They Carry On

Neda Milic’s lips quiver slightly and her charming smile disappears briefly.

She is thinking about the man who brought her and three other foreign players to the Cal State Northridge women’s basketball team, trying her emotions.

“I came from a very difficult situation,” said Milic, her eyes watering. “Coach Michael helped me put my life back together.”

For Milic and teammates Viveca Lof, Lynda Amari and Daphne Verrept, it has been a bittersweet season, one that started with shock and confusion but is ending in triumph.

The Matadors (19-7), fresh from capturing their first Big Sky Conference championship, are top-seeded and hosting the six-team conference tournament through Saturday.

They had a first-round bye on Thursday and face sixth-seeded Northern Arizona in a semifinal game tonight at 7:30. The tournament champion advances to the NCAA tournament.

But former coach Michael Abraham, who recruited every Northridge player and was particularly revered by the Europeans on the team, won’t be on the bench to celebrate the winning or lament the losing.

It has been like that since November, when Abraham was arrested and charged with selling cocaine. It created havoc and uncertainty with the Matadors only days before the season opener. Abraham resigned, moved to Portland to await a federal trial, and assistant Frozena Jerro took over the program.

The team blossomed under Jerro, who still carries the “interim” tag. She was picked unanimously by the players to replace Abraham and guided the Matadors to their best Division I season, prompting All-Big Sky sophomore guard Edniesha Curry to insinuate she might not return if Jerro is not the coach next season.

But the impact Abraham made on the players hasn’t worn off and perhaps never will.

“The people who probably were hurt the most were [the foreign players],” Jerro said. “It probably hit the hardest with them. All of them have pushed forward and I respect them so much for that.”

Through various overseas connections, Abraham tapped into the European talent pool, recruiting Milic from Serbia, Lof from Sweden, Verrept from Belgium and Amari from France by way of Ventura College.

A fifth foreign player, junior center Maja Muzurovic from Serbia, was on the preseason roster but her career at Northridge appears over because of injuries. The Matadors have as many foreign players as the other Big Sky teams combined.

Each came to Northridge because of Abraham, a former assistant at Long Beach State and Oregon State.

“I don’t think anyone came here because of the program itself,” said Lof, a 6-foot-3 junior center. “I came here because players in Sweden who had played for him told me he was a great coach.”

Said Verrept, a 6-foot freshman guard who plays sparingly: “He’s the one who brought us here.”

While playing college basketball and studying in America attracted the foreign players to Northridge, Milic had other reasons.

Milic, who at 15 was sent by her parents to Belgrade when ethnic strife escalated at home in Sarajevo, desperately needed to escape the insanity, even if it was to a school on a fault line.

“Getting a scholarship for me was such a huge thing,” said Milic, a 6-1 sophomore forward. “I care about education a lot and I was coming to peace. Simple as that.”

Milic, a former national junior player of the year in Yugoslavia, has recovered from knee surgery performed before her redshirt freshman season in 1996-97 and is averaging 7.8 points as a backup. Lof, also a reserve, is a solid defender.

Amari, a 6-1 junior starting forward, is among the team’s catalysts. An All-Big Sky selection, she is averaging 11.1 points and 5.7 rebounds, and ranks second on the squad with 58 steals.

Like the Matadors’ other foreign players, Amari was lured to Northridge by Abraham, transferring after two outstanding seasons with Ventura’s powerhouse junior college program to a struggling but promising Division I program.

And, like the others, she refused to give up on the season when Abraham left.

“Coach Michael made us write our goals on a board,” Amari said. “It’s not like we changed our goals because he wasn’t here.”

Maybe not in body, but certainly in spirit.

“I don’t think we put it completely aside,” Lof said. “I’m still thinking about it. We still keep in touch . . . He’s happy for us.”

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With a 19-7 record in her first season as coach of the Cal State Northridge women’s basketball team, Frozena Jerro ranks fourth in school history for career victories. Page 15

BIG SKY ROUNDUP PAGE 15