Cassidy Gone After 25 Years at Northridge

Pete Cassidy, coach of the Cal State Northridge men’s basketball team for a quarter-century, was told Wednesday that his contract will not be renewed.

Athletic Director Paul Bubb said Cassidy was not the man to lead the Matadors into an important few seasons, when the team will have increased funding and move into a legitimate Division I conference for the first time.

“I think the time was right for a change,” Bubb said. “Going into a new conference and having some added resources available, it just seems the time was right if we were going to make a change.”

Cassidy took the news very hard. Reached at home Wednesday evening, he choked up and would only say: “I can’t talk, not tonight.”

Northridge, which has struggled since moving to Division I in 1990, is scheduled to get a scholarship hike--from 10 to 12--and join the Big Sky Conference.

Among those rumored to be candidates for the job are Bobby Castagna, a UC Santa Barbara assistant who played at Northridge in the early ‘70s; Bobby Braswell, an Oregon assistant who formerly coached at Cleveland High; Mike Miller, coach at Los Angeles City College; Jack Fertig, a former USC assistant who is now an administrative assistant at Fresno State; and Marty Wilson, Pepperdine’s interim coach last season and a Simi Valley High graduate.

Northridge was 7-20 this season. Cassidy compiled an overall record of 334-337, including four California Collegiate Athletic Assn. titles. In Division II, Northridge was 282-225 under Cassidy.