THE COLLEGES / MIKE HISERMAN : Northridge Needling Pains Thin-Skinned Bozeman

The truth is out, and what a surprise.

All these years we’ve been thinking that basketball teams the caliber of California declined offers to play at Cal State Northridge’s little ol’ gymnasium because they considered the place unbecoming, the opposition unworthy or the surrounding real estate unstable.

Wrong, wrong and wrong.

Now we know what they really feared.

Those rabid Northridge fans.

If Todd Bozeman could talk, he would forever set the record straight. Unfortunately, lately the very mention of Northridge freezes the man’s vocal cords.

Bozeman is a good-looking man, articulate and though only 31 years old, well-credentialed to be basketball coach at Cal, one of America’s great universities.

But even a fellow as esteemed as he becomes prey once inside the hallowed halls of Northridge Gym.

Hell hole of the West, that place.

Oh, sure, the crowds are small. Before Bozeman brought his big bad Bears into town, Northridge was averaging only 752 fans at its men’s basketball games. But what the Matador faithful lack in numbers they make up for in lung capacity.

And nasty? Northridge fans are more surly than an overworked traffic cop.

The hecklers--all four of them--were out in force among the overflow crowd of 2,013 that jammed into the place the locals comically refer to as “The Matadome” for the Cal game.

Well, there might have been more than four, but we’re only counting the ones Bozeman spoke to:

* A retired professor and his buddy sitting about four rows up behind the scorer’s table.

* Another loudmouth in a gray shirt and a black pullover seated next to the aisle, directly across from several hundred Cal fans.

* And then there was the young man dressed in jeans, a T-shirt and--hey, wasn’t that a Northridge baseball cap?--who performed a textbook walk-by heckle.

If not for Northridge security, the kid in the hat might have met the Cal coach up close and very personal.

Good thing security corralled Bozeman.

Then again, maybe that wasn’t a good thing.

Howard Garcia, who is in charge of security during events inside the Northridge gym, got into a heated discussion with Bozeman and Kurtis Townsend, an assistant coach.

The Cal coaches wanted their Northridge tormentors to knock it off. Or, at the very least, they wanted the heckling done somewhere other than within a few feet of the Golden Bear bench.

Fair enough. That would eliminate the kid in the hat.

As far as the others, Garcia should have told the coach, they might do less popping off if he quit lighting their fuse.

Only a minute or so before the walk-by, Bozeman, reacting to what he perceived as shoddy officiating, exploded off the Cal bench, flailed through what looked like a bad gymnastics floor exercise down the length of the Cal sideline, and ripped off his sports coat.

At one point he almost went down when he slipped while kicking at the floor. How could any self-respecting heckler resist this guy?

By most accounts, the taunts were of the mild, garden-type variety. Nothing particularly vicious. When Cal was trailing the not-so-mighty Matadors somebody might have asked about Lou Campanelli’s availability to coach.

Bozeman, upset by his team, the officiating and the comments, was in a rage.

Up stepped Garcia. A videotape of the game shows Garcia motioning to Townsend, pointing to security personnel stationed on both sides of the Cal bench and in the nearest aisle.

Enter Bozeman. Obviously agitated, he gestures four times at Garcia.

Garcia points back. Garcia says he told Bozeman, “Coach, you just coach your team, and I’ll take care of security.”

Bozeman swats at Garcia’s fingers and then, as Garcia turns to walk away, swipes at him with a straight right hand, appearing to graze the left side of Garcia’s head.

Bozeman carried his complaints about security into a postgame press conference. He left behind any reasonable explanation for his own behavior.

*

Asked about his run-in with Garcia, Bozeman denied throwing a punch. Asked what, if anything, had been said to raise his ire, he was unspecific.

Townsend told a Bay Area reporter that Bozeman was upset not so much at what Garcia had said but how he said it--using “kind of a smart tone.”

Of course, Townsend also said he was standing next to Bozeman and could confirm that his boss had not thrown a punch.

Well, the videotape proved Townsend half accurate. He was standing next to Bozeman when the coach tossed out his jab.

Meanwhile Garcia, a man as anonymous in appearance as they come, found himself surrounded by reporters inquiring as to whether he planned to file charges over a swipe that barely mussed his hair.

So far he hasn’t.

The only charge since the incident was made by Cal.

The day after the game, a 76-65 Golden Bear victory, Cal Athletic Director John Kasser said that while Bozeman’s actions were “inappropriate,” the coach’s “emotional reaction” was “understandable” based on the use of certain “trigger words” used by Garcia.

Kasser’s statement implied that Garcia either cursed or otherwise insulted Bozeman.

Garcia claims he did neither and an in-house investigation conducted by Northridge determined that the only profanity heard came from the lips of Cal coaches Bozeman and Townsend.

Looking at the video, Garcia’s version makes sense.

As for Cal’s excuse? Common sense destroys that.

During their verbal exchange, Garcia is separated from Cal coaches by a row of chairs occupied by Golden Bear players. Behind him were legions of Cal fans.

For Garcia to utter anything profane or otherwise abusive would have qualified him to play Jim Carrey’s role in “Dumb and Dumber.”

Garcia might have expected Cal to levy some disciplinary action. At the very least he might have expected an apology from Bozeman.

He got neither but might yet someday have the last laugh.

Hecklers everywhere just love a sensitive basketball coach.