PACIFIC 10 BASKETBALL / DAN HAFNER : Campanelli Raised Hopes at Cal and Then Took the Fall

Lou Campanelli, fired Monday as California’s basketball coach, fired back Tuesday.

“My dismissal was unprecedented, unwarranted and unjust,” Campanelli said at a news conference in Oakland.

“I did no wrong,” he said, dismissing any notion that he had been fired for “abhorrent behavior or immorality.”

“My integrity and reputation in the game of basketball is beyond reproach,” he added. “I basically created a monster, and the monster came back and bit my head off.”

After reading a nine-minute statement Campanelli left immediately, refusing to answer questions.

Nobody seems to understand quite why California would suddenly fire one of its most successful coaches, one they signed to a five-year extension last June.

Athletic Director Bob Bockrath, in announcing that assistant Todd Bozeman will be the interim coach, cited unhappiness with the “direction the basketball program was taking.”

It was also reported by the San Jose Mercury News that several players, in a meeting with Bockrath, threatened to transfer. Bockrath did not confirm any such meeting, but said that the players were a “part of the decision.”

Coach Lute Olson of Arizona, whose team is on a 13-game winning streak on its way to another Pacific 10 title, expressed surprise.

“I was totally shocked,” he said. “It’s the kind of thing you never expect and can’t understand.

“I assume there are reasons other than those on the surface for the firing. I think Cal owes everyone, especially Lou Campanelli, a full explanation of the firing. After all, they just extended his contract. What happened?”

It is also surprising that during a time of great financial stress in college sports, California would eat Campanelli’s compensation through 1996. He is paid $119,290 in salary this year, plus a $60,000 talent fee, with the package increasing to $200,000 in the final season.

In 1990, Campanelli directed the Bears to a 22-10 record and their first appearance in the NCAA tournament since 1960. In the eighth season of his Cal career, he was 123-108.

Although the Bears slumped to 10-18 last year, Campanelli, knowing that point guard Jason Kidd would join the Bears for this season, used a freshman-dominated team. Two of them, Alfred Grigsby and Lamond Murray, are sophomore starters. Kidd and Jerod Haase have starred as freshmen, giving the Bears the nucleus of a powerhouse.

Next season, Michael Stewart, a 6-foot-10 high school player in Sacramento, will enroll at Cal. He is one of the most sought-after prep players in the West and rated among the best in the country.

One of the reasons the Bears are only 4-5 in conference play, 10-7 overall, and have lost three in a row, is an injury to senior Brian Hendrick. The son of former major league baseball player George Hendrick is a three-time all-conference choice who never fully recovered from knee surgery a year ago.

With the loss of his steadying influence, Campanelli had problems after his inexperienced team opened the season with five consecutive victories.

With all of that talent, Cal should not have trouble finding an outstanding replacement. But for the time being, the Bears, with the youngest team in the Pac-10, will have the youngest coach.

Bozeman is 29. He graduated from Rhode Island in 1986 and came to California before the 1991 season, after two years as an assistant at Tulane.

Bozeman, like Campanelli, has a reputation as an outstanding recruiter and played a part in bringing the talented Grigsby in from Houston.

Apparently, the pressure began for Campanelli when Kidd, a high school star in Alameda, made California his choice. The 6-4 guard was considered a prize catch and was expected to become an instant superstar.

When the team included victories over Oklahoma State and Wake Forest in its five in a row to open the season, hopes were high.

But a one-point loss at home to Oregon State and a two-point loss at USC prompted grumbling among the fans and alumni. The the worst blow fell Jan. 30 at home. The Bears built a 20-point lead over Washington State before halftime, then lost by 12 points.

There has been turmoil ever since. Victories in those three games would have put the Bears in second place. Even with all the problems, they are still only two games out of second.

Murray, one of the players criticized by Campanelli, refused to hit back.

“I don’t want to say anything about it,” he told Jake Curtis of the San Francisco Chronicle. “Whatever happened isn’t important.”

Hendrick, who has had Campanelli as his coach for four seasons, acknowledged that Campanelli was strict.

“That was his style,” Hendrick said. “But except for one or two minor things, I never heard anyone really complain.”

Campanelli was stunned by the suddenness of the move. Shortly after his weekly Monday luncheon, at which he outlined plans for snapping the Bears out of their slump, he was informed at a 15-minute meeting that he was being fired.

“Lou told me he was in shock,” Murray said. “He didn’t see it coming, and neither did I.”

In his debut tonight at Berkeley, Bozeman figures to win against Cal State Northridge. The Bears play weak Stanford Sunday.

“My immediate goal is to get the team into the NCAA tournament,” Bozeman said. “That was the goal at the start. And that’s what the guys say they want to do.”

Bozeman said it was too soon to think about changes.

“It came as a shock to us all,” he said. “We have to focus on the future and not dwell on the past. Our goals will remain the same.”