Titans May Never Get on the Map

To get somewhere, you need to know where you want to go.

In Orange County, where the Thomas Guide is a driver’s only friend, it would be nice if there were a sports version for Cal State Fullerton, whose basketball program is totally lost.

Of course Bob Hawking was going to be leaving the Titans soon. If he hadn’t quit as men’s basketball coach on Wednesday, he probably would have been fired.

But what is the point? Does anybody at Fullerton know where they want this program to go? The gym is a joke. Some of the players complained Wednesday that they have to fight off recreation-league teams for practice time and weight-room space. Attendance is the lowest in the Big West Conference. Low doesn’t go much lower than that.

Hamstrung by an interminable NCAA investigation and now resulting sanctions, which include a three-year ban on recruiting community college players, the future is not bright.

Give Hawking credit for being classy. He resigned now rather than the end of the season so the job search can begin immediately. He has refused to criticize anybody or anything and, in fact, says he knew what he was getting into when he took the job in 1994.

But, honestly, could Hawking recommend his job to anybody else? What would be the point?

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Did Pat Douglass’ heart skip a beat when he heard the news from Fullerton?

Douglass, in his third year as coach at UC Irvine, has made no progress. In fact, Hawking’s last victory, before the current eight-game losing streak, was over Irvine. There has been some big talk coming from Douglass about where he wants his program to go.

There’s just been no sign that the team is going to go with him.

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Here’s a team that knew where it wanted to go.

Tarbut V’Torah, the private, Jewish school in Irvine, had won its first Southern Section boys’ basketball playoff game last week and was supposed to play West Valley Christian in West Hills on Monday.

But school administrators wouldn’t let the team take the van and drive to the game. Because it was raining. Even though the rain had stopped by the time the team had gathered for the trip.

Patrick Roberts, the team’s coach, has taught driver’s ed for 30 years. As the designated driver for the team van, Roberts felt confident he could negotiate the 405 and the 101 freeways on the trip north from Irvine. Especially since, at 3 p.m. when the team was set to leave, have we mentioned this already, IT HAD STOPPED RAINING!

An administrative decision had been made, though. A team of eager boys was gathered, gear bags packed, for the trip. There are only 25 boys in the high school, and 12 of them are on this basketball team that is only three years old. So this game was a very big deal.

And it was forfeited.

Roberts, 65, who had come out of retirement two years ago to build this program, said goodbye to his team Thursday. Tough speech? “Yes,” Roberts said afterward. “We have been pretty sad. Sad most of all for the kids. They’ve worked so hard to accomplish this and we had great faith we were going to win on Monday.”

The game against West Valley Christian had already been postponed once. It had originally been scheduled for last Friday, but Tarbut V’Torah asked for a postponement since it is against Jewish custom to work or play on the Sabbath--sundown Friday until sundown Saturday. West Valley Christian administrators were happy to accommodate this request.

When it rained hard on Monday, and perhaps taking into account recent stories about van accidents involving sports teams--four members of the Prairie View track team were killed two weeks ago in a van accident--Roberts and Athletic Director Cindy Schaaf were informed by school administrators that there would be no travel.

Since the Southern Section schedule mandated the next round of games be played Tuesday night, there could not be a second rescheduling.

Roberts feels badly. For his kids, of course, though at least there were no seniors on the 19-4 team and so all of them will get another chance next year. He feels badly for whatever team might have been left out of the playoffs so Tarbut would get a spot. He feels badly for the Bakersfield Maricopa team, which had made the trip to Irvine for Tarbut’s playoff victory. “I’m sure those guys are thinking they should be playing,” Roberts said.

They’re not the only ones. Roberts didn’t want to criticize. He’s certain school officials were truly concerned about team safety. But it’s obvious no one involved in the decision had any athletic background. Calling the game on account of rain was unfair to the Tarbut kids and to the West Valley kids.

But, as Roberts says, “If this is the worst thing these kids ever go through, they’ll have had very good lives.”

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Mo Vaughn says he has paid no attention to the fact the Angels made no off-season moves. He says he doesn’t care what direction the team is going. He says he’s perfectly happy. That’s Mo’s growing nose creeping across the Arizona state line and into California. . . .

Video poker for Tonya Harding; video games for 14-year-old Naomi Nari Nam and 15-year-old Sasha Cohen. Hubcap to the nose of live-in boyfriend for Harding; a good-night cuddle with Beanie Babies for Nam and Cohen. Cigs and booze, fingerprints and mug shots for Harding; milk and cookies, homework and yearbook photos for Nam and Cohen. But in a way, Nam, from Irvine, and Cohen, from Laguna Niguel, have Harding to thank for all the attention they have received for figure skating success. It was Harding’s part in kneecapping rival Nancy Kerrigan six years ago that helped make the sport a top-rated TV event. . . .

From the Who Knew department: That the Wooden Classic last November would feature the teams ranked Nos. 1 (Stanford), 2 (Duke) and 11 (Auburn). And USC might have been the fourth ranked team had it not lost Sam Clancy for the season. All you folks who stayed home missed the best afternoon of basketball this college season.

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Diane Pucin can be reached at her e-mail address: diane.pucin@latimes.com