Titans Hold Meeting After Losing to Aggies

Five minutes after Cal State Fullerton lost again, this time at Utah State, 59-50, Coach Brad Holland could be heard screaming behind the closed locker room door.

Ten minutes passed. Twenty. The game officials emerged from their locker room across the hall, showered and packed. Still no Titans.

It wasn’t until 25 minutes after the game ended that the first Titan gingerly poked his head out of the locker room. And then one by one, the Titans (2-10, 0-4) walked out of the locker room and toward what’s left of the rest of their season, lips tight and faces grim.

In a game they could have won, the Titans managed season lows in points, points in a half (17, first half), field-goal percentage (31.8%), rebounds (22) and offensive rebounds (five). It was the lowest point total for the Titans since a 76-47 whipping at Nevada Las Vegas in 1992. It was their lowest-scoring half since a 16-point first half in a 41-37 loss at New Mexico State in 1988.

Their morale was at a season-low, too. After the Titans boarded the bus, Holland stayed in the locker room, with assistant Bob Hawking and walk-on Fred Amos for another 15 minutes. Guard Danny Robinson wandered back into the arena.

“We’re getting kind of hungry, man,” Robinson said to assistant coach Chris Brazier.

“Why don’t you go in and tell Coach,” Brazier said.

“Nooo,” came the answer.

Who would blame Robinson? Holland and forward Winston Peterson (11 points, four rebounds) had words on the bench during a timeout at the three-minute mark, with Utah State leading, 47-39, and the game slipping away.

And Holland, Hawking and Amos didn’t emerge from the locker room until 45 minutes after the final buzzer. When they did, Holland headed straight for the bus.

“We had a team meeting, no comment,” Holland said, never breaking stride. “We had a team meeting, no comment. Sorry, that’s the way it is.”

Peterson, Darren Little and James French, who failed to score a field goal for the first time this season, also declined to comment.

When pressed, Peterson and Little opened up a little--barely. Peterson confirmed he and Holland exchanged words on the bench. “Yeah, a little bit,” he said.

Little confirmed that nobody would have wanted to be in that post-game locker room unless they had to be there. “All I’ve got to say is there was some heat in there,” Little said.

With Utah State 7-footer Nathan Wickizer putting in only six first-half points and then leaving with a sprained ankle with 18 minutes to play in the second, the Titans seemed in good shape.

They pulled to within two, 39-37, when David Frigout hit an inside shot with 6:33 to play, but the Aggies (6-7, 3-2) held them to two points in the next four minutes.

And this Utah State team shot only 44%--32% in the first half, with only 20 points at the half and 18 turnovers.

“This was a team we could definitely have beaten,” said Greg Vernon (10 points), who called this Fullerton’s lowest point of the season. “We were only down by three at halftime and we were pumped up. We should have been up by 10 at halftime.

“We needed this victory as much as any victory. It (would have been) a road victory, and it’s hard to win on the road.

“This probably was our worst loss.”

Vernon said that after Holland spoke in the locker room, he gave the players a say to vent their frustrations. And there were plenty.

“It was just a team meeting to express our feelings,” Vernon said, “to get the steam out.”

Fullerton led by one point on four occasions, the final time a 27-26 advantage with 12:23 to play after Peterson muscled up an inside shot. But with Wickizer out, Eric Franson and Jon Wickizer, Nathan’s brother, took over.

In front of 6,847, Franson finished with a game-high 18 points--12 in the second half--and Jon Wickizer had 12--eight in the second half. And the Aggie fans spent the final minute chanting “Warm up the bus” at Fullerton.

The only thing left for the Titans--who lost their 12th consecutive game here--was hunger pangs while they waited for their frustrated coach.

Titan Notes

Coach Brad Holland said Brian Carlson, who joined the team as a walk-on at the semester break, will be a redshirt this season.