Titans to Interview Daniels, Reynolds

Two leading candidates for the Cal State Fullerton men’s basketball coaching job said Thursday they have been invited to the campus for interviews next week.

Donny Daniels, an assistant coach at Utah, said he is scheduled to be interviewed April 15, and Cal State San Bernardino Coach Larry Reynolds said he would be on campus a day earlier.

Daniels was a finalist for the position five years ago when Bob Hawking was hired after one season as interim coach. Daniels is a former Titan player and assistant coach who has been a Utah assistant for Rick Majerus for 11 years. He also was coach for Los Angeles Harbor College for two years, where he had a record of 33-29.

Reynolds, a former assistant at UC Riverside and San Francisco, has been head coach at San Bernardino for three seasons. His first team was 12-15, but his last two teams were 23-8 and 23-6. His 1998-99 team advanced to the Division II national tournament.

Two other applicants for the job, St. Louis assistant Cameron Dollar and Fresno State assistant Danny Tarkanian, said Thursday they had not been contacted.

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Cal State Fullerton will take a 2 1/2-game lead over Long Beach State and a three-game lead over Sacramento State into Big West Conference play this weekend.

The Titans (20-8, 9-0) face Sacramento State in a three-game series beginning tonight at 7 at Titan Field.

Sacramento State (12-18, 6-3) moved into contention last weekend by winning two of three games against Long Beach State (20-11, 8-4). Sacramento State also has won conference series against UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, two games to one.

The fifth-ranked Titans defeated No. 14 USC, 5-4, Wednesday night with a five-run ninth-inning rally.

Adam Johnson (4-1) is scheduled to start the series opener for Fullerton, with Jon Smith (5-1) set to pitch Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. Matt Sorensen (4-0) is the scheduled starter Sunday afternoon. Smith leads the Big West with a 1.99 earned-run average.

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Cal State Fullerton will bid to host an NCAA regional baseball tournament this season if the Titans qualify for the playoffs, Athletic Director John Easterbrook said Thursday.

The school also will bid for one of eight super-regional best-of-three playoff series if the Titans advance.

Fullerton did not bid for a regional last season, primarily because of a conflict with the school’s graduation ceremonies and activities in the Titan Field area. The school did bid for the super-regional playoff, but the NCAA Division I baseball committee awarded it to Ohio State.

Easterbrook said graduation again conflicts with dates of the regional, but graduation activities in the stadium are expected to be completed by the probable start of an opening game on that Saturday afternoon.

An athletic department spokesman said the school has started accepting deposits for tickets. The regionals will be played May 26-28 and super-regionals June 2-4. Construction is underway to increase seating capacity at Titan Field from 1,500 to nearly 4,000.