Hawking Hopes to Break Chain of Bad Luck This Season

Bob Hawking is wondering if he should stop throwing all those chain letters he has been receiving from his college coaching buddies in the trash.

“Just about every coach in the country must be on those lists,” Hawking said.

Hawking says he got one the other day from Seth Greenberg, the former Long Beach State coach who is in his first year at South Florida. “He said his team’s practice is going so bad that he had to pass it on,” Hawking said.

Hawking has had more than his share of bad luck with injured players in his two years as the Cal State Fullerton men’s basketball coach. He and the Titans got more bad news this week. Hawking learned Monday that sophomore guard Kenroy Jarrett, who started 13 games last season, will need knee surgery this week and be out four to six weeks.

Another top guard, Chris St. Clair, has been slowed by a broken bone in his left hand, and his status is uncertain for the season opener Friday night at Brigham Young.

Even if St. Clair, who had his cast removed this week, is cleared to play, he probably would be used sparingly.

That makes Hawking even more thankful that the Big West Council recently approved a medical redshirt year for senior Al Nayab and that freshman Dane Plock has some high school experience at point guard.

“We’d be really thin without Ali,” Hawking said. “But even if Chris is able to play, we’re still looking at only a four-guard rotation against BYU. I wish we were healthier going into our first game.”

Nayab, however, was solid at the point guard spot in Monday night’s exhibition game against Global Sports. He had 10 assists and five points, which was encouraging to Hawking. “He distributed the ball very well,” Hawking said.

Hawking has been using Plock as a backup at off-guard behind starter Chris Dade, but thinks Plock can adjust quickly to point guard if needed. “He played well and unselfishly at the point in high school at Estancia, but we saw him more at the other guard spot because of the way he can shoot,” Hawking said. “We’ve told him we want him to shoot more.”

Plock showed again Monday that he definitely can shoot, making his first three three-point shots of the night. He dropped off that pace in the second half and ended up making four of nine three-pointers.

Senior John Williams, the returning starter at power forward, also had a good night with 32 points and nine rebounds, and newcomer Craig Whitehead again showed promise while replacing Chuck Overton.

The other inside spot appears shaky. “It looks like we’ll have to get some mileage out of a deep rotation there,” Hawking said.

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The Titans will face the nation’s No. 1-ranked team when they play UCLA Sunday afternoon in the first round of the NCAA men’s soccer playoffs at Titan Stadium.

The Bruins are ranked first in this week’s polls by Soccer America and the National College Soccer Coaches Assn., but they aren’t one of the four seeded teams in the NCAA tournament. Top-seeded Washington is in the same bracket with UCLA (16-3) and Fullerton (10-4-5).

Fullerton Coach Al Mistri says he’s surprised Washington (14-2-1) is seeded ahead of UCLA, though the Huskies won, 3-1, when the teams played at Washington Sept. 29. Since then, UCLA has won 11 consecutive games.

Mistri questions the strength of Washington’s schedule. “They’ve played 17 games, but three of them have been against Division II teams and another one was against Oregon State, a team we beat, 5-0,” he said.

UCLA defeated the Titans, 2-0, when the teams played Oct. 20 at UCLA, but Mistri says he’s looking forward to the rematch.

“They’re a very good team, but the last game we played was closer than the 2-0 score,” Mistri said. “We still think we can win the game if we play well. They had two players marking Sheldon Thomas the last time we played, and we didn’t take advantage of that as well as we possibly could have.” Thomas is the Titans’ leading scorer with 39 points on 17 goals and five assists.

Titan midfielder Eugene Brooks missed that game because of a red card.

Two Fullerton players who have been troubled by ankle injuries, Alfred Partida and Tom Helmer, also should be improved physically. “We’re as healthy as we’ve been in several weeks,” Mistri said.

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The volleyball team finished the regular season 16-13, 6-10 in the Big West Conference, but failed to qualify for the postseason tournament.

The Titans were fifth in the Western Division behind Long Beach State, Pacific, UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. The Titans had a better conference record than the No. 4 team in the Eastern Division, North Texas. North Texas advanced under a complicated point system formula because of its victory over Nevada, one of the top three teams in its division.

Senior Heather Bassett finished first in the conference in kills and second in digs. Junior Melissa Blacker was third in assists.

Titan Notes

Three former Titans--Derek Jones, Agee Ward and Joe Small--are on the Global Sports basketball team that lost to Fullerton Monday. . . . Joe Franchino, who was dismissed from the Titan soccer team last year, is playing for Washington. . . . Junior transfer Kris Sigg scored 18 points to lead the women’s basketball team to a 51-46 victory over New Zealand last week. . . . In the NCAA regional cross-country meet last weekend, the Titan women finished 14th and the men 16th.

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Coming Attractions

Here’s a look at key games this week for Cal State Fullerton:

* Men’s soccer at 2 p.m. Sunday at Titan Stadium against UCLA in the first round of the NCAA playoffs. The Bruins won the regular-season match between the teams, 2-0.

* Men’s basketball at 7 p.m. Friday at Brigham Young.

* Women’s basketball at 2 p.m. Sunday at Cal State Sacramento.