These Days, Visitors Hurting at Fullerton

It might not be original, but it comes from the heart. And that in itself is remarkable, coming from a basketball player wearing a Cal State Fullerton jersey.

You know what they say about Cal State Fullerton basketball players.

No heart.

No defense.

No discipline.

No home-court advantage to call their own.

Until, perhaps, the dawning of the Brad Holland era and the reproduction of games such as Saturday night’s--a 20-point romp over a Utah State team that had been undefeated in conference after a pair of Big West road games.

“Welcome to ‘The House of Pain,’ ” said a gleeful Kim Kemp, one of the chief administrators on this evening. “That’s what we call it. The House of Pain. You come in here, you better know you’re gonna get it.

“You can look at all the film you want, but it’s not till you get here that you get the real feeling.

“In your face, all the time.

“Banzai! all over the place.

“Get the word out. I think Utah State got a little feeling of that tonight.”

The House of Pain is known to most of us as motley old Titan Gym, longtime home of pullout bleachers and folding basketball teams. Yet through five home games this season, it hasn’t happened once. Fullerton is 5-0 in its own building and has beaten back-to-back Big West opponents there by 19 and 20 points.

Thursday, it was Fullerton 81, Nevada 62, but that result generated little more than a shrug. Nevada is a Big West rookie this year, stepping up in class to Division I, and ought to lose at places such as Cal State Fullerton and UC Irvine. Someone remind UC Irvine of that, will you?

Saturday, it was Fullerton 91, Utah State 71--and for most of the night, patrons inside Titan Gym had to keep checking and re-checking their ticket stubs to make sure they hadn’t wandered onto the Cal State Long Beach campus by accident.

What’s this--a Fullerton basketball team sinking its first 18 free throws and finishing 30 for 34?

A Fullerton basketball team holding a conference opponent not named San Jose State without a field goal for more than 11 1/2 minutes?

A Fullerton basketball team that had twice as many assists (15) as three-point attempts (seven) . . . and passed up off-balance 22-footers in order to pass to a teammate with a better angle at the basket . . . and made the proper mid-course corrections to limit Aggie center Nathan Wickizer to two points in the second half after surrendering 15 in the first?

What’s in the name of Wayne Williams has gotten into these Titans?

“Coaching,” Kemp stated. “It’s coaching--flat out.

“They push us hard, and we want to learn. We want to learn how to win. And they’re teaching us without a lot of gibber-gabbering. It’s all positive. There’s no friction between the coaches and the players, about who should be playing and who shouldn’t.”

Eleven games into his tenure as head coach at Fullerton, Brad Holland has seven victories, not including the biggest one of all--the attention and support of the Titans. John Sneed had it once but lost it, spending the last three years of his regime dodging team mutinies and shaking his head over games that produced 25 minutes of sweat and 15 of yawns.

“There’s much more rapport this year,” Kemp said. “He (Holland) knows how to talk to people better than Sneed. Like, there haven’t been any curse words yet. Sneed was always cursing and swearing at us. You respect someone who treats you with respect and doesn’t fly off the handle.”

Very politely, then, Holland has demanded his Titans play defense. They really have no other choice, the way Holland looks at it, looking at his roster of undersized post men and underskilled jump shooters.

“After a few days of practice, we decided, ‘Yes, we need to play this kind of defense if we’re going to have any kind of chance,’ ” Holland said. “Looking at the films over the summer and what I saw on the court, I knew we had excellent quickness in Kemp and (center Sean) Williams. And you know about (point guard Aaron) Sunderland.

“We knew we had be aggressive defensively and create some scoring opportunities with that defense.”

This is how the Titans won Saturday:

Beginning the second half with a 44-37 lead, Fullerton was caught flatfooted on the opening inbounds pass and gave up a breakaway layup to Utah State guard Jay Goodman.

Goodman scored with 19:55 left in the game.

The next time an Aggie sank a field-goal attempt, 8:22 was left--and Utah State was left in the dust, down, 66-53, en route to the blowout.

“I knew it was a stretch,” Holland said, “but I didn’t know it was that long. That says a lot about the intensity our guys were playing with.”

And those free throws. The school record for single-game success from the line was a 12-for-12 effort against Pepperdine in 1991--and Fullerton went 18 for 18 before Bruce Bowen missed midway in the second half.

After that, the Titans went 12 for their next 15.

“We play games in practice,” Holland explains, “where we put pressure on the players to make free throws. Like, at the end of practice, a guy needs to step up and hit a one-and-one to prevent the rest of the squad from running.”

Kemp knows the drill.

“Eight of 11 people have to make free throws, or we run,” he said. “It’s not that tough to concentrate--everybody make one free throw. We’re Division I basketball players. We can make a free throw.”

Make 30 of them, and amazing things can happen. Twenty-point blowouts at home. High fives and dancing in the aisles at home.

“Things are a little bit more fun around here,” said Athletic Director Bill Shumard, on his way into the Titan locker room to congratulate Holland.

Now that is something original.