Court Is in Session : Braswell Goes to Work Rebuilding Northridge

Like many basketball coaches, Bobby Braswell is full of it.

Optimism, that is.

Sit down and talk Cal State Northridge basketball with the new coach and you’ll hear a lot about class, pride, attitude and so on. He’ll tell you about how the players are going to graduate, how they will be role models in the community and how he’d like to pack Matador Gym to the rafters, turning it into a pit for opponents.

But can he convince any recruits? He starts Monday, when the NCAA summer basketball evaluation period begins, running until the end of the month.

Braswell will get on a plane tonight and fly to New Jersey for a major high school basketball camp. Then he’ll fly to Indianapolis for another. Then he’ll be off someplace else.

“My family won’t see me in July,” he said.

Braswell, who took over the Northridge program May 1, will be looking for his 1997-98 team. It may seem like a waste of time for Braswell to head for such places where he’ll be sitting alongside Jim Harrick, Roy Williams and Bob Knight, watching the nation’s elite players, though Braswell will be focusing on California players.

But that’s Braswell.

“One of the things that I refuse to do is step in here and say I’m not going to recruit top-notch players because we have no chance of getting them,” Braswell said. “All it takes is landing one kid who believes in what you are trying to do, who likes you and who you connect with.

“Once you get that kid, it opens up the floodgates to everyone else.”

Holding back the floodgates for a moment, remember that Braswell is trying to persuade kids to join a program that has gone 52-112 in Division I and plays in a tiny gym to crowds smaller than those at your average showing of a Tom Cruise movie.

But none of that seems to matter to Braswell, a 33-year-old who helped build programs as an assistant at Long Beach State and Oregon before taking over at his alma mater.

His pitch to young basketball players will have the normal stuff about potentially making the NCAA tournament, the chance to play against UCLA in the regular season and the opportunity to stay in Southern California, where it’s warm and Mom and Dad can see you play.

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He’ll add one kicker: “Do you go to a school where you are just wanted or go to a school where you are needed?” Braswell said he will ask recruits. “Everyone who calls these kids will tell them how much they want them. But how many of those schools actually need those kids? How many are saying we will build our program around you?”

Braswell said those high school players will be the key to developing stability in a program that has been constantly rebuilt by junior college players.

No one can be sure just how successful Braswell’s recruiting will be until 1998, when his first class has played a season at Northridge. But there are indications that the tide may be turning.

Braswell’s connections in Southern California basketball circles have bolstered Northridge’s recruiting efforts. Mike Johnson, who assisted Pete Cassidy the past four seasons and was retained on Braswell’s staff, said he’s been received better by high school coaches since Braswell took over.

“It’s just opened up a lot of doors that weren’t necessarily open in the past,” Johnson said.

Soon after Braswell was named at Northridge, Long Beach Jordan High Coach Ron Massey called and helped the Matadors land their first Braswell recruit--Jordan forward Jeffrey Parris, the Moore League’s most valuable player.

Two guards will transfer to Northridge. Mike O’Quinn, a two-year starter at Loyola Marymount, and Greg Minor, the all-time leading scorer at Canyon High, will be eligible in 1997-98.

Braswell even helped attract a player who was already at Northridge, Damion Morbley. Morbley, who was Northridge’s leading scorer when he quit after a dispute with Cassidy in January, has been invited back.

Morbley and the rest of the Matadors are playing in the Just Say No summer league, thanks to Braswell’s connections. The Just Say No league includes many of the best college players on the West Coast.

Each player has also been given a schedule of rigorous summer workouts, meant to prepare them for what awaits when Braswell institutes his full-court running style in the fall.

“We are going to press full court from the beginning of the game to the end of the game,” Braswell said. “We are going to run at every opportunity and we are going to do it under control. We are not just going to play educated street ball.”

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The Matadors figure to have talent. Although they lost three major contributors--guard Robert Hill (4.3 points a game), forward Eric Gray (10.9) and forward Ruben Oronoz (10.0)--they gain plenty.

Center Kevin Taylor and guard Derrick Higgins, the team’s top defensive players, will be back after missing last season with injuries. Forward Keith Higgins had to sit out after transferring from Colorado, where he was the Big Eight newcomer of the year in 1994-95. Point guard Trenton Cross also returns.

Northridge also gains two Cassidy recruits, Moorpark College forward Brady Mertes and Chaffey College guard Sha-Ron Elzy.

“I don’t know how good we can be,” said Braswell, who has seen players work out individually, but not as a team. “We are not at a talent level or athletic level where I want to be. I wish I had gotten here a little bit earlier to have a little better impact on recruiting this year, but I have to deal with the hand I’ve been dealt.”

It’s his deal starting Monday.