CAL STATE FULLERTON NOTEBOOK / LON EUBANKS : Freshman Richardson Starting to Feel at Home

Mark Richardson was a little surprised when Coach Bob Hawking called his name as a starter a few minutes before Cal State Fullerton took the floor for its opening basketball game against UCLA.

For a freshman making his college debut against the defending national champions in Pauley Pavilion, however, Richardson seemed to take it all in stride.

“I’m kind of glad Coach Hawking didn’t tell me in advance I was starting,” Richardson said, smiling. “I might have really been nervous. I was a little nervous anyway.”

Richardson has been in the starting lineup since, and says he’s beginning to feel comfortable.

He said he’s also feeling comfortable at Fullerton, after making the move from Ft. Wayne, Ind., where he was born, grew up and played high school basketball at Bishop Dwenger High.

Richardson just can’t get accustomed to walking through the malls and hearing Christmas music with no snow on the ground.

Otherwise, Richardson believes he has made a smooth adjustment to college basketball and his new life in Southern California.

“It’s different not having my parents at all the games, the way they were before, but my parents were able to see both the UCLA and San Diego State games on television because one of [my father’s] friends has a satellite dish,” he said. “My father got a kick out of seeing me play against UCLA.

“The big difference for me in the college game is that it’s a lot more physical, and I like that.”

Richardson laughs when he thinks about how tight fouls were called in Indiana high school basketball compared to his experience in college.

“In high school, I used to foul out a lot,” Richardson said. “I was in foul trouble in just about every game I played in high school, so this has been great for me. You can get away with a lot more. You can lean on people inside and bump people when they come through the lanes. You could never get away with that in high school.”

Richardson, who is 6 feet 7 and 215 pounds, did most of his scoring from close range in high school.

“I’ve been working on my jump shot this season, but it’s still pretty ugly,” Richardson said. “In our offense, the No. 5 man is out on the perimeter quite a bit, so it would be nice if I could get my jump shot going a little more. And I need to be taking it to the glass harder than I have sometimes.”

Hawking likes Richardson’s physical style of play, especially his defense.

“Our whole staff feels good about the contributions he’s made,” Hawking said. “We feel he’s done an exceptionally good job defensively as a freshman. He’s taken on some good people. We were especially pleased with the way he played defensively against [Loyola Marymount’s Ime] Oduok the other night.”

Oduok, a center who came into the game against Fullerton with a 16.3 scoring average, scored only eight points, four at the free throw line.

“Mark comes to work every day with his hard hat on,” Hawking said. “He’s a no-nonsense kind of guy and he’s going to be a solid cornerstone in the kind of program we’re building.”

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Coach Al Mistri is putting together what might be Fullerton’s strongest men’s soccer schedule for next season.

The Titans will play 1995 NCAA champion Wisconsin and Virginia, which won the 1994 title and lost in the semifinals this season.

Wisconsin will play the Titans in the second round of the Reebok Invitational at Titan Stadium Sept. 1. Then Fullerton plays at Virginia Sept. 7.

Fullerton also will play five other schools that were in the NCAA playoffs in 1995: Southern Methodist, Santa Clara, UCLA, St. Louis and San Diego.

Duke, another 1995 playoff team, was originally part of the MetLife Classic at UCLA, but the Blue Devils have been replaced by Ohio State.

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The Titan wrestling team will compete in the Oregon Classic at Corvallis, Ore., Thursday and Friday, and Coach Ardeshir Asgari is eager to see his wrestlers face some of the nation’s top teams.

“It’s a 16-team tournament, and it will have several of the top teams there,” Asgari said. “Oregon State, Arizona State, Ohio State and Minnesota are ranked among the top 12 teams in the country.”

Asgari has been especially pleased with the performances of junior 118-pounder Orlando deCastroverde and sophomore 142-pounder Darryl Christian.

“I think both of them have a good chance of qualifying for the NCAA tournament this year if they continue improving the way they have,” he said.

Christian has an 8-2 record and deCastroverde is 5-4.

“We’re wrestling a lot of freshmen and sophomores this year, and they’re coming along fine,” Asgari said.

Titan Notes

Baseball star Mark Kotsay is not among the 10 finalists for the 1995 Sullivan Award. The finalists included Stanford golfer Tiger Woods, Connecticut basketball player Rebecca Lobo, world champion sprinter Michael Johnson and Nebraska football quarterback Tommie Frazier. Kotsay was among more than 40 athletes originally nominated.