Players Know Just What Went Wrong

“Don’t hold back, Joe,” said Cal State Fullerton point guard Wayne Williams, exhorting another teammate into action. “Tell the truth.”

Joe Small nodded as Williams walked by. “I always do,” Small answered, peering above the pens and notepads surrounding him. “You know I always do.”

Another Big West Conference basketball tournament had come and gone for Fullerton, and you know what that meant. Turmoil in Titandom. Last year, there was The Benching of Cedric Ceballos. This year, during a first-round, 74-67 loss to Pacific, there was The Benching of Aaron Wilhite . . . and The Benching of J.D. Green . . . and The Yanking of Wayne Williams . . . and the Two-Minute Ride of Marcus Bell . . . and The Offense That Died Because Joe Small Couldn’t Get His Shot And Because Wayne Williams Couldn’t Make Any.

The postgame docket was brimming with topics for discussion, and with no censors within earshot, Williams and Small decided the time was right to fire away. Williams had already tried the same once, during the game. All that got him was out of the game.

“We were trying to get Joe open, but with the offense we were in, it was tough to get the ball to him,” Williams said. “That’s because (Pacific) was playing man-to-man on Joe and zoning everybody else.

“If I was coaching, I would have put Joe on the ball. Make him the point guard. Joe could’ve started up top with the ball every time down. Then he could’ve made a pass off a screen and get the ball back for an open shot.”

This, in essence, was the advice Williams gave Fullerton Coach John Sneed with 13 minutes left in the second half.

With 12:50 left in the second half, Williams found himself with an excellent seat for Marcus Bell’s Big West Tournament debut at point guard.

Small had to agree with Williams’ analysis--Small averages 22.3 points but took only five shots in the first half, so something obviously wasn’t working--but also noted that, “You know you can’t say it. Wayne did, and he was out of there.”

And in came Bell, a freshman of such limited experience that he once tried to enter a UC Santa Barbara game during garbage time with his jersey on backward. Before Friday, Bell had played all of 16 minutes, attempted all of four shots, scored all of two points. Friday, Bell found himself thrust into the swirl of a tied tournament game, with a berth in the semifinals on the line.

“Marcus hadn’t played all year,” Small said, “and you put him in a situation like that? I know he was uncomfortable out there.”

Bell didn’t stay long, just enough to clank one three-point castaway, just enough to underscore the same point Sneed made earlier by benching Wilhite and Green for missing curfew.

Wilhite is Fullerton’s starting center. Green has the best three-point field-goal percentage on the team. Friday, Sneed kept both of them out of the starting lineup, just as he kept Ceballos out of the starting lineup for a first-round game in the 1990 conference tournament after Ceballos showed late for a practice.

One difference, though:

In 1990, the opponent was UC Irvine.

Friday’s opponent was a talented but rough-around-the-edges Pacific team that had the Titans cornered, 13-5, after the first two minutes. After 3 1/2 minutes, Sneed decided Wilhite had done his time and shrewdly issued a pardon. Wilhite hit all four of his first-half shots, and Fullerton led at the intermission, 43-36.

Green, however, did not get off as easily. He played only eight minutes, getting pulled for the final time shortly after nailing a three-pointer that gave the Titans their last lead of the game, 54-53, with 12:28 remaining.

Sneed claimed the Great J.D. Freeze-Out had less to do with discipline than with game plan.

“Bruce (Bowen) is a better outside shooter,” Sneed said. “As long as (Pacific) stayed in the zone, I was going to keep him in there.”

Raw numbers would suggest otherwise. During the regular season, Bowen shot 37.9% from the field and 23.2% from three-point range; Green shot 43.2% overall and 46.3% on three-pointers.

It was no surprise, then, that Bowen finished three for nine after logging 33 minutes against Pacific.

“He had the open shot and they were giving it to him,” said Sneed.

No wonder.

“If he’s hot, maybe it’s a different game.”

And if not? Well, welcome to the club, Bruce. Three other Titan starters shot no better than Bowen. Williams (six for 18) and Agee Ward (four for 12) tied him at .333, which was an entire cut above Small, whose three-for-13 performance lived up to the name on the back of his uniform.

For Fullerton, the worst thing about this game was that it was so bad, the Titans could have won it. Consider: For nearly a six-minute stretch in the second half--from 8:30 remaining to 2:42--Pacific failed to score a point. But in the same span, Fullerton scored only two--both on free throws--to cut a seven-point deficit to five.

The condition was comatose, but Sneed did little to doctor it. Green, who scored 21 points last week against Nevada Las Vegas, remained on the bench. Williams remained at the point and Small remained ever frustrated, seldom seeing the ball in the face of Pacific’s hawking box-and-one defense.

“They made it really tough on me,” Small said. “I had to run and run just to get the ball and when I finally got it, the shot wouldn’t go in.”

Sure symptom of an offense that has lost its way: When Williams, a 36% shooter from the field, is allowed to miss nearly as many shots (12) as Small is allowed to take (13).

“I don’t know what we were doing in that offense,” Small said.

And you know what they call that kind of talk.

A sure symptom of a team that’s just found itself down, out and waiting for next year.