Swanson Stays Home While CSUN Plays

Senior guard David Swanson has elected not to play in Cal State Northridge’s next three basketball games, beginning tonight against Northern Arizona. Swanson, a reserve, did not accompany the team on its flight from Los Angeles to Phoenix on Tuesday, the first day of an eight-day, three-game trip.

“We’ll miss two days of classes and if I’m not going to be used, it’s in my best interest to be at class,” Swanson said by phone from his home in Granada Hills. “I think I proved myself by being very productive in the time I played. The last two games I didn’t play and in practice I had the feeling I wouldn’t be used on the trip.”

Though he expressed concern for Swanson, Coach Pete Cassidy said the team must focus on the trip.

“Certainly, if he doesn’t want to be here, we’re better off with people who do want to be here,” he said. “It amazes me that a guy would pass up a basketball trip. I knew he was disgruntled about his playing time. I make decisions about playing time as objectively as I can.”

Cassidy would not comment on Swanson’s future with the team but it could mean the end of Swanson’s basketball career at Northridge.

“I’ll decide that when I get back,” Cassidy said.

Said team captain Keith Gibbs: “We’re not thinking about it. Dave felt he had to do what’s best for him. We feel we have to be here. We have to get three wins. We can’t worry about him.”

Swanson does not believe that he is letting down his teammates. “If I was one of the people they depended on, then it would be letting them down,” he said.

Swanson is shooting 45% from the field and averaging 4.2 points in 8.9 minutes per game. His best performance came Jan. 7 when he hit six of seven shots for 14 points in 18 minutes in an 83-81 win over Fort Lewis College.

In four games, including the past two, he did not play.

Swanson, a 1987 graduate of Alemany High, red-shirted on the CSUN basketball team in 1987-88 and competed on the track team, clearing seven feet in the high jump.

In 1988-89, he transferred to Glendale College and played two seasons of basketball, averaging 16.7 points his sophomore season. Last season, Swanson was CSUN’s third-string shooting guard. He averaged seven points in 12.2 minutes per game, shooting 43% from the field and 43% from the three-point line. Ninety of his 188 points came on three-point shots.