Titans Hope to Ease Penalty’s Sting

The NCAA penalties handed down last week against the Cal State Fullerton men’s basketball program were a bundle of bad news for the Titans.

A reduction in scholarships from 13 to 11 for two years. A three-year ban on giving scholarships to community college players. And a reduction in the number of official visits for prospective recruits from 12 to 10. All for infractions that occurred in 1993 and ’94.

But Fullerton avoided the one penalty that would have been the most detrimental to the programa ban on postseason play. It would have kept Fullerton out of the Big West tournament and been a big blow to the morale of the current players.

“I’m really glad they didn’t do that,” sophomore center Matt Caldwell said. “After all, I don’t know why something that happened five years ago should affect us now. I’m just glad it’s over. It’s been on everyone’s mind, and I’m happy they finally brought closure to it.”

The sanctions will have an effect on recruiting and the team’s depth, but that can be overcome.

Fullerton used only 10 players last season, and the 10th, freshman guard Danny Italiano, played a total of 28 minutes. Having 11 scholarship players should keep at least 10 on the roster and one more player, if necessary, could be a redshirt each of the next two seasons, barring any severe injuries. The Titans should be able to fill out their roster with walk-ons.

A bigger concern is the ban on recruiting community college players for three years. Fullerton is still considering an appeal of that penalty and the length of the four-year probation.

However, community colleges have not been the major source of Titan players in recent years.

Fullerton recruited junior guard Mark Murphy from Glendale College in Arizona last year, but the rest of the recruiting class was made up of high school players.

The only other former community college player among the top 10 players last season was senior Jason Cunningham, who joined the program as a walk-on two years ago.

The only recruited community college transfer who saw much playing time on the 1997-98 team was Craig Whitehead, who played for two seasons but averaged only 6.5 points as a senior.

When Bob Hawking took over as coach in 1994, he said at the time he wanted to focus primarily on recruiting high school athletes, and he has done that with players such as Ike Harmon, Kenroy Jarrett, Josh Fischer, Brandon Campbell, Josh Helbig and Caldwell, who return, and Mark Richardson, who completed his eligibility last season. Two freshmen, Matt Donahue and Mitch Deve, were redshirts last season.

The key for Fullerton will be making each scholarship count.

Titan coaches are optimistic that the two players recruited for next season will help immediately. Power forward Patrick Ceresa of Vacallo, Switzerland, is expected to be more of a force on offense than Richardson was, and guard Rodney Anderson of L.A. Washington High will provide badly needed depth at guard behind Jarrett and Murphy.

Fullerton will have a good chance next season to have its best team since Hawking took over. The Titans haven’t had a winning season since 1993, though two of Hawking’s five teams were 13-14.

“We’re not going to let what happened with the probation bother us,” said Harmon, an All-Big West first-team selection last season. “We’re all going to work hard in the off-season to make sure it doesn’t. I’m already looking forward to next season.”

SOFTBALL SLUMP

The Fullerton softball team is still in the running for one of the berths in the 48-team NCAA playoffs, but the Titans probably will need to finish the season strong to be assured of a spot.

“We were ranked No. 3 in our region in the last rankings, and we’re hoping that we’ll get five or six teams in the tournament,” Titan Coach Judi Garman said. “But it won’t be easy. The Pac-10 is so strong this season that they could get all eight teams in.”

Garman said she would feel better about her team’s chances if the Titans had played better last weekend.

Fullerton (31-24, 10-8 in the Big West) lost two of three games against Utah State, the last-place team in the conference, after losing a doubleheader at Fresno State earlier in the week.

“It’s frustrating because we seemed to be playing so confidently, and now it looks as though we’re playing a little scared.”

PITCHING THIN?

The third-ranked Titan baseball team has had trouble holding big leads lately, and it’s starting to concern pitching coach Dave Serrano.

The Titans had a 7-0 lead against UCLA last week and won, 11-10. Then last weekend against Sacramento State, the Titans blew a 7-1 lead in one game and a 6-1 lead in another. Fullerton won one of those games but lost the other.

“Our pitchers are going to have to stop relying so much on our offense,” Serrano said.

The pitching has looked thinner since starter Jon Smith began having arm problems three weeks ago. Smith pitched only three innings in his last two outings and sat out last weekend’s series. The other starters, Adam Johnson and Matt Sorensen, are solid, and Kirk Saarloos is a capable closer. But Serrano is hoping at least one or two more pitchers will emerge.

Note

Outfielder Spencer Oborn, who came within a game of tying the school and Big West record 38-game hitting streak this season, is one of the nominees for the Dick Howser Award as college baseball player of the year.