McKnight Offers a Few Opinions

Another basketball coach bails out of Cal State Fullerton, and the alum on the other end of the phone says it’s high time the school changed its image as Ripcord U.

“It would be nice to get a coach in there who sincerely wants to build the program there and have the school make a real commitment to him,” the alum says.

The kind of coach, he says, who doesn’t “go into that job only to use it as a stepping stone to a better job some place else.”

The kind of coach who is going to “recruit some kids--maybe not the big, big time players, but some high school players who are going to be there four years and give you a foundation, not just JC kids so you can quick-fix it and get out of town.”

The alum knows such a coach. Quite well, as a matter of fact. Spends every hour of every day with him, truth be known.

The alum’s name is Gary McKnight.

McKnight is just talking here, rolling out a few opinions, lobbying for nothing.

And he’s not carping at Brad Holland, the man who beat out McKnight for the Fullerton job in 1992 and began banging on doors almost immediately--the University of Nevada’s, Pepperdine’s, the University of San Diego’s, anywhere that offered a way out.

McKnight says he “likes Brad Holland” and thinks Holland “got into a great situation” by high-tailing it down to USD on Monday. “I think he’s got a team he can compete with there.”

If anything, McKnight is wary about these Big West vacancies by now. Big teases, he calls them.

“I feel some times I’m being used,” says the Jerry Tarkanian of Orange County prep basketball, the coach and curator of the Mater Dei High School dynasty.

“You know, ‘Give the (top) high school coach in the area an interview and keep him happy so he won’t stop sending us players. Keep the Mater Deis and the Long Beach Polys happy.’ ”

But McKnight happens to be a Fullerton graduate, Class of ‘76, and makes a point of noting that he actually “enjoyed Fullerton.” (This could land McKnight on an upcoming “Geraldo.”) He has watched George McQuarn, John Sneed and now Holland come and go, and cares enough about the alma mater to chart a Proper Course for the next coach, whoever that might be.

“Nobody is gonna walk in and turn it overnight,” McKnight says. “Right now, Fullerton’s a very, very difficult situation. They lost a lot of players and their recruiting class is a little down. Whoever gets it is going to have an uphill fight.

“But whoever takes it should make it a priority to stay a while. He should say, ‘I’m here for the long haul, I’m going to make this a career job,’ and then get rewarded by the school.

“The school should say, ‘Hey, we’re going to commit to you for four, five years. This is not gonna be just a two-year program.’ ”

Holland complained to the end, premature as it was, that Fullerton lacked the first-rate facility it takes to recruit against the New Mexico States and the UNLVs--and, now, the Long Beach States. Holland just lost a recruit, Brian Yankelvitz of Garden City (Kan.) Community College, after Yankelvitz stepped onto the Long Beach campus and caught one glimpse of the glimmering new Pyramid.

“I can’t stress enough how important your facility is,” Holland reiterated Monday evening. “Young men today have a very high awareness of what kind of home arena and locker room they have. They really look at it. It’s important for kids.”

At the moment, San Diego offers Holland an even smaller cupboard than Titan Gym--the USD Sports Center, nothing more than a high school gym, seats just 2,500--but there’s a promise of a 1995 ground-breaking for a “5,000-seat Bren Center kind of facility,” according to Holland.

McKnight, too, has experienced the grimy nooks and crannies of Titan Gym. As a student, he rooted for Bobby Dye’s teams there. As a coach, he has won playoff games there in front of overflow crowds.

From his perspective, there’s nothing wrong with the Rambling Wreck at Titan Tech a few 19-10 seasons couldn’t cure.

“It’s not the worst arena around,” McKnight says. “It’s workable. It’s not The Pond, but it’s a nice enough facility. Loyola Marymount doesn’t play in that great a place, but Paul (Westhead) put the right system in there, played up-tempo and was able to recruit there . . .

“It takes some creative scheduling. Maybe you squeeze a doubleheader out of The Pond with a couple other teams, make it a little more attractive. And you’ve got to make the program more attractive.

“Come in there and say, ‘We’re not going to walk it up the court, we’re going to play up-tempo, we’re going to run. They may score 120, but we’ll get 110.’ Do something to get those orange boosters cranked up again.”

Sounds like a plan.

Anyone care to try to implement it?

Holland recommends his assistant, Bob Hawking, and McKnight finds no fault with that. “I think Bob Hawking should get it,” McKnight says. “That would be a good choice.”

Not that McKnight would allow a phone message from John Easterbrook, the new Fullerton AD, to die on the answering machine, mind you.

“If they have a sincere interest, yeah, I’d be interested in seeing what the situation is,” McKnight says. “But I’ve got a good job and a great situation right now. I could be happy here forever.”

No Cal State Fullerton basketball coach has ever uttered such a sentence. But happy for more than 29 months? McKnight suspects it can be done.