Matadors Hope Feats Fill Seats

Frenzied fans. Blaring brass bands. Cheerleaders hurled into the air. Colorful mascots mingling with fans.

All of which the Cal State Northridge basketball team is forced to confront each time it plays on the road. Little of which the Matadors experience at home.

Still, Northridge (4-2) has made big noise this season by pulling off upsets at Fresno State and Oregon, campuses where students live and breathe basketball and opponents often find themselves shocked by the electric atmosphere.

Instead, the Matadors have delivered the jolts.

Northridge, in a game not as close as its score, defeated Fresno State, 69-66, before a crowd of more than 10,000. It was the team’s first victory over the Bulldogs since 1971 and first ever at Selland Arena.

A week later, Northridge surprised again with a 79-77 victory before more than 7,000 at Oregon’s storied McArthur Court, perennially ranked among the most difficult places for a visiting team to win.

Both victories earned Northridge recognition from a number of national publications, not to mention about $70,000 in revenue for its financially strapped athletic department.

Meanwhile, back at the Matadome. . . .

“After playing in an arena like Fresno and going to Oregon, and then to come back to our place and have introductions at 7:00 and 100 people are sitting in the stands, it’s hard,” Coach Bobby Braswell said. “I don’t want the players in this program to become discouraged. But you don’t know what to do.”

For the Matadors, home is where the heartache is--playing in one of college basketball’s most tranquil environments before fans often outnumbered by empty seats.

Last season, Northridge ranked last in home attendance in the nine-team Big Sky Conference. This season, the Matadors are averaging 561 after two home games.

“We go to other places and it’s a big thing on game day and then we come out here and it’s nothing,” guard Markus Carr said. “We have some devoted fans who come to every game. A lot of people know we’re doing good things right now. Hopefully, people will come out.”

Marco McCain, a junior guard, is less optimistic.

“I feel we should be getting some support because we’re representing the school,” McCain said. “But I really think most of the people just don’t care. The older people care. The students, I don’t know. I have friends who say they’ll come to the game. But then I look in the stands and no one’s there.”

The Matadors hit the road again for nonconference games at Oral Roberts in Tulsa, Okla., on Monday and Texas-El Paso on Wednesday. The team returns home for a Dec. 28 game against St. Francis College of New York.

What kind of turnout can they expect? Likely the usual. But Braswell and his staff are determined to change things, even if it means launching their own full-court publicity press.

“My wife and I talked about it and she said to me, ‘Look Honey, if we have to market it ourselves, we’ll market it ourselves,’ ” Braswell said. “We’ll go to the grocery store and put flyers on cars. We’re taking the approach now that we’re just going to do what we have to do to market the program.

“Our desire is to get some butts in those seats in that arena, so people will take a good look at the product we put on the floor.”

To be sure, Northridge does more with less. Considering economics, the victory over Oregon, a member of the Pacific 10 Conference, was remarkable.

The Ducks, who advanced to the Final Four of the NIT last season, have a basketball budget in the millions. Northridge’s budget is about $150,000. Before the game, a Eugene publication tabbed Northridge a 37-point underdog against the Ducks.

Among eight Division I men’s teams in the Los Angeles area, only Northridge does not have its games broadcast on radio. Budgetary constraints are the reason, Athletic Director Dick Dull said.

Dull said efforts will be made to arrange radio broadcasts for next season. An administrator in charge of fund-raising and marketing is expected to be hired by the end of the month.

In the meantime, marketing will be done on a shoestring budget by a short-handed staff.

“We don’t have a lot of flyers and posters [on campus],” Dull said. “We need to do a better job in that.”

Braswell said he intends to approach the music department about arranging a pep band to perform at the games. Dull said a band likely will be in attendance Dec. 28.

“If we could just have five or six members come in and play some tunes during timeouts and get the fans involved, that’s going to improve the environment,” Braswell said. “And when the other team calls a timeout, turn the music on right away and get people clapping.

“I believe the fans in this university will come out and they will support Northridge. I realize there isn’t a lot of tradition. That’s part of the battle. We have to start our own tradition. But it’s not going to be done overnight.”

For their part, players can only hope to improve attendance by improving performance.

“If we keep doing everything we’ve been doing,” McCain said, “eventually, we will.”