COLLEGE DIVISION / ARA NAJARIAN : CS Bakersfield Finally Can Enjoy Record Perfection

Finally, Cal State Bakersfield’s men’s basketball team can revel in the thought of finishing the season undefeated.

All season, the Roadrunners said that they weren’t concerned with being unbeaten--that they simply tried to improve every game.

They won their first game and improved 32 times thereafter.

The Roadrunners’ 85-72 victory over Troy (Ala.) State on Saturday at Springfield, Mass., brought to California its first NCAA Division II basketball championship, and Bakersfield set an NCAA record at any level for most victories in an undefeated season--33.

“It’s sunk in now,” Bakersfield Coach Pat Douglass said Monday. “It’s getting more sunk in every minute.”

Only Regis (Colo.) won more games, when it was 36-3 in 1949. The last team to go undefeated in a season was Evansville in 1965.

Tyrone Davis scored 27 points and Reggie Phillips added 23 to lead the Roadrunners in the final.

But Bakersfield won mainly with defense.

Troy State had averaged 114 points but struggled to 72 in the championship game. The Trojans employed an offense similar to that used successfully by Loyola Marymount under Paul Westhead three years ago.

“It’s tough to play back-to-back-to-back like that,” Douglass said, “especially when you have to play at one o’clock on Saturday after playing the night before. I’ve been in favor of playing Wednesday and Thursday, taking Friday off, and then playing (for) the championship on Saturday.”

It looked as though the schedule affected Troy State more than Bakersfield. The Trojans relied heavily on three-point goals to open up their inside game, and many shots came up short. Troy State made only five of 23 three-point attempts against Bakersfield after setting a tournament record with 23-of-44 three-point shooting the night before against New Hampshire.

“They might say that affected them, but I think we played very good defense,” Douglass said.

This appeared to be a rebuilding season for Bakersfield, which lost eight players--half of them starters--from the 1992 team that made it to the Final Four.

Instead, they improved.

Two junior college transfers, Davis and Roheen Oats, gave the Roadrunners an inside/outside punch that could have knocked out some Division I teams.

Oats, a 6-foot-6 post player, provided the inside threat and the 6-3 Davis supplied everything else. He was the most valuable player of the tournament, as he was in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. Davis took charge of many games as the point guard and main scoring threat.

The attention that Oats and Davis command created opportunities for Phillips, Kenny Warren and Erin Vines. Phillips, although only 5-10, can jump higher than anyone on the team. He touched an 11-foot marker at the Basketball Hall of Fame last Wednesday.

“That’s stretching it,” Douglass said of Phillips’ height. “He’s been a crowd-pleaser all season with the things he can do athletically. He stepped up and played very well (Saturday).”

Douglass will have four starters returning next season, including Davis and Oats. Also, he has a Division II advantage: He doesn’t have to worry about losing his players to the NBA draft.

But the coach isn’t thinking of next season yet.

“This is great,” Douglass said. “It shows something about our program to the whole nation. We televise some of our games up here, but the fact that you’re on national TV is something. It’s special.”

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Family ties: Rick Candaele, Claremont-Mudd’s new assistant football coach, comes from an athletic family.

His mother, Helen O’Callaghan, was the baseball player on whom the movie “A League of Their Own” was based. The script was written by his brother, Kelly.

Another brother, Casey, is a second baseman and outfielder for the Houston Astros.

Rick Candaele coached UC Santa Barbara, an NCAA Division II team, until the school decided to discontinue its football program after the 1991 season.

He will be the offensive coordinator for Coach John Zinda, whose program was on the brink of termination until the Claremont-McKenna Colleges Board of Trustees authorized money to improve the program. Candaele represents the first move in that direction.

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After a year of speculation, the Western Football Conference announced that it will move to Division I-AA.

The WFC plans to expand into a multi-sport conference and hopes to add more schools. Four current members will switch to Division I-AA immediately--Cal State Northridge, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Cal State Sacramento and Southern Utah. Portland State will remain a Division II school, but UC Davis will join the WFC when intraconference play begins in 1994-95.

The move to Division I-AA was a result of NCAA legislation that required schools to include all of their sports in the same division. The WFC played at the Division II level for 10 years.

College Division Notes

Azusa Pacific basketball Coach Bill Odell was voted NAIA District 3 coach of the year. His team finished 30-4 and was eliminated in the second round of the NAIA tournament. Azusa Pacific was ranked No. 2 in the final NAIA poll. . . . Azusa Pacific fullback Jerrold Johnson was drafted by the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League. Johnson, a third-round choice and Toronto’s second pick overall, is a Canadian citizen who moved to California to start high school. He was Azusa Pacific’s offensive MVP last year. . . . Three Christ College Irvine players were voted to the NAIA All-American women’s basketball team. Genevieve Graff and Stacy Kirch were first-team selections, and Gitte Mejer was a second-team choice. Graff and Kirch were also honored as Academic All-Americans.