COLLEGE BASKETBALL: 1993-94 SEASON PREVIEW : Road Doesn’t Get Any Easier for Cal State Northridge : Independent: The Matadors will have only nine home dates. They will play at Cal, Notre Dame and Arizona State.

The point guard is talking about the tournament.

The coach is talking about a tournament.

Did somebody say something about taking things one step at a time?

Cal State Northridge might want to consider the bottom line of its Division I basketball resume:

A 29-54 record in three seasons.

Therefore, when it comes to setting objectives for this season, should not a winning record suffice?

Apparently not.

“What kind of team would we be if we said we were setting our goal at .500?” said Andre Chevalier, the Matadors’ point guard. “We want to go to the tournament. We want to play in the postseason, just like everyone else.”

To get there, Northridge faces a task tougher than most.

As a low-budget operation playing without conference affiliation, the Matadors are at the mercy of their opponents when it comes to scheduling games. Northridge has only nine home dates on its 27-game schedule, which begins Friday night against Stanford in the first round of the Stanford Invitational at Maples Pavilion.

The Matadors’ tour of duty also includes games at Cal, Notre Dame, Arizona State and Colorado, as well as tournaments at Southwest Missouri State and Fresno State.

Quips Coach Pete Cassidy: “Strength of schedule is not our problem.”

To avoid becoming road kill for a fourth consecutive season, Northridge is relying on improved post play and a small but quick guard contingent led by Chevalier, a preseason All-American among players from independent schools.

The 6-foot senior from Landover, Md., needs 62 points to become only the ninth player in Northridge’s 36-year basketball history to score 1,000 points. Chevalier’s 13.9 scoring average led the Matadors last season, and he also is the school’s career leader with 346 assists and 129 steals.

Guard Brooklyn McLinn and post players Peter Micelli and Chris Yard are the other starters back from last season’s 10-17 team.

Micelli, a 6-8 junior, is expected to improve on his 10.8 scoring average of a season ago, now that he is playing a high-post position to take advantage of his outside shooting ability.

Yard, 6-6 and a muscular 220 pounds, moves to the low post. He led Northridge in rebounding with a 6.3 average.

“Chris does a better job than I do down on the blocks, and I’m getting freed up for 10- to 15-foot jumpers a lot more,” Micelli said.

Backing up Yard is the tallest player in school history, Shane O’Doherty, a 6-11 transfer from Riverside City College. Brent Lofton, a 6-5 transfer from Utah State; Josh Willis, a 6-6 sophomore, and Tom Samson, a 6-7 freshman from St. John Bosco who has been impressive in two exhibition games, add depth to the front line.

Shawn Stone, a 6-3 junior, rounds out the starting lineup. The 25-year-old former Marine averaged 16.5 points and 9.2 rebounds last season for Mira Costa College.

Ruben Oronoz, a 6-7 guard-forward from Rancho Santiago College, was supposed to be Northridge’s small forward, but he will redshirt this season after having back surgery last month.

Even without Oronoz, the Matadors are in far better shape than they were a year ago when injury, academic ineligibility and a car accident in which guard-forward John Flowers lost both legs took away almost their entire recruiting class. Last season, Micelli and Yard were Northridge’s only front-court players who were not walk-ons.

The experience, Cassidy said, left his new edition “battle-tested and smarter.”

“And now we have more talent to draw on,” he added.

Enough to qualify for postseason play?

“I think the (National Invitation Tournament) is a possibility,” Cassidy said. “You don’t want to rule anything out, but you also want to be realistic.”

* ROSTERS, SCHEDULES

Facts and figures for the Pepperdine, Loyola Marymount and CS Northridge men’s basketball teams. C15