Camper May Be Out All Season

Cal State Northridge had hoped that Victor Camper, a 6-foot-9 recruit from Long Beach City College, might join the team in time to play against UCLA on Dec. 22.

But lately it has appeared the Matadors will be lucky if he plays at all this season.

Camper is academically ineligible until he passes a junior college math course and completes an associate’s degree. He was supposed to take a math test early last month but was hospitalized because of appendicitis.

Northridge Coach Pete Cassidy made regular calls to the Camper family’s residence, yet three weeks went by before Cassidy reached the player.

Finally, on Wednesday morning, player and coach connected.

The latest news: Camper took his test Monday and told Cassidy he expected to be notified of the results by the end of the week.

If he passes, Camper will become eligible once his application to attend Northridge is filed, his transcripts have been received, his degree is verified and he is enrolled in school.

Camper, who puts on weight quickly, is reportedly hovering near 290 pounds.

Tom McCollum, a Northridge assistant, said he expected Camper to be effective setting screens in the Matadors’ motion offense.

“Victor is a load,” he said. “It’s going to take (opponents) four steps just to get around his left cheek.”

LOOK WHAT I FOUND

Before fall practice, Valley Coach Jim Stephens had no idea who Brian Jackson was, but the 6-4 center is quickly becoming the Monarchs’ most dominant player.

Jackson, a 26-year-old freshman who played no competitive sports at Montclair High in New Jersey, averaged 21.4 points and 18.7 rebounds a game last week while leading Valley to the consolation championship of the Desert tournament.

“He’s been getting better and better,” Stephens said. “He’s starting to understand what the game is all about and he’s starting to play with a lot of intensity. That’s something he wasn’t doing consistently earlier in the season.”

Stephens is delighted to have Jackson on his team, although he concedes he does not know much about him, except that his younger brother, Jodie, was a freshman defensive lineman on the Monarchs’ football team last season.

“He came out to practice three weeks after we started,” Stephens said. “I had never seen him before, but he looked like a good athlete and we needed players.”

Stephens is not the type to rave about the talents of his players, but he said Jackson is loaded with potential.

“The kid is so raw that he’s still shooting with both hands,” Stephens said. “You can watch him play and it’s still hard to tell if he’s left- or right-handed. . . . If he applies himself to this sport, he can go somewhere with it.”

QUICK DRAW

Philip Mathews, the men’s basketball coach at Ventura College, has altered his attitude toward long-range shooting--thanks to Calvin Curry.

Curry, a 6-foot-6 sophomore forward who redshirted last season, is an adept three-point shooter playing for a coach who discourages long-range shots. But Mathews has given him the green light this season.

“He’s such a good shooter and he keeps becoming such a disciplined shooter that I’ve had to compromise somewhat this season,” Mathews said. “I’ve pretty much given him the green light to shoot any time he wants as long as it’s within his range.

“Sometimes, I still get upset at him, but he’s become much better at determining what is a good shot and what is a bad shot. As a freshman, any shot was a good shot for him.”

Curry began the week averaging 21.6 points and 6.3 rebounds for Ventura, the No. 1-ranked team in the state. He had converted 87 of 202 (43.0%) from three-point range.

ON THE REBOUND

Canyons point guard Cedric Jones learned a painful lesson last week when he failed to run a called play in the final seconds of the Cougars’ 75-74 loss to Cypress in the championship game of the Canyons tournament.

Jones, who had 14 points and eight assists against Cypress, took an off-balance three-point shot in the final seconds after failing to run a play that called for him to penetrate and pass the ball to an open teammate.

“I think he was a little confused about what we wanted him to do in that situation,” Canyons Coach Lee Smelser said. “And then as time ran out, he kind of panicked.”

Jones, a 5-foot-7 sophomore from Manual Arts High, found himself in a similar situation against Cuesta on Monday, but this time he kept his poise and calmly sank a 10-foot jump shot with one second remaining and the score tied, 69-69.

“He learned his lesson,” Smelser said. “He didn’t panic at all.”

TIME FOR A CHANGE

Oxnard Coach Remy McCarthy has enjoyed a break from competition in the final week of the year for the past five seasons, but don’t expect it to happen again.

Before the season, McCarthy figured that the two-week break between games would give his team a much-needed rest before Western State Conference inter-division play started Wednesday. The break also would allow some players from out of the area to go home for the holidays.

His thinking has changed, however.

“We really could have used a game,” McCarthy said last week. “It’s nice to have the extra time to practice but, right now, we need a game to stay sharp more than we need to practice.”

COMING UP SHORT

Before the season, McCarthy hoped that Oxnard had the talent to challenge Ventura for the WSC North Division title. While the Pirates have roared to a 21-0 record, Oxnard has struggled to an 11-6 mark.

“I told the team after the Glendale game that 10-6 is an OK record,” McCarthy said. “But we could easily be 13-3 and ranked among the top 20 teams in the state. . . . I’m not going to name teams, but I feel like we’ve lost three games to teams that we were better than.”

The absence of Chris Cole for 11 games and a sub-par season for center Art Wallace have been big factors in Oxnard’s struggles.

Cole, the Southern Section Division IV player of the year last season for Santa Clara High, was expected to start at point guard, but a stress fracture in his left foot forced him to wear a cast for two weeks in December. Cole returned to the lineup Wednesday and had eight points, five rebounds and five assists in Oxnard’s 79-64 victory against Canyons.

Wallace, a 6-10 sophomore from Chicago Crane High, was an All-North Division selection last season but has yet to assert himself consistently. He is averaging 11.6 points and 7.7 rebounds.

“Art hasn’t played up to expectations,” McCarthy said. “Glendale’s biggest kid is only 6-6 and yet Art only had four points and four rebounds against them. That’s not cutting it.”

McCarthy added that Jasper Satterwhite, a 6-4 freshman from Oxnard High, might get more playing time if Wallace continues to struggle.

IMPACT PLAYER

Attention all freshman bench warmers: You too can be an instant star. Just ask Michelle Esparza.

Esparza, a 5-9 Northridge basketball player, scored only seven points in her first six games as a collegian. She rarely played and made only three of 15 shots.

But Esparza averaged 17.2 points the next five games with 20 or more points in each of the latter three contests, the first time in four seasons a Matador player has scored 20 or more points in three consecutive games.

“It was just a matter of her getting comfortable with a new system,” Coach Kim Chandler said. “We never had any doubts about her offense. I’m not surprised at all.”

Esparza was the Southern Section scoring champion her junior and senior seasons and finished her career at El Rancho High in Pico Rivera as the seventh-leading scorer in Southern Section history.

It was just a matter of time until Chandler rewarded Esparza with a starting role, which Chandler did for Tuesday’s game at Northeastern Illinois. But Chandler wanted to ensure that Esparza kept her offensive expectations to a realistic level.

“I sat down with her Tuesday and tried to explain to her that it’s not a situation where she’s going to go out and hit for 20 every night,” Chandler said. “She was very accepting.”

Esparza then scored 24 points.

Staff writers Kennedy Cosgrove, Mike Hiserman and John Ortega contributed to this notebook.