SAN DIEGO COLLEGE NOTEBOOK : For UCSD, Playing Division I Teams Is No Small Task

Tom Marshall, UC San Diego men’s basketball coach, likes to play a couple Division I teams every year to give his Division III team a taste of the toughest competition. This season, he scheduled Boise State and Washington.

His Tritons (8-4) almost had an upset Dec. 20 against Boise. They trailed by three points with four minutes left before losing by 12.

But the Tritons had little hope of an upset Dec. 30 against Washington. The Huskies’ front line went 6-foot-10, 6-9 and 6-8. UCSD’s short but bulky front line measured 6-6, 6-6, 6-7.

“When you see their bodies, you say, ‘Well, I guess we’re playing against the Pac-10 now,’ ” Marshall said.

Washington Coach Lynn Nance took it easy on UCSD in the first half as his team shot mostly perimeter jumpers. But in the second half, the game plan changed.

“They just pounded it inside against us and there was not much we could do,” Marshall said.

Washington center Rich Manning, a 6-10 transfer from Syracuse, had the most fun against UCSD’s relatively petite front line. He scored 23 points and grabbed 16 rebounds in the Huskies’ 77-53 victory.

“We didn’t back down at all,” Marshall said. “Our kids were not intimated. They knew they had everything to gain and nothing to lose.”

UCSD’s last victory against a Division I team came against U.S. International. The Tritons’ last Division I victim before that was Loyola Marymount in 1984.

Oregon State is the only Division I school on the Tritons’ schedule next season.

Marshall said he would love to play San Diego State or the University of San Diego, but he understands why they never call.

“They have too much to lose and nothing to gain,” he said. “You guys in the media would never let them forget it, if they lost to a Division III school.”

Pumping iron: Junior redshirt Andy Swindall was a shooting guard at San Diego High, but he has become part of UCSD’s beefy front line through hours of weight work. Swindall, a 6-6, 225-pound power forward, has put on 30 pounds and grown two inches since high school.

Marshall said Swindall probably wouldn’t be playing if had remained a guard.

“He had the type of body that could take weight,” Marshall said. “There just wasn’t much room for him as guard.”

As a forward, Swindall is pushing people around and averaging 11.6 points and 5.3 rebounds.

Big-man alert: NBA scouts might want to wander into Point Loma Nazarene’s Golden Gymnasium this weekend to see what George Fox (Ore.) center Dave Wilson is all about. Wilson, a 7-2, 225-pound preseason NAIA All-American, will be playing Thursday through Saturday in the Crusader Classic.

Wilson, who led all NAIA schools in blocked shots last season with 125, is averaging 19.9 points a game this year. George Fox opens round-robin play Thursday night against Southern Nazarene (Okla.) at 5:30. PLNC (6-6) plays 20th-ranked William Jewell (Mo.) at 7:30.

PLNC is coming off a record-setting three-point performance in its 99-93 victory Saturday over Baker (Kan.). The Crusaders hit a school record 14 three-pointers. Guard Rusty Fallin had eight of them, including six in the second half.

Injury update: San Diego State Coach Beth Burns is having to contend with a rash of injuries. A breakdown:

--Point guard Michelle Miles went down in a heap Friday night with 10 minutes left in the Aztecs’ 82-59 loss to UCLA and had to be helped off the court. Miles injured the medial collateral ligament of the knee and will be out at least two weeks.

Freshman guard Falisha Wright helped ease the burden of Miles’ absence with 19 points, 10 rebounds and four steals against LMU.

--Wright’s twin sister, guard Lakeysha, has what may be a season-ending foot injury. She had surgery for a fractured foot Monday and must stay off it for at least six weeks.

--Sophomore forward Tameka McGlawn has a capsular sprain of her knee. Her progress is day to day.