Cassidy Vexed by Treatment of Cal Coach

Cal State Northridge Coach Pete Cassidy joined a chorus of college basketball coaches from around the country when he expressed surprise over the firing of California Coach Lou Campanelli on Monday.

“It’s hard to know how to react,” Cassidy said. “It’s a shock to me. He has a young team that has played pretty well. They have that great recruiting class and it seemed to me that they were building toward something special.”

Bob Bockrath, Cal’s athletic director, cited his displeasure with the “direction the basketball program was taking” when he announced the move.

Cassidy doesn’t buy it.

“If they didn’t like the direction he was taking after eight years (actually, seven-plus), then why did they give him a contract extension?” Cassidy said. “Why do that and then say you’re not happy with the direction of the program? I’m confused.”

Campanelli, who took over a struggling Cal program and went 123-108 in his tenure, signed a five-year contract extension worth more than $700,000 in June. Cal has said it will honor the contract.

Todd Bozeman, 29, who was Campanelli’s No. 2 assistant, made his debut as head coach of the Golden Bears against Northridge on Wednesday night.

MATTER OF OPINION

Northridge baseball Coach Bill Kernen questions whether the NCAA rules that limit practice to 20 hours per week really benefit players.

Kernen said that before the rule went into effect in the fall of 1991, he never had an academically ineligible player. This season, pitcher Eric Raba, a transfer from Pierce, is academically ineligible and two other players had to take intersession classes to regain their eligibility.

Until last season, Kernen ran a team study hall, two hours a night, five days a week throughout the school year. The NCAA claims that “if you have study halls now, you’re coaching them,” Kernen said. “We made sure they studied. They didn’t talk baseball.”

Kernen calls the NCAA rule “un-American.”

“I wonder if the students in the chemistry lab are limited to 20 hours per week,” he asked. “Thomas Edison never would have invented the light bulb. It took him more than 700 experiments in two years. If he had these rules, we’d all be sitting in the dark.”

YOUNG AND RESTLESS

Call it the downside of the youth movement. The Northridge women’s basketball team opened the season with nine new players, including eight freshmen, most from successful high school programs.

Coach Kim Chandler welcomed the change at the beginning of the season, hoping a new attitude would aid the recovery from the team’s 2-24 mark last season.

But Chandler now thinks that such experience, or lack thereof, has hurt the Matadors (4-16), who are mired in a 12-game losing streak.

“They’re not used to losing,” Chandler said of the players. “They’ve never had to get themselves out of this kind of situation. They’ve never had to deal with it emotionally.

“They make one mistake, and it drives them into the ground.”

LET’S PLAY THREE

Maybe the Mission baseball team should schedule tripleheaders more often.

After opening with an 8-1 loss to Citrus in the Taft tournament Friday, the Free Spirit won five in a row--including three games Saturday--to reach the championship game of the double-elimination tournament. However, the championship game Sunday night against Citrus was postponed because of rain and will be rescheduled.

The Free Spirit advanced through the losers’ bracket Saturday, beating Porterville, 10-2, Santa Barbara, 8-5, and Bakersfield, 8-6. The Porterville game started at 10 a.m. and the Bakersfield game ended Sunday morning about 12:30 a.m.

The highlight of the Bakersfield game was the performance of Mission left-hander Ralph Walley, who took a no-hitter into the seventh inning.

On Sunday morning at 10, Mission was back on the diamond. Wins over Taft, 14-7, and Citrus, 6-5, moved Mission into the title game.

Even though the tournament is not officially over, two Mission players walked away with the top individual honors. Shortstop Raul Flores, who batted .409 with seven runs batted in, four doubles and four stolen bases, was named the most valuable player. Right-hander Raul Torres, who earned a save against Citrus in relief of winner Eric Diaz, was named most valuable pitcher.

TIRED? WHO’S TIRED?

Mission presented a candidate for Ironman of the Year last weekend.

Joey Gandara, a freshman catcher from University High in Westchester, caught all 27 innings played by Mission on Saturday. He also caught eight innings Friday and nine Sunday.

“He could hardly walk Sunday night,” Coach John Klitsner said.

Gandara was forced into extended duty after Mission’s other catcher, Robert Garcia, could serve only as designated hitter because of an injured knee.

YOU ALL COME BACK

Rain took a heavy toll around the Southland earlier this week and washed away the inauguration of Mission’s new baseball field at the El Cariso Sports Complex in Sylmar.

Klitsner said the Los Angeles Community College District sent about 200 invitations to various dignitaries for Tuesday’s festivities before the Free Spirit game against Valley.

But although the teams made up the game Wednesday, the field’s official inauguration is on hold.

The lighted field had been used for several years by youth teams but now it will be home almost exclusively to the Free Spirit.

“We put $120,000 to redo it,” Klitsner said. “We built dugouts and bullpens. We put up fences. We put in a brand-new infield. We are in complete control of it. People have to go through us to use it.”

Until this season, Mission lived a nomadic life. The team played most of its home games at Valley and even played a home game at Harbor.

AN EVEN TRADE

Guard Stephane Brown of the Ventura basketball team will return to the lineup against Santa Barbara City on Saturday after missing two games because of disciplinary reasons. “He missed two classes, he missed two games,” Coach Philip Mathews said.

Brown is among the scoring leaders in the Western State Conference with a 13.7 average. In his last game on Jan. 30, he scored the winning basket with three seconds left in overtime to beat Oxnard, 70-68.

PASSING LANES

Northridge men’s volleyball Coach John Price claims the biggest difference between this season’s team and last season’s (which came within a game of advancing to the NCAA Final Four) is passing, that is returning the serve and getting the ball to the setter all with one hit.

“We’re a lot better because we’re better passers,” Price said. “It allows us to be more steady.”

Kennedy Cosgrove and staff writers Fernando Dominguez, Mike Hiserman and Theresa Munoz contributed to this notebook.