COMMENTARY / MIKE HISERMAN : Cassidy Fills Tall Order at CSUN With Gutsy Team

Sport so often defies logic.

If it didn’t, Barry Bonds wouldn’t be earning a salary this year more than 35 times that of the President.

The Cal State Northridge men’s basketball team also is a prime, if more obscure, example.

The Matadors are 7-7 with a lineup of three guards 6-feet tall or shorter, a forward who flings free throws at the rim as if he were trying to make them stick and a center whose “biggest athletic thrill” before this season was dunking against Wisconsin-Milwaukee two years ago during a double-digit loss.

The front-line reserves include a last-minute freshman recruit and two untested seniors--one who made the squad as a walk-on though he had not played competitive basketball in more than four years.

Go figure.

In the beginning, Northridge fancied itself an underdog, a description a skeptic might have considered only half accurate.

Now, a game past the midway point in their season, the Matadors believe they have a fairly good basketball team. Few seem willing, or able, to argue.

Northridge played nine of its first 10 games on the road, yet a 10-point loss against Fresno State in its opener is still its most lopsided defeat. The Matadors’ inspired play in that game, before 8,718 mostly jeering Bulldog fans, set the tone for their season.

Trailing, 24-5, at the outset, Northridge scurried, scrambled and chipped away until it had cut Fresno’s lead to five within less than a minute to go.

Afterward, Gary Colson, Fresno’s coach, lauded Northridge’s hustle and the work of Matador Coach Pete Cassidy--compliments that have been echoed many times since.

It seems time to join the chorus.

Cassidy previously has been maligned for an inability to attract top-flight athletes. What he has proved this season is that he does not need an abundance of talented players to field a competitive team.

Not to short-change Northridge’s players, who deserve most of the recognition. Many times a coach receives too much praise when his team wins and too much blame when it loses. But if it can be assumed that the Matadors are doing what they are told, then someone obviously is supplying knowledgeable direction.

Recall what Loyola Marymount Coach John Olive said about Northridge after the Matadors erased a 10-point, second-half deficit to defeat the Lions, 62-53, earlier this month: “I like seeing them on film. I enjoy watching them play. I marvel at how hard they play and how competitive they are.”

Recall what UCLA Coach Jim Harrick said after Northridge took the then-12th-ranked Bruins down to the wire before losing, 80-73: “They brought it to us,” he said. “They came here to play as well as they could and that’s exactly what they did.”

With few exceptions, they have done the same all season. And they know it.

“We should be getting killed every game with the size advantage every team has on us and the adverse conditions we play under,” Matador guard Brooklyn McLinn said, “but we play hard.”

Relentless is a term that comes to mind.

Cassidy refuses to designate his squad as a band of over-achievers, contending such a label “might be selling them short.” Rather, he said, “They’re probably coming closer to reaching their maximum potential than some other teams.”

Keep in mind this is a team that had its best hopes crushed by injury, tragedy, academic failings and indifference before the season even started.

Northridge, after an 0-10 start, won 11 of its final 18 last season and thought it had cashed in on the recruiting trail until:

A 6-7 recruit suffered a broken leg and decided to take the season off; a star prospect lost both legs in an automobile accident; another recruit, this one 6-9 and penciled in to start at center, fell short of the required number of units needed to transfer from junior college; a three-year letterman, a returning starter, quit.

As its numbers dwindle, so too can a team’s resolve.

But not this team.

“You can never underestimate a team’s heart and willingness to work hard,” Cassidy said. “Those are over-riding trademarks with our guys. I’m grateful to them for the way they’ve performed, their competitive spirit and their never-say-die attitude.”

As for Cassidy, who is in the final year of his contract, he might not be the type of recruiter who can vault Northridge into the next millennium, but the man always has known his X’s and O’s.

And now we see what happens when a team buys into his teachings, some of which have been altered only slightly over the course of two decades.

Though he said he appreciates the many compliments he has received from opposing coaches and players this season, Cassidy knows fame can be short-lived.

“Good players make good coaches,” he said.