Low-Budget Recruiting Has Coach on the Move : CSUN’s McCollum Keeps Diary of Trip

Some recruiters are frequent flyers, but many more drive cars with bald tires.

In basketball, perhaps more than any other college sport, there exists an immense disparity between the haves and have-nots.

Cal State Northridge, a notoriously low-budget operation, carries the same Division I classification as North Carolina, Michigan and UCLA.

And comparisons end there.

The nation’s true bastions of hoops hysteria can afford to jet across country on recruiting excursions. Northridge representatives hunt the more affordable hard way: blurry-eyed, with pedal to the metal and all four tires straddling bots dots.

From the bushes of Weed, Calif., near the Oregon border, to the porch of Tijuana, Mexico, recruiting coordinator Tom McCollum, assistant Mike Johnson and, occasionally, head coach Pete Cassidy, scour the state in an annual search for lesser-known, harder-to-find, untapped talent.

McCollum estimates he has logged 140,000 miles in rental cars and his own well-worn Nissan 200SX during the three years he has been Cassidy’s top aide.

The most arduous journeys occur during NCAA-sanctioned recruiting “windows”--passages when college coaches are allowed to contact and visit with prospects.

This fall, during one such period Johnson, the Matadors’ $4,200-per-year supposedly part-time assistant, recorded on tape some of his observations during a nine-day tour of almost two dozen junior colleges and high schools located in Central and Northern California.

His comments were primarily up-beat, occasionally reflective, and usually made with a tune from his favorite James Taylor tape playing in the background.

Some of the highlights:

MONDAY

At 11:49 a.m., Johnson leaves the airport in Burbank with a travel bag, a small black carrying case, an 8 1/2 x 11 cardboard box, three Northridge shirts on hangers, a black ring binder and his golf clubs packed in the back of a rented four-door sedan.

The golf clubs, he explains, are tools of the recruiting trade. “You play with the coach in the morning,” he says, “and get all the inside scoop.”

In the carrying case is his itinerary, an address book and other “basketball stuff.”

The black binder is his “bible.” It includes the names and phone numbers of the 40 recruits he is scheduled to personally meet.

He has a 2:30 p.m. appointment in Bakersfield, but he will pause briefly for lunch along the way.

“I’m stopping for the traditional recruiting meal--a nine-piece McNugget and an extra-large bag of fries with a tub of Coke . . . . I’ll eat this same meal, whew, a guaranteed 10 times on this trip alone.”

It will not be his only meal of the afternoon.

Johnson arrives in Bakersfield in plenty of time, then is told that practice has been rescheduled for 4 p.m. But is he interested in having lunch with the coach? Well, of course he is.

After practice, there is another 100 miles of driving before Johnson will settle in for his first of two nights at a hotel in Fresno.

Johnson, a 24-year-old Purdue graduate, says the road between Bakersfield and Fresno seems familiar:

“I’m about 30 miles south of Fresno and I would say this is the closest I’ve been to the farm in Ohio in a long, long time. I’m staying awake on country music, a little bit of James Taylor and the lovely odor of cow manure. The smell is making me homesick.”

The hotel rooms will be free on this trip because of an agreement Northridge has with the travel agency that books accommodations for its athletic teams.

His first stop is a “conveniently located” hotel near the Fresno airport. Well, the price is right, anyway.

“I just checked in at home, then realized I was starving and this hotel isn’t close to anything except a runway. About every eight minutes I hear a jet take off. It sounds like it’s in my bedroom.”

WEDNESDAY

After having breakfast with a friend who is an assistant at Fresno State, Johnson makes his way toward Reedley, Calif., a stop he is anticipating because of the reputation of Kings River College Coach Keith Hughes.

The previous year, Hughes--with a wink--had thrown Johnson out of practice, shouting all the while that his players were embarrassing him.

“I’m looking forward to practice because he’s a yeller and a screamer and it’s just like being home again, at Purdue . . . . I’m going 75 miles an hour so I can get there 45 minutes early and not be in trouble for being late.”

Hughes does not disappoint and Johnson is on a high when he leaves practice and makes another fast-food stop in preparation for a 6 1/2-hour drive to Reno.

On the trek, Johnson will make up games to entertain himself in an effort to stay awake. One such attempt results in what he calls “the radio game.” After each song on his tape, Johnson switches back to the radio and scans the dial looking for an acceptable tune. The object: to make the tape last as long as possible.

“I’m about three hours into my drive. I’ve got a racquetball-sized jawbreaker to keep my mouth going and keep me awake. I’ve got the air-conditioning pumped on high, getting some chills going, and I’ve got my turbo Coke sitting next me. I’m just singing out loud and thinking about Northridge. . . .”

Leaving Fresno, Johnson sees a small tornado twisting in a raisin field. As he heads north through the San Joaquin Valley he finally succumbs to temptation and makes a quick but unscheduled stop.

“I couldn’t help myself. I’m driving past all these pistachio plants. I just stopped and got me six pounds. I hope that lasts me the trip.”

As he begins his climb through the mountains en route to Reno, Johnson is struck by the scenery. The moonlight accents the valley below and the lush trees in the forest on either side of the winding road.

“I can see pines all around me. There’s a full moon and I’m at about 3,000 feet, going into the Sierras. I can feel it getting chilly. I wish I was walking . . . . Kind of.”

THURSDAY

Late to bed, early to rise.

By 7 a.m. Johnson is awake and planning his day. After leaving Reno he will drive three hours farther north, stopping at a junior college in Susanville, Calif. At night, he will make his way to the enclave of Westwood, Calif., where he will stay with a good friend, Phil Bryant, the coach at Westwood High.

Bryant, also a coordinator for a college scouting service in Los Angeles, is one of the first people Johnson met on his initial trip to California.

On the way to stops at Feather River College and Quincy High, Johnson hits a milestone:

“I just topped the 1,000-mile mark on the trip . . . . It’s beautiful up here but it’s just like Lou Holtz says: It’s not the end of the world, but I think you can see it from here.”

To wit:

“I just got delayed five minutes by a cow crossing. Five cowboys on horses herding cows across the street . . . . “

Despite his long hours on the road, Johnson has managed to visit two junior colleges and a high school in the afternoon and evening hours. Now he faces another 50-mile trek through the mountains to Bryant’s home.

He is sick of fast-food burgers and chicken pieces. Simply staying awake has become a chore.

“I just came about six feet from wiping out a deer . It was so close. If it wasn’t for the full moon tonight , I would have drilled that deer.”

To remain attentive, Johnson animatedly talks to the tape recorder about his day. At Lassen College, he had a recruit ask if Northridge was an NCAA Division II or Division III school.

“You must be referring to our budget,” Johnson quipped.

Surprisingly, the players do know that the Matadors upset Cal State Long Beach last season and battled UCLA tough until losing in the final minutes.

That, however, seems to be the extent of their knowledge.

“Nobody knows where Northridge even is. I could tell them it was some place in Mexico and they’d say, ‘Really? Nice campus?’ Is it tough to recruit for us? Yeah, it is.”

FRIDAY

By 10:30 a.m. Johnson already has completed a stop at a high school and is on his way to another school near the Oregon border. Sometime around 4 in the afternoon, he finally turns south and starts heading back toward San Francisco, another six or seven-hour drive.

I’m beat. It all caught up to me last night. I stayed up with Phil until 3 in the morning talking recruits . . . . I’ve really got to start concentrating because now everybody starts running together and everyone starts to look the same. I’ve got to remember to be personable. That, and also to keep my eyelids open when I’m driving.”

MONDAY

With practices shut down over the weekend, Johnson’s efforts centered on visiting with coaches. On this, the final full day of the trip, he will find out whether he has saved any energy for a closing kick.

He will attempt to stop at three junior colleges--and cover the 42 miles among them--in the span of only a few hours.

“It’s going to be a race from one gym to another and hopefully another. Hopefully, I won’t get hung up by one of the coaches . “

Later:

“I only got two today. I got wrapped up talking to one of the coaches.”

TUESDAY

After 1,880 miles, an estimated 100 chicken nuggets and more than a dozen 59-cent burgers, Johnson’s journey is complete. He has $65 left in his pocket and a set of still-unused golf clubs in the trunk of the rental car.

The cost of the trip, including rental car, was $562--or about $1,500 less than the first-class fare of a round-trip flight from Burbank to New York.

Johnson’s pace has been frantic, but there is little time to rest. In the next few days, he will tour local schools and be in constant contact with Trenton Cross, a point guard from Reseda who the Matadors eventually will sign.

Then, on Friday, he has a flight to Phoenix, where he will watch all 12 Arizona junior colleges play in a weekend tournament.

“It’s a great opportunity,” Johnson says in one of his closing comments on the tape. “I can see the whole state of Arizona in two days. It’ll save us some money.”