Chapman Scoring Record Is Ultimate Achievement to Middleton

For the past four seasons, Rog Middleton has been virtually unstoppable for the Chapman University men’s basketball team. Saturday night, that will stop.

But not before Middleton becomes the leading scorer in Chapman history. Entering the last game of the season and his collegiate career, Middleton needs three points against Cal State Dominguez Hills to surpass the 1,884 points Bob Hamblin scored for the Panthers from 1955-59.

Middleton harbors no doubts that he will succeed.

“My theory is if I get the ball, I’m either going to score or I’m going to get fouled,” Middleton said. “When I get pumped up and I want the ball, I don’t think anybody can stop me. I don’t care how tall you are.”

Middleton, who is 6 feet 4, has put that theory into practice in 100 games for Chapman. He has made more than 65% of his shots, often while being guarded by players who are three to four inches taller. When the final buzzer sounds Saturday, Middleton will have set several school and California Collegiate Athletic Assn. records. He has already broken the conference’s career-scoring record and will become the first Chapman player to have a career shooting percentage of more than 60%.

But the record that has consumed Middleton during the past month of this otherwise forgettable season is the Chapman scoring record. Middleton said thinking about it has kept him up at night, cut his appetite and even made him ill on the court.

“It means a lot,” Middleton said. “I think it reflects my personal achievement, my hard work, my sweat, my going through hours and hours of icing my knees, my pain. If you put all those factors into it, that’s what I’m proud about this record. I gave something up and I’m going to get something back.”

It has been said that if he were a few inches taller, Leo Rogers Middleton Jr. would have been a strong NBA prospect. Even growing as tall as his 6-6 father, who started three seasons at center for Pacific in the early 1960s, would have suited the inside game that is Middleton’s forte.

What Middleton does best is put himself into position to attempt the highest-percentage shots.

Although he jumps well enough to dunk after standing flat-footed under the basket, Middleton rarely goes over anyone. Instead, he steps around players with the quickness of a point guard or bulls through them using the power of his 220-pound body.

These same abilities have helped him win most of the tip-offs for Chapman, and excel on the offensive boards.

“When he jumps up through a cluster of guys, gets it, goes back up and makes a ridiculously easy shot, it looks very easy, but if it’s so easy why don’t we have others doing it?” Chapman Coach Bob Boyd said. “He has the unique talent for doing that bit of scoring.”

After Middleton averaged 23 points and 10 rebounds his senior season at Tustin High School, he accepted a scholarship to Utah after also being recruited by UC Irvine and Utah State.

But in the fall of his freshman year at Utah, he decided he wasn’t happy in Salt Lake City and asked out of his scholarship. He finished the semester, but returned to Orange County and eventually transferred to Chapman, where he rejoined Rich Prospero, an assistant coach who had coached Middleton’s freshman team at Tustin.

Middleton had found a home. He enjoyed the intimacy of the smaller campus and felt he was treated more like a student who happens to play basketball than the reverse.

On the basketball court, he thrived, moving into the starting lineup three games after he became eligible in the 1988-89 season. And he hasn’t missed a start since.

Despite Middleton’s steady play, Chapman suffered through three mostly dismal seasons. After advancing to the championship game of the conference tournament his freshman year, the Panthers finished in last place in the next two seasons and they are assured of another last-place finish this year.

Through it all, however, Middleton said he never regretted transferring to Chapman. Despite pain from chronic tendinitis in his knees, his effort never wavered.

“I think the most important thing to know about Rog is his work ethic in practice,” said Prospero, who now coaches at Santa Ana Valley High School. “It’s one thing to never miss a practice but it’s another to come out and work hard, keep quiet and never complain. And he’s done that through some frustrating times I’m sure.”

Possibly none as frustrating as this season. The Panthers’ season expectations were boosted by what seemed to be a strong group of recruits. The group included three post players who were supposed to allow Middleton to move his game to the perimeter and help Chapman get back to the post-season tournament.

But one of the players never became eligible, one left the team after six games and one didn’t play as well as expected. As a result, Middleton moved back inside and resumed his role as the Panthers’ only consistent scorer.

When it became clear that Chapman wasn’t going anywhere as a team, Middleton became more aware of the scoring record--so aware that he thinks it is causing his uncontrollable nausea during games.

“I’m cool and calm but last week I couldn’t sleep thinking about this thing,” he said. “People were asking me, ‘Are you going to do it? Are you going to break the record?’ I think I just put so much pressure on myself to respond to that, I was just making myself sick.”

Despite the stomach problems that usually hit at halftime, and defenses designed to shut him down, Middleton continued to score, often at a furious pace. In one of the Panthers’ two CCAA victories, Middleton scored the first 14 points of the second half to help Chapman to a 77-65 upset of Cal Poly Pomona. In the past six games, he has made 74% of his shots from the field.

“As much as you prepare for him, we still were unable to stop him,” UC Riverside Coach John Masi said. “Put it this way, I’m glad we’re not playing him next year. I told him after our last game, ‘I’ve never seen a competitor like you in this conference.’ ”

Middleton at Chapman

Year G Pts. Avg. 1988-89 21 316 15.1 1989-90 27 550 20.4 1990-91 27 557 20.6 1991-92 25 459 18.4 Totals 100 1,882 18.8

Chapman Record:

Bob Hamblin (1955-59) 1,884 in 103 games

Old CCAA Record:

William Alexander (CS Dominguez Hills, 1984-87) 1,766 in 109 games