Last Season Was a Division I Experience for CS Northridge
Colorado said hello to Cal State Northridge with an 18-0 run.
Then basketball fans at Colorado State greeted the Matadors, particularly 310-pound center Todd Bowser, with a chorus of boos that pushed the Ram-O-Meter, which measures noise, over the top.
And New Mexico State gave Northridge the ultimate introduction to the NCAA Division I game. The Aggies’ fans turned on the insults, pumped up the volume and, at one point in the second half of the Matadors’ 120-62 loss, chanted obscenities every time forward Keith Gibbs touched the ball.
“It seemed like they were right on the court with you,” Gibbs said.
The difficulty of playing in hostile environs before thousands of fans was one of many perils Northridge faced last season when it moved from the tiny gyms of Division II basketball to the arenas of Division I.
The Matadors did it on a shoestring budget with 10 new players and two new assistant coaches, emerging with an 8-20 record, 2-15 on the road.
The journey as Coach Pete Cassidy calls it, continues this season, beginning Nov. 22 at Butler in Indianapolis.
Utah, Southern Illinois, Evansville, Stanford, Washington and Brigham Young are among the stops on the 17-game road schedule.
Without a conference affiliation--Northridge has petitioned in vain to join the Big West and the Big Sky--scheduling is a nightmare.
Northridge made the jump without the basic ingredients of a Division I program: 15 full scholarships, a recruiting budget, a full-time coaching staff, an arena, a locker room and a training table.
Cassidy has eight scholarships. He recruits with donations and the profits of his summer camp and has one full-time assistant and a part-time graduate assistant, both of whom teach.
His team plays in a 3,000-seat high school-style gym, shares a locker room with the student body and eats on its own, which often means fast-food.
Moreover, the program lacked continuity. Only two players returned from the team that went 12-15 in its final Division II campaign, and less than four months before his Division I debut, Cassidy was looking to hire assistant coaches.
Rusty Smith and Dave Fehte, who had toiled with Cassidy in Division II obscurity for years, preferred assistant positions at more established Division I programs to going through growing pains with the Matadors.
They missed Cassidy’s experimentation with a run-and-gun offense, the team’s upset of Chicago Loyola and a 1-9 finish complicated by the loss of Cassidy for eight games because of an intestinal condition and a flurry of injuries.
The fear, according to sophomore point guard Andre Chevalier, was forgetting how to win.
“Maybe some of us got used to losing,” he said.
They could certainly get used to the feeling of the victory over Chicago Loyola, though.
“That was the best feeling,” Chevalier said. “That was when we knew we could compete in Division I.”
For Cassidy, in his 21st season at Northridge, it has always been a matter of time.
“The public has got to understand that this is not going to be a dynamic explosion to Division I,” he said. “This is a journey. It is not going to happen overnight. I don’t want to go 8-20, either.
“I’d rather go 20-8 or 30-0, but you’ve got to know what you’re up against. It’s nobody’s fault. It just is. That’s life, overcoming obstacles. You know you are alive when you have them.”
At 6 feet 7, 6-6 and 6-5, the front line remains undersized, but a few obstacles have been lowered for the second foray into Division I.
Newcomers Ryan Martin and James Morris could make key contributions and the seven returning players are more familiar with one another’s moves.
CS Northridge Schedule
ALL TIMES PACIFIC
Date Opponent Time Nov. 8 University of Victoria Nov. 14 High Five America 7:00 Nov. 22 at Butler 7:30 Nov. 24 at Southern Illinois 2:00 Nov. 25 at Evansville 7:35 Nov. 29 Northern Arizona 7:00 Dec. 4 at Cal State Long Beach 7:30 Dec. 7 Montana 7:00 Dec. 13 at Boise State 7:30 Dec. 14 at Utah 7:30 Dec. 21 at Cal State Fullerton 7:35 Dec. 22 at University of San Diego 7:30 Dec. 28 Eastern Washington 7:00 Jan. 3 at St. Mary’s 7:30 Jan. 4 at Stanford 7:30 Jan. 7 Fort Lewis College 7:00 Jan. 9 Southern Connecticut State 7:30 Jan. 14 Montana State 7:30 Jan. 18 Southern Utah 7:00 Jan. 22 at Northern Arizona 7:05 Jan. 25 at Northeastern Illinois 2:30 Jan. 27 at Wisconsin Milwaukee 7:30 Jan. 31 Cal State Sacramento 7:00 Feb. 8 at Cal State Sacramento 7:30 Feb. 10 at Washington 7:30 Feb. 15 Wisconsin Milwaukee 7:30 Feb. 18 Loyola Marymount 7:00 Feb. 22 Northeastern Illinois 7:00 Feb. 29 at Southern Utah 7:30
CS Northridge Roster
No. Player Pos Yr Hgt Wgt 45 Shelton Boykin F Sr 6-5 220 11 Andre Chevalier G So 6-0 180 34 Percy Fisher F Jr 6-7 216 30 Keith Gibbs F Sr 6-6 185 22 David Keeter G-F Sr 6-5 190 42 Brian Kilian F-C Sr 6-7 215 32 Enoch Mack F Jr 6-3 185 24 Ryan Martin G Fr 6-3 190 20 Brooklyn McLinn G So 6-1 165 10 James Morris G Jr 5-8 180 31 John Moses F Jr 6-6 220 21 Anthony Moten F Jr 6-5 185 44 David Swanson G-F Sr 6-6 200
Coach: Pete Cassidy.