New Coach Will Face Old Problems

A couple of times in six years,Bob Hawking’s Cal State Fullerton basketball teams were on the verge of having a winning season.

But it didn’t happen.

Hawking’s last season as coach ended Saturday with an 8-19 record, 3-13 in the Big West Conference.

In the final game, Fullerton had only nine healthy players, three of them walk-ons, and its most promising freshman, guard Rodney Anderson, lay critically wounded in a hospital from a shooting near his family’s home in Los Angeles last Thursday.

At the news conference when Hawking announced his resignation two weeks ago, he was asked to talk about the challenges the new coach will face. “This,” Hawking said, “is only a 20-minute press conference.”

The problems are obvious. An outdated playing facility, a student population that has provided little support, and the cloud of an NCAA probation that still limits what the school can do from a recruiting standpoint.

The new coach will face the same challenges Hawking did when he took over six years ago. The key will be attracting more quality players. Utah assistant coach Donny Daniels, a former Titan player and assistant coach, appears to be the front-runner for the job.

The return of center Matt Caldwell will help next season, and Ike Harmon remains hopeful that he will regain the year he lost as a Prop. 48 nonqualifier.

But Fullerton didn’t sign any players in the early signing period, and that adds even more pressure to the recruiting demands the new coach will face immediately.

WOMEN’S TEAM STRUGGLES

The Fullerton women’s basketball team also struggled this season, winning only one conference game and finishing 2-25.

The Titans were 10-17 and 4-22 in Denise Curry’s first two seasons as coach. Her three-year contract is up at the end of the month, and Athletic Director John Easterbrook said he plans to meet with Curry this week to discuss the program.

“We’ve had a difficult couple of years,” said Curry, a three-time All-American at UCLA and a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame as a player. “This year was especially difficult for our seniors. But I’m pleased about the way our players have hung in there. Now I need to begin evaluating where we are at this stage. I am pleased with this year’s freshman class, and I think we signed some good players in the early signing period.”

GOALS FOR 2000

Offense was the emphasis in recruiting for both the UC Irvine men’s and women’s soccer teams.

Women’s Coach Marine Cano landed what he calls the two top strikers from Washington, Hayley McNallan (Tacoma Curtis High) and Erin Tuvey (Olympia High).

To go with those two, Cano landed Capistrano Valley striker Jessica Lyons, a member of the Olympic Development Program’s District II team. She is also a two-time South Coast League champion in the triple jump.

The Anteaters also picked up some help on defense, signing midfielder Lachelle Manzano, a midfielder from Edison, and Caroline Kabe, a defender from Palos Verdes Peninsula.

Men’s Coach George Kuntz picked up four strikers, Lerato Simelane (North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake), Jon Nebot (Santa Margarita), Sebastian Galmarini (Santa Margarita) and Robby Busick (Atascadero).

JONES SHOULD PLAY

Irvine forward Ben Jones said he expects to play Thursday, when the Anteaters face New Mexico State in the first round of the Big West Conference basketball tournament. Jones, who sprained his left ankle against North Texas Saturday night, has started the last five games after Sean Jackson went down with an ankle injury.

Jones, a 6-7 junior, said he would not practice today, but the injury is not considered serious.

HELP FROM COACH

Cal State Fullerton senior Jason Webster became the first Pacific-10 Conference wrestling champion coached by Ardeshir Asgari last weekend when he won the 174-pound title at UC Davis.

But Asgari, who took over 1992, had to win a battle for Webster to get it.

Webster originally lost the championship match in overtime, but Asgari protested. Asgari argued that Webster had not been credited with one of the points he earned during 60 seconds of nonstop scrambling during regulation time. Asgari turned out to be correct.

Asgari said it took about 45 minutes to resolve the dispute.

“I told Jason to stay right there, and not leave the mat,” Asgari said. “If he had left the mat, the match would have been over. The argument between me and the officials got hotter and hotter.”

Finally, the meet director agreed to review a videotape of the match, Asgari said. “The NCAA doesn’t permit using a video to decide a dispute about whether a wrestler earned a point, but I convinced them they were only reviewing whether the point was in the score,” Asgari said.

SUN WEST

The third annual Sun West softball tournament begins today at El Camino Park in Orange and will feature six of the nations’s top 25 Division III programs.

The round-robin tournament continues through April 1 and features 41 colleges from 17 states.

The tournament, which is made up almost entirely of NCAA Division III schools, will mark the start of the season for many out-of-state schools. Each week a new set of teams will take part in the tournament, except for host Chapman, which is scheduled to play 24 games during the tournament.

Chapman, ranked third in the National Coaches Assn. Division III poll, won the tournament last season.

Weekend games will be played at Hart Park in Orange. Game times range from 8 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Admission is free.

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Staff writers Dan Arritt and Chris Foster contributed to this story.