The Northridge Aftershocks

Suddenly, being a Cal State Northridge basketball player is a big deal.

Maybe not for the Matadors on their campus. But then, some things never change.

As for the Southern California college basketball landscape, it was jolted Tuesday by a school with a public image overshadowed by an earthquake.

Northridge’s 78-74 shocker over UCLA at Pauley Pavilion unquestionably ranks as the biggest athletic moment in the history of the 42-year-old commuter school in the San Fernando Valley.

In the land of Bruins and Trojans, suddenly the Matadors (2-0) are on the map, making front-page headlines, radio bulletins, even their debut on ESPN’s “SportsCenter.”

“It’s been incredible,” Northridge Coach Bobby Braswell said Wednesday. “On my machine last night when I got home, there were 25 calls. When I got up this morning there were another 30 calls. CBS, ESPN, XTRA Sports . . . a lot of different calls from well-wishers.”

Northridge, 20-10 last season, is the preseason favorite to win the Big Sky Conference and advance to its first NCAA tournament. The program has steadily improved in four seasons under Braswell, a former assistant at Oregon and Long Beach State whose stock in the coaching trade is rising.

Last season, Northridge shook things up with road victories over Fresno State and Oregon before losing in overtime to Northern Arizona in the Big Sky tournament final. But few expected the Matadors to take it to 15th-ranked UCLA.

The victory was Northridge’s first in five games against the Bruins and first over a team ranked in the Associated Press top 25. Northridge, slated to join the Big West Conference next season, gets a crack at USC on Dec. 5 at the Sports Arena.

“This is what I’ve hoped for since I’ve been here,” Braswell said. “We want to be known as the Valley’s team and, hopefully, the Valley is proud of us. We want people to come out and support us and realize that they don’t have to go across the hill to see good basketball. They can see it right here.”

Too bad few of Northridge’s 28,000 students care to look.

Crowds for home games typically are sparse in the 1,600-seat Matadome, a glorified gymnasium and the smallest of any arena in the Big Sky. Northridge played before 1,237 in its home opener Sunday against Howard.

Last season, Braswell resorted to organizing a grass-roots publicity campaign in which volunteers, including his wife, distributed fliers throughout campus. Still, attendance waned.

“We always talk about how students don’t go to the games,” center Brian Heinle said. “Maybe now, they’ll start fighting to get in.”

Braswell canceled practice Wednesday as a reward to players and to prepare for the game Saturday at Nevada Las Vegas. Besides, with everyone staying up late to watch the rebroadcast of the game, who had time to sleep?

“It’s a good feeling to get a victory like this and have people actually know that we did it,” forward Jeff Parris said. “When I first came here, I was just worried about playing. The last thing I was worried about was beating anybody big.”

Parris, the first recruit signed by Braswell at Northridge, led the way against UCLA with a career-high 27 points. A fifth-year senior, Parris never expected to claim the spotlight at Northridge, of all places.

“Only a couple of friends who I talk to know about us,” Parris said. “This isn’t UCLA or USC, where we’re going to be in the media every day. This is little ol’ Northridge. That’s why this [victory] is so big.”

Wednesday, players proudly donned their basketball sweats while mingling with the student body.

“They don’t recognize us,” said guard John Burrell, a transfer from Nevada. “That’s why we wore these today. A couple of people have stopped us and said, ‘Good job.’ But I think it might take a little more [success].”

Evidently. News of the victory seemed to trickle across campus Wednesday. Some students reacted with disbelief.

“It’s a joke, right?” said Joseph Barsuglia, a 19-year-old sophomore. “That’s amazing, it’s awesome!”

Lisandro Garcia, a 20-year-old sophomore, learned of Northridge’s victory on the morning news.

“I said, ‘Wait a minute, there’s got to be something wrong here.’ ” Garcia said. “I didn’t think it could be true.”

Maybe with all this sudden attention, things will start to change for the Matadors.

“When I was in junior college, this was the last place I wanted to go,” Burrell said. “We’d kind of laugh about Cal State Northridge. Now it’s a good feeling and I wear this [uniform] with pride. I’m happy to play for Cal State Northridge. We can always say, ‘Hey, we beat UCLA.’ ”