Titans’ Big-Man Search Lands 6-9 Frenchman : Basketball: Coach Brad Holland hopes David Frigout shores up the team’s front line.

The Cal State Fullerton basketball team, desperate for a big man, has wooed David Frigout from France to play this year.

Frigout, 6 feet 9, 210 pounds, has enrolled at Fullerton and is participating in the Titans’ preseason conditioning drills, Coach Brad Holland said. He is from Evreux, France, and previously attended Groupe Pigier University.

Since universities in France do not offer basketball, Frigout played with a club team last year.

“We’re excited about David,” Holland said. “We think that, with time, he can develop into a good player. We badly needed someone with some height. We’re happy he’s here.”

The Titans, who have lost all five starters and all but two players from last season’s team, had no one taller than 6-8 until Frigout, 20, agreed to attend Fullerton. He enters school as a sophomore.

Holland discovered Frigout through a friend who lives near Paris.

“He told me about (Frigout) and told me he was interested in playing in the U.S.,” Holland said. “He sent me some videotape and a phone number.”

In other Titan news, Jerome Washington, a 6-6 transfer from Mid-Plains Community College in North Platte, Neb., failed to earn his Associate of Arts degree this summer and will not be eligible to play until the first semester ends.

Washington, who averaged 12 points and six rebounds at Mid-Plains last year, will miss Fullerton’s two preseason games against Blue and Gold Fleet (Nov. 18) and Melbourne Magic (Nov. 23), as well as the first four regular-season games against Wyoming (Dec. 4), Concordia (Dec. 7), St. Mary’s (Dec. 10) and Utah (Dec. 18).

If Washington completes his academic requirements, he will be able to join the Titans Dec. 21 at Colorado.

“We’ll have the majority of the season with him,” Holland said. “The tough thing for players like him is to miss all of that practice time. It will take him awhile to catch up.”

Holland said the Titans’ other three community college transfers have all started classes at Fullerton.