Children to See CSUN’s House This Time : College basketball: Kids from Shrine Hospital where the Matadors visited will attend scrimmage.

The Cal State Northridge basketball team, a contingent which knows a thing or two about heartache and tragedy, will have some special guests in attendance for a scrimmage tonight at 7 against Race Express in the Northridge gym.

More than two dozen children undergoing treatment at the Shrine Hospital in Hollywood will be returning a visit made last weekend by Northridge players to their rehabilitation facility.

The Matadors spent almost two hours with the children, talking, providing basketball tips, and entertaining the group with an impromptu slam-dunk contest and scrimmage on portable baskets set up on the roof of the three-story building.

“That was the best few hours I’ve spent in a while,” said Peter Micelli, Northridge’s 6-foot-8 center and the organizer of the visit.

Tom McCollum, an assistant coach who made the trip along with 14 players, said the chatter and cheer provided by the Matadors echoed through the halls of the entire facility.

“The lobby of the place is like an atrium--open-air,” McCollum said. “Even downstairs you could here the kids cheering. The sound was resonating all around the hospital.”

Many of the children are recent amputees and burn victims who have only partially completed reconstructive surgery.

“It was tough duty,” McCollum said. “Some of those kids have gone through catastrophic things. But our guys neither blanched nor shied away. They seemed very comfortable and happy talking.”

The trip helped provide perspective to a team which in recent years often has been struck by misfortune--from a car accident that ended the career of one top recruit, to deaths among family members, to the confusion and inconvenience caused by January’s earthquake that interrupted last season.

Micelli, whose father died shortly after the earthquake, was initially shocked by the severity of the injuries to some of the children. However, he soon recognized the joy they were getting from his visit. “They were so appreciative, so happy we came to see them,” Micelli said. “I think everybody is really happy we went.”

Micelli planned the visit in response to a edict made by Coach Pete Cassidy over the summer that the basketball team become more involved in community service.

That mission accomplished, it’s time for the Matadors to get down to business. The game against Race Express is the first of two scrimmages Northridge will play in preparation for its Nov. 26 opener against UCLA at Pauley Pavilion.

The Matadors, 8-18 last season, play host to the New Zealand National Team on Nov. 22.

Race Express is a Daly City, Calif.-based team of former college players who tout themselves as the “scoring wizards of ahhhs.” The club’s motto: “We run and gun.”

Cassidy said he is approaching the scrimmages as “shakedown cruises.”

“We’ll see what we can do, see where we’re at, and find out which five players play best together,” he said.

Northridge’s starting lineup is expected to be Micelli at center, Ruben Oronoz and Michael Dorsey at forwards and Shawn Stone and Robert Hill at guards. Center Shane O’Doherty, forward Eric Gray and guard Trenton Cross will get considerable playing time.