Titanic Patience : Peterson Uses Senior Year at Fullerton to Prepare for a Pro Career

This hasn’t been the kind of basketball season Winston Peterson was hoping for. Neither was last season, and it gnaws at him.

Cal State Fullerton has only 15 victories during that time, eight last year and seven this season going into the Big West Conference tournament, which starts Thursday.

“I’m competitive, and I want to win,” Peterson said. “And it’s easy to get down on yourself when you’re not winning. Losing works on you. I just know I sure wanted to win more than seven games this year.”

Despite the team’s problems, Peterson has established himself as one of the conference’s top players. He has been solid, third in the Big West in scoring and rebounding.

Averaging 17.6 points, Peterson is behind only Eric Franson of Utah State (18.7) and Charles Jones of Pacific (18.2). In rebounding, he trails only Franson (10.0) and Kebu Stewart of Nevada Las Vegas (9.8). That’s despite the fact that Peterson, at 6-6, is shorter than virtually every opposing center.

Opposing coaches put a heavy emphasis on Peterson, especially after he had four consecutive games of 23 or more points at the start of the season. It also became obvious that Fullerton’s outside shooting was inconsistent.

“I just sent in my vote for the All-Big West team, and I put Peterson on the first team,” said Utah State Coach Larry Eustachy, whose team won the regular season championship. “I definitely think he’s been one of the five best players in our league this season.

“He’s made some great progress. Like a lot of junior college players, you could tell he struggled with the jump in level last year. I remember the first time he came over to play against us last season, he let things bother him, but he’s learned to play through adversity.”

Nevada Coach Pat Foster also has been impressed with Peterson’s improvement since he transferred from San Jacinto College in Pasadena, Tex.

“Frankly, he’s a much better player in Division I than I expected him to be,” Foster said. “He’s gotten a lot stronger physically than when I saw him play at San Jacinto. From 15 feet in, he’s as good a player as anyone in our league.”

Peterson also led the Titans in scoring as a junior with an average of 15.3 points, but this season he has been more consistent, scoring in double figures all but twice.

Fullerton Coach Bob Hawking said Peterson has become a more “complete player.”

“I think he’s had an outstanding year when you look at it from start to finish,” Hawking said. “And he’s done that with every team we’ve played trying to limit the number of times he gets the ball. Even with people double-teaming him a lot, he’s put up some good numbers.”

Peterson is reluctant to point fingers, but he says he faced added pressures all season.

“Look at Ed O’Bannon of UCLA. What’s he going to end up? An All-American, maybe college basketball’s player of the year? I played against him and I felt I was competitive, although he may have a better shot than me. But if he played here, he’d be in the same predicament that I am. But he’s on a good team with a lot of talent.”

The frustration has been building on Peterson the last few weeks, particularly when the team was hit hard by injuries to starters Chris St. Clair and David Frigout.

“It just seemed like no matter how hard we practiced, we couldn’t win,” Peterson said. “And sometimes I felt like the finger was pointed at me, but maybe that’s just my own insecurity.

“When you look back, though, we haven’t been blown out of many games. We just never seemed to have any situations where everyone on the team was going well at the same time.”

Peterson hopes that somehow the Titans can be a surprise in the Big West tournament, as they were early in the season with back-to-back victories over UNLV and UC Irvine. The Titans begin the tournament against Irvine Thursday afternoon.

But no matter how the tournament turns out, Peterson is confident that his basketball career will continue.

“I just know I’m going to play beyond this,” he said. “I know that if the opportunity isn’t there to play in the NBA right now, I hope I’ll have a chance to play overseas. There are a lot of opportunities there.”

Eustachy said he expects Peterson to definitely have a chance to play in Europe.

“A friend of mine scouts for the European leagues and he saw Peterson in their early game against UNLV this season, and was very impressed with him,” Eustachy said. “He thought he was the best player on the floor, that he played better in that game than Kebu Stewart did.”

Peterson realizes his career has been worthwhile, even with the losses and frustrations.

“If it hadn’t been for basketball, I probably wouldn’t have gone to college and I’m not far away from graduating,” he said. “Basketball made me learn to enjoy school. And maybe before long, it will put some money in my pocket too.”