THE COLLEGES / MIKE HISERMAN : Wins Piling Up for CSUN on the Hardwood Despite a Like Amount of Distractions

Cal State Northridge is playing solid basketball and the most impressive aspect of it is the timing.

Few teams in the nation have been asked to overcome as many distractions as the Matadors have encountered in the past six weeks.

First, Percy Fisher, Northridge’s enigmatic center, made his annual layover on the suspended list. Last season, it was because of temporary academic ineligibility; this time it was by decree of Coach Pete Cassidy, who believed that the 6-foot-7 junior needed time off for an attitude adjustment.

Fisher missed two games and returned to the squad late in December.

With Fisher back, only now in a reserve role, the Matadors defeated Eastern Washington for their first win after 10 consecutive losses to open the season.

Northridge has responded similarly in its most recent bouts with adversity.

Playing with the knowledge that his younger brother Ernest had died abruptly, guard James Morris helped the Matadors upset Montana State on Jan. 14, then left the team to comfort his family in Louisiana.

Morris missed one game then returned Jan. 22 to help the Matadors defeat Northern Arizona in the first of a three-game trip.

Five days later, he was rushed to a hospital after experiencing severe chest pains while warming up before a game against Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the last stop on Northridge’s tour.

In the meantime, swingman Keith Gibbs had missed the second game of the trip, at Northeastern Illinois in Chicago. He flew to San Jose after receiving news of his maternal grandfather’s death.

The loss of Morris and then Gibbs was accentuated because swingman David Swanson chose to stay home to concentrate on his studies.

Earlier this week, it was announced that Swanson would not return to the team.

Yet, despite the turmoil, the Matadors (7-14) had won five of their past seven games entering Friday night’s home game against Cal State Sacramento. Cassidy said that Northridge’s struggles have become a thread that now binds the team tightly together.

“It’s something we have encountered over the last two seasons, not just the last month or two,” Cassidy said. “We’re well-trained in adversity, but our kids have learned to adjust.”

Full schedule: Jerry Carrillo, 27, Cassidy’s No. 2 assistant, was a busy man on the Matadors’ trip to Arizona and the Midwest last week.

Carrillo flew ahead of the team, arriving in Flagstaff, Ariz., two days early to scout the Lumberjacks’ game against Sacramento. He spent the following day recruiting in Phoenix.

The next morning, Jan. 23, he picked up Morris at the Phoenix airport and drove to Flagstaff in time for the game that night. The following morning, he drove back to the airport to drop off Gibbs, then waited for the rest of the team and left with them for Chicago.

Northridge practiced the next day and, with the squad down to nine players, Carrillo actively took part.

Then, after the game against Northern Illinois on Jan. 25, he made the two-hour drive to Milwaukee to scout Milwaukee-Wisconsin’s game against Missouri-Kansas City. Then it was back to Chicago where he and Cassidy studied tape of the game he scouted.

So much for that title of part-time assistant.

No bull: Much has been said about the influx of major-college transfers on the Pierce College baseball team, but the Brahmas’ most impressive player might be Erik Martinez.

Martinez, a returning sophomore center fielder, is quick, strong and aggressive. He is a fine outfielder but he also can play the middle infield.

And he doesn’t fumble: Jason Shanahan, a first baseman/designated-hitter, was the only freshman to crack the opening-day lineup of the Northridge baseball team. He will not, however, be the only freshman to play.

Jonathan Campbell, a freshman outfielder, probably will not get many at-bats this season but he is expected to get considerable action as a pinch-runner.

Campbell, a reserve tailback on the football team, is among the team’s best baserunners.

The buzz: If the Western Football Conference can secure a substantial enough membership for a Division I-AA alliance, look for Northern Arizona to leave the Big Sky Conference and join the group.