Fisher Quits to Add to CSUN Woes : College basketball: Senior center becomes fifth player to drop from the roster since mid-summer.

The Cal State Northridge men’s basketball team, already wobbling because of injuries and academic ineligibility to key players, has taken another blow.

Percy Fisher, the Matadors’ talented, enigmatic 6-foot-7 senior center, has quit the team to concentrate on academics.

“I knew things weren’t right,” Coach Pete Cassidy said. “He had not been attending study hall or conditioning sessions.”

Fisher, the fifth player to drop from the Northridge roster since mid-summer, informed assistant Tom McCollum of his decision last week. Cassidy met with Fisher on Monday after returning from a recruiting trip to the Bay Area.

“He said he didn’t think he could give 110% and he wanted to concentrate on his studies,” Cassidy said.

Fisher confirmed it was his decision to leave the team but would not comment further.

Fisher averaged 9.3 points and 5.4 rebounds last season. He was third on the team in scoring and second in rebounding.

His defection leaves Northridge with only six front-court players, including untested freshman Josh Willis and senior walk-ons Jason Stewart and Robert Biggs. The others are 6-8 sophomore Peter Micelli, a redshirt last season, senior reserve Anthony Moten and junior transfer Chris Yard.

John Moses, a 6-6 senior who averaged 2.0 points and 1.8 rebounds a game last season, decided this fall not to return.

Victor Camper, a 6-8 recruit who was considered a probable starter at forward or center, is attending junior college and will not be eligible until he passes a math course. The earliest he could be eligible is Feb. 1 when Northridge begins its second semester of classes. By then he will have missed 18 of the Matadors’ 26 games.

Geoff Gorham, a 6-7 swingman from Riverside City, is taking a season off to recover from a broken leg and, tragically, forward John Flowers from Phoenix (Ariz.) College lost both legs in a car crash during the summer.

Yard, a 6-6 junior from Lassen College, also has endured hardship. He was involved in an auto accident last month in Las Vegas, and although he was not injured his friend, the driver, was killed.

“You start thinking about these things that have happened,” Cassidy said. “But we want to concentrate on the players who are here. Fortunately, we have guys in this program--loyal, responsible people--who are busting their butts.”

Fisher has missed parts of each of the past two seasons. As a sophomore, he was academically ineligible for the first semester, and last December he was suspended for two games by Cassidy who believed Fisher needed an attitude adjustment.

Fisher considered quitting during the suspension but he was persuaded by his father to return.