23 game at Southern Utah State and the March 5 game at Cal also will be broadcast with Joe Buttitta doing play-by-play and Sam Lagana handling color.

“We’re not looking for just the Northridge listener, we’re looking for the college basketball fan and the fans of those opponents,” Lagana said of the school’s decision to pay KGIL an undisclosed sum to carry the games.

Northridge men’s basketball will appear on Prime Ticket cable television Feb. 4 against USC.

The Northridge women’s team will appear on Prime Ticket on Feb. 19 against San Diego State.

Rehabilitation time: Lisa Gill, a two-time NCAA Division II All-American in the heptathlon for Cal State Northridge, likely will miss the upcoming track and field season while recovering from arthroscopic surgery on her right knee, CSUN Coach Don Strametz said.

Gill, who placed fourth in the heptathlon in the 1989 and ’90 Division II championships, planned to redshirt at Northridge this season while competing for Nike Coast.

After surgery, however, it is likely that she will spend most of the season rehabilitating her knee. Gill’s personal best of 5,031 points in the heptathlon ranks third on CSUN’s all-time list.

Staff writers Brendan Healey, Theresa Munoz, John Ortega and Kirby Lee contributed to this notebook.