Chapman Retools for League Play

With the first weekend of the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. season looming, Chapman men’s basketball Coach Bob Boyd is preparing the Panthers for a fresh start.

Gone and, Boyd hopes, forgotten is the nonconference season, in which the Panthers struggled to a 5-7 record and lost their final three games, including two to CCAA rivals Cal State Los Angeles and Cal State Dominguez Hills in the Grand Canyon Tournament.

“I’m disappointed in our pre-conference record but not discouraged,” Boyd said. “I thought we would be better at this time. Some things did not work out for us--I’m not going into any more detail than that.”

Left unsaid is that three key players upon whom Boyd had counted to solidify the Panthers’ inside game are unavailable. Richie Bethune, a 6-foot-7 transfer from Southwestern, is ineligible this season because he failed to complete his associate of arts degree; Marcell Driver, a 6-8 transfer from Ball State, is no longer on the team, and Leonard Rhodes, a 6-6 transfer from Mt. San Jacinto, is academically ineligible for at least the next five games.

That leaves Rog Middleton, 6-4 and the team’s leading scorer; Alan Schlines, 6-6 and the second-leading scorer, and Frantz Reyes, 6-5 and slowed a bit by a reconstructed knee, as the Panthers’ only inside players.

Boyd sees room for optimism, however. He said he continues to see improvement in a team that started the season with eight new players.

Middleton, the second-leading scorer in Chapman history, continues to carry much of the scoring load, averaging 16.9 points with a 66.7% shooting percentage. Schlines is averaging 11.1 points.

Mike Vaughn, Jeff Gardner, Brian Kenney and Vern Broadnax are getting equal shots at the guard positions, and the team’s only freshman, guard Brad Grubaugh, is also getting significant playing time. Grubaugh and Vaughn, who is averaging 10.1 points, are the main outside shooting threats.

“We need to cut down on our turnovers,” Broadnax said. “We have been making too many and that’s been stagnating our offense.”

Broadnax, a graduate of Tustin High who was the point guard on two Rancho Santiago state championship teams, isn’t ready to give up.

“Everybody hates to lose, I just hate it more,” Broadnax said. “I just don’t like losing.”

Middleton, another Tustin High graduate, would like to finish his career by helping the Panthers to the conference playoffs for the first time since his freshman season. The top four teams qualify. Having played on Chapman teams that have finished last in consecutive seasons, Middleton knows how difficult the competition is, but he said he isn’t apprehensive.

“I’m kind of excited, actually,” Middleton said. “Some people might think we are down, but that’s in the past. It’s a whole new season.”

The Panthers were the only CCAA team to finish the nonconference season below .500. They open Friday night at Cal State San Bernardino, which was 7-6 but will be without starting forward Marcus Nash, a 6-5 transfer from Los Angeles City College who was averaging 13.6 points before being declared academically ineligible for the rest of the season.

Saturday, the Panthers will play at UC Riverside (10-1), which tied Cal State Bakersfield for the CCAA title last season and is ranked No. 18 in the latest Division II poll.

“O Chapman”?: Usually, Chapman employs a live performer to sing the national anthem before home basketball games, but Saturday against Cal Baptist, it went to the tape with some interesting results.

Instead of the “Star-Spangled Banner,” the audience was treated to “O Canada,” which had been used before an exhibition game with a Canadian team. The tape had been mistakenly rewound and after the rendition of “O Canada,” the anthem of the United States was played.

“I was waiting for the guys to come out with the pads and skate around the ice,” joked Derek Anderson, Chapman sports information director.

The Southern California College men’s basketball team, which has defeated the four NCAA Division II teams it has played this season, takes a step up today against Missouri Kansas City, a Division I independent.

The Vanguards (12-2) are ranked No. 11 nationally in the latest NAIA Division I poll after entering the poll at No. 14 in the first ranking, but Coach Bill Reynolds said his team will be overmatched today. Kansas City is 9-3 and has inside players that stand 6-11 and 6-9. SCC has only one player--6-8 Darrin Kramer--taller than 6-6.

‘We just don’t have any legitimate front-line players that can stop these guys,” Reynolds said. “But it will be fun. It’s a good opportunity to see if we can complete at all.”

SCC’s five-game winning streak was ended Saturday by UC San Diego, which beat the Vanguards, 81-75, in the title game of the La Jolla Classic.

Rick Witmer and Mike West each were named to the all-tournament team. Witmer, who scored 26 points in the UC San Diego game and 26 in a victory over Willamette Friday, made 11 of 18 three-point shots in the tournament.

College Division Notes

The Chapman women’s basketball team opens the CCAA season Friday at Cal State Dominguez Hills, which defeated the Panthers, 58-57, in a nonconference game this season. Chapman is 6-6. Dominguez Hills is 7-6. . . . Gitte Mejer, the center on the Christ College Irvine women’s basketball team, was named the most valuable player in the Concordia Austin tournament after helping the Eagles to the championship. In victories over Concordia St. Paul and Concordia Austin, Mejer totaled 52 points and 20 rebounds for the Eagles (9-2). Nancy Geisler, who made all six of her three-point shots and averaged 18 points, was also named to the all-tournament team.