CAL STATE FULLERTON NOTEBOOK : Titans Hope to Take the Turns Leading to a Tournament Berth

The Cal State Fullerton basketball team, trapped in the maze that is the Big West Conference standings behind Nevada Las Vegas and New Mexico State, begins its final quest this week for that figurative block of cheese--a conference tournament berth.

The top-ranked Rebels, who have turned the rest of the conference into Cheez Whiz, are a lock for the Big West title, and the Aggies have a stronghold on second place.

Then, there’s the murky race below.

To give you an idea how close the bottom eight teams are, Fullerton, which is tied for sixth place and has three games left, could mathematically finish as high as third or as low as last.

The Titans could gain a favorable seed in the conference tournament, which features eight teams, or they could miss it completely.

“So many things can happen, I’ve stopped worrying about the standings,” Fullerton Coach John Sneed said. “I put the emphasis on what we have control over. We want to do what we’re supposed to do and let the chips fall where they may.”

Working in the Titans’ favor is the fact that their three remaining games--against UC Irvine Thursday, UC Santa Barbara Saturday and Las Vegas March 2--are at home, where they are 10-1.

Fullerton, one of four conference teams with a winning overall record, also has a tie-breaking trump card--an 89-81 victory over New Mexico State on Jan. 19. After head-to-head competition, the next conference tiebreaking criterion is competition against teams in the seeding order.

If the Titans defeat Irvine and Santa Barbara and lose to Las Vegas, they’ll have split the season series with every team except Las Vegas and Cal State Long Beach, which beat Fullerton twice.

Assume Las Vegas finishes undefeated and New Mexico State wins its remaining non-UNLV games. Should the Titans finish tied with anyone except Long Beach, they’ll be seeded higher than that team because they have a victory over second-place New Mexico State.

“It’s definitely a plus for us,” Sneed said. “But who knows? Maybe we’ll beat Vegas, too.”

Stranger things haven’t happened.

Realistically, Fullerton has a chance to finish 8-10, but 6-12 is certainly a possibility.

Remember, Irvine beat Fullerton, 92-87, on Jan. 26, and the Anteaters should be inspired during Coach Bill Mulligan’s abbreviated farewell tour. Santa Barbara whipped the Titans, 76-55, on Jan. 24. And we all know what Las Vegas can do.

Of course, in the Big West’s eight-team basement, where on any given night, any team can lose to any other team, Fullerton could drop its last three games and still make the tournament.

Fullerton’s field-goal percentage (50.8%) in Saturday night’s 88-83 loss to Cal State Long Beach was its best in eight games, but the opponent (the 49ers shot 52.3%) still outshot the Titans for the eighth consecutive game.

During this span, opponents have shot 52.9% from the field (247 of 467) compared to Fullerton’s 42.4% (212 of 500).

“I don’t know why opponents are shooting so well,” Sneed said. “They’re taking the same shots I see them take on film against other teams. Guys who are non-shooters are making them against us. I wish I knew the answer.”

It shouldn’t take Big West women’s basketball coaches long to decide on a conference player of the year. Fullerton senior Genia Miller was named Big West player of the week again Monday, the sixth time she has won or shared the honor this season.

Miller leads the conference in scoring (30.0 points per game), rebounding (11.5), field-goal percentage (.616) and blocked shots (4.0) and is among national leaders in all four categories. She has led the Titans to a 19-6 record entering Saturday’s game at UC Irvine.

“I don’t think there will be any discussion about that,” Fullerton Coach Maryalyce Jeremiah said of the player of the year choice.

Fullerton wrestling Coach Dan Lewis believes the Titans have a legitimate chance of qualifying five wrestlers for the NCAA championships during this weekend’s Pacific-10 meet, which will be held Saturday and Sunday at Stanford.

The top three finishers in each of 10 weight classes and eight wild-card wrestlers--selected by the coaches--advance to the nationals at Iowa City, Iowa, March 14-16.

Senior heavyweight David Jones (33-4), junior 134-pounder Lyndon Campbell (31-7) and sophomore 126-pounder Jeff Maes (27-7-1) reached the nationals last season, and Lewis believes sophomore 118-pounder Mike Grubbs (25-10-2) and senior 150-pounder Marty Kouyoumtjian (22-14-1) have a shot this season.

Fullerton finished the regular season with a 12-6 dual-match record, 2-4 in conference, but wrestled well in losses to fourth-ranked Arizona State (20-16) and 17th-ranked Oregon (19-16).

Titan Notes

The Fullerton track and field program will sponsor a 5K evening run, called a Dark Run, at 5:30 p.m. Saturday starting near Titan Gym. An early entry fee of $16 includes a long-sleeved T-shirt and two passes to the Fullerton-UC Santa Barbara basketball game in Titan Gym that night. For further information, call Fullerton track Coach John Elders at 773-3490. . . . The Fullerton baseball team, 3-9 after last weekend’s three losses to Cal State Northridge, is off to its worst start in its 17 years at the Division I level. The Titans have been below the .500 mark after 12 games only one other time, in 1987, when they were 5-7. But they finished with a 44-17 record and won the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. championship that season. . . . One bright spot for Fullerton has been the play of sophomore shortstop Phil Nevin, who is batting .415 with six doubles and nine runs batted in. . . . Athletic Director Ed Carroll, who will be leaving March 1 to become assistant athletic director for financial affairs at UC Irvine, was noncommittal when asked what color clothes--Fullerton blue and orange or Irvine blue and yellow--he would be wearing for Thursday night’s Titan-Anteater basketball game. “I don’t plan my wardrobe that far in advance,” he said. . . . Titan Athletic Foundation Director Walt Bowman, a former athletic director at Chapman College, said he will not pursue the athletic director job at Fullerton. . . . Reserve center Ron Caldwell, who returned to the Titan basketball team last week after a suspension that lasted seven games, played seven minutes against New Mexico State, scoring two points, and five minutes against Long Beach, scoring no points.

THE BIG WEST RACE

Team: Nevada Las Vegas Conference W: 14 L: 0 Remaining Games: Pacific, Irvine, at New Mexico St., at Fullerton Team: New Mexico State Conference W: 11 L: 2 Remaining Games: at Utah St., at San Jose St., UNLV, Pacific, Fresno St. Team: Pacific Conference W: 8 L: 6 Remaining Games: at UNLV, Fresno St., at New Mexico St., at Long Beach Team: Utah State Conference W: 7 L: 7 Remaining Games: New Mexico St., Long Beach, at Santa Barbara, at Irvine Team: UC Santa Barbara Conference W: 6 L: 8 Remaining Games: at Long Beach, at Fullerton, Utah St., San Jose St. Team: CS Fullerton Conference W: 6 L: 9 Remaining Games: Irvine, Santa Barbara, UNLV Team: Fresno State Conference W: 6 L: 9 Remaining Games: at Pacific, at Long Beach, at New Mexico St. Team: CS Long Beach Conference W: 5 L: 9 Remaining Games: Santa Barbara, at Utah St., Fresno St., Pacific Team: San Jose State Conference W: 5 L: 10 Remaining Games: New Mexico St., at Irvine, at Santa Barbara Team: UC Irvine Conference W: 3 L: 11 Remaining Games: at Fullerton, at UNLV, San Jose St., Utah St.