Some Coaches Seek Gold in Different Mine : Basketball: More teams are finding success by recruiting community college players.

Brad Holland is working hard. He is tooting his whistle often at Cal State Fullerton practices. He is growling, nodding, scolding, praising.

He is blending. He is attempting to take four community college transfers and transform them into a cohesive, substantive and attractive unit.

And the season opens today.

So Holland is a planning madman. He is planning practices, planning lineups, planning alternate plans, always planning.

Poor guy. As he enters his second season at Fullerton, he has absolutely no idea how to rebuild a program with community college players.

The answer: Leprechauns.

“Several years ago I went to Ireland and brought back a leprechaun,” New Mexico State Coach Neil McCarthy said. “He lives under our floor in the Pan-Am Center. He works with me and the players.

“No one else can see him but me,” McCarthy insisted. “That’s the thing. My wife, Vivian, and I got him five years ago. It’s the luck of the Irish and all that stuff.”

You didn’t think a coach could make it through a community college player’s transition without some sort of help, did you?

In the 1990s, no coaches have been better at building a successful program with community college transfers than McCarthy and University of Cincinnati Coach Bob Huggins.

Leprechauns, McCarthy says. People, Huggins says.

“Recruit great people,” Huggins said. “We’ve had great people. Very unselfish guys who just wanted to win. We didn’t have people who came in concerned with their statistics.”

Huggins, entering his fifth year at Cincinnati, jump-started the Bearcat program by adding three community college transfers in 1990.

Cincinnati went to the second round of the postseason National Invitation Tournament that year, advanced to the NCAA Final Four in 1991-92 and to the Elite Eight in 1992-93. Playing big roles on the two NCAA tournament teams were Corie Blount and Erik Martin (both from Rancho Santiago), Terry Nelson (Long Beach) and Nick Van Exel (Trinity College in Texas).

Now, having laid a solid foundation, Huggins has switched his emphasis to high school recruiting.

McCarthy, meanwhile, has not recruited a high school player in five years.

“Coach feels that if we go up against a school on a high school player, we’re not going to win,” said Brian McCann, New Mexico State associate sports information director. “We can’t get a good enough high school kid.”

With this philosophy, McCarthy’s community college-heavy teams have won 100 games over the last four seasons, all of which culminated in NCAA tournament berths.

For now, Holland would settle for a fraction of that success. With only two players--and no starters--returning from last year’s team, Holland and his assistants traveled to every community college tournament within range of their budget during recruiting periods last spring and summer. They have four community college players on their roster and one more who is expected to join the team after the first semester in December.

Now comes the interesting part: Producing results.

“You’ve got to develop a system in which junior college players can come in and contribute consistently,” McCarthy said. “There is a lot for a JC kid to absorb in a few weeks’ time. He has to adjust both offensively and defensively.

“More offensively, I think, because most JC players who are recruited are strong offensive players. They’re used to getting 25 to 30 shots a game. At the next level, he has to adjust. In our offense, it is not uncommon for someone to get 25 points one night and only 13 the next.”

And then there’s defense.

“Most are not asked to play defense (at the community college level),” McCarthy said. “Most are offensive stars. There are a lot of psychological changes they go through. You’re giving them a crash course.”

The way to check on a potential community college recruit, said Huggins, is to play private eye.

“We try to do a lot of background checks and talk to a lot of people,” Huggins said. “We get there early and walk around campus and talk to anybody who will talk to us. Janitors, secretaries, people (a player) has contact with and see how they are treated.”

Once the background checks are in, community college players can be easier to work into a system than high school players, Huggins said.

“I think it’s easier,” he said. “You go through a lot less. (Community college players) are used to being away from home, they’re used to the college atmosphere and being on their own. And they know they have only two years to get it done.”

That last point is one McCarthy says is a huge plus.

“They’re usually a little more focused than freshmen,” McCarthy said.

Huggins and McCarthy disagreed, though, on whether a community college player enters a four-year program with a blemish on his record. There used to be a stigma attached to community college players. He didn’t go to a four-year school because he didn’t have the grades. Or: He was a troublemaker. He screws around too much. Or something similar.

“I think any stigma has been completely shattered,” McCarthy said. “Look at what Keith Smart and Dean Garrett did for Bobby Knight. (Indiana won the national championship in 1987, with the help of those two community college transfers).

“My assistants tell me that there used to be seven to 10 Division I coaches at community college jamborees, now there are 200, 300, even 400. UC Santa Barbara took three in this year. Even Stanford took one.”

Indeed, guard Frank Harris, from Connors State (Okla.) Community College, will play in the Stanford backcourt this year. And in the Big West Conference, 30 of 59 new players this season are community college transfers.

“During the summer, when we’re all on the road recruiting, if you watch a high school tournament and then a junior college tournament, you went from watching boys to men,” said San Jose State Coach Stan Morrison, who has four ex-community college players and an NAIA transfer on his roster. “If you need immediate help, and particularly with the graduations in our league last year (all 11 players on the all-conference first and second teams).”

Holland and his assistants can tell you all about those community college tournaments, as well as any transfer rules.

It’s how they spent their summer. As for how they will spend their winter, that depends on how adept they are at breaking in players with some wear on their tires. And on whether Holland can obtain a leprechaun.

Community College Connection

Members of Cal State Fullerton’s 1993-94 men’s basketball team recruited from the community college ranks:

* Fred Amos, 6-7, 235 pounds, Rancho Santiago. Comment: Walked onto team this year and started Titans’ exhibition game Tuesday.

* Darren Little, 6-7, 205, Palomar Community College. Comment: Has most raw talent on team; picked Fullerton over Oklahoma.

* Winston Peterson, 6-6, 220, San Jacinto (Tex.) Community College. Comment: Most physical Titan, needs to shore up defense.

* Danny Robinson, 6-0, 165, Sheridan (Wyo.) Community College. Comment: One of only four Titan guards and one of three newcomers to the position.

(Expected to become eligible at semester break in December) * Jerome Washington, 6-5, 195, Mid-Plains (Neb.) Community College. Comment: Finishing Associate of Arts degree; one of top community college prospects in Midwest.