Suspension Piques Plock’s Interest

There was a time last fall when Cal State Fullerton’s Dane Plock was starting to wonder how committed he was to playing college basketball.

“I felt burned out, and I was doubting myself,” Plock said. “I had gotten behind on my grades, and so I had to take two classes in the summer. That made me feel like I didn’t have any time to myself. Summer flew by so fast, and it seemed like we went right into conditioning after school started again.”

But Plock said that attitude changed quickly after he was suspended indefinitely for what was called a violation of team rules the day before preseason practices.

“I’m not proud that it happened, but it did make me realize how important basketball is to me,” said Plock, a sophomore guard who played at Estancia. “It didn’t take me long to get bored without basketball.”

The suspension lasted 30 days, but it seemed longer to Plock.

“I really missed being around my teammates, and I missed playing,” he said. “I think it made me stronger to go through that adversity. My parents, my teammates and the coaches all stayed behind me, and that really helped.”

Plock and Titan Coach Bob Hawking have declined to comment on the reason for the suspension.

“It’s a personal thing,” Plock said. “At this point, I just want to be able to put it behind me, and I want us to have a good season. Coach has been really good about everything. He didn’t hold any grudges. He told me he wasn’t trying to run me off, that he recruited me and still wanted me to play. And he told me that how long I was going to be suspended would depend on me.”

*

Hawking allowed Plock to return to the team after the season-opening game at Utah, and Plock believes he has been able to make up for the lost time.

“I would shoot on my own while I was out, and I’d run, but it was nothing compared to the regular preseason workouts,” Plock said. “I was really sore after the first two or three days back at practice.”

Plock says he was surprised that he played as soon as the second game--even if it was for only a minute against Norfolk State.

“I didn’t expect to get in at all,” Plock said. “But when I got in late in the game, I could tell I still wasn’t in sync yet. I was wide open a couple of times, and didn’t even take the shot.”

Plock’s playing time moved up to 11 minutes in the next game, and he played fewer than 10 minutes only twice in the next six games. He had stints of 27 minutes against Pepperdine and 24 against San Diego.

Plock has become known for his three-point shooting. Last season, 44 of the 49 field goals he scored were from three-point range. He made five of 10 against Idaho and four of eight against Nevada in his top efforts.

“I’m still not shooting as well this season as I think I can,” said Plock, who has made 12 of 38 three-pointers.

*

Plock says he’s a little surprised that he still gets as many unchallenged three-point opportunities as he does. “You’d think the other teams would catch on to it by now,” he said.

Plock, 6 feet and 170 pounds, says he’s trying to vary his game by driving more. “But it seems like even when I get to the basket, the guys in there are so big, and it’s so tight, that even easy layups become tough for me,” he said. Plock says he’s more comfortable shooting behind the arc than from closer range.

“Why shoot a two when you can make a three?” Plock said, smiling. “I think it goes back to when I was in high school. I really practiced the three-point shot for hours on my own.

“I know that I have to learn to shoot the 10- and 15-foot jump shots better than I do now when we lose those two senior guards [Chris Dade and Chris St. Clair] next season. I’ll need to be more versatile, and I think I can do that.”

Titan Notes

The men’s basketball team is ranked 143rd nationally in the most recent Sagarin computer power ratings. That puts the Titans in the upper half of the 309 Division I teams rated. . . . The team’s two-game Midwestern trip gave friends and relatives of several players from that area a chance to see the Titans play. . . . There were 31 from Mark Richardson’s hometown of Fort Wayne, Ind., at the Loyola of Chicago game Tuesday night. A group of 17 also made the trip from the Belleville, Ill., area in Southern Illinois to cheer for Craig Whitehead. . . . Bruce Bowen, a former Titan, is back playing again for the Boston Celtics after spending some time on injured reserve because of a broken nose. Bowen continues to draw rave reviews from Coach Rick Pitino.