Struggling Titans Aren’t Discouraged

This season has been a struggle for Cal State Fullerton’s first-year coaches in men’s and women’s basketball, but Donny Daniels and Barbara Ehardt say they’re not discouraged.

The men’s team is 2-12 under Daniels after ending its nine-game losing streak with a Big West Conference victory Saturday at Idaho. The women’s team is 0-15 after losing Sunday to Long Beach State.

“We can’t drop our heads and feel sorry for ourselves,” Daniels said. “We just have to get better.”

Ehardt and Daniels said they expected this season to be a challenge. The Fullerton men finished 8-19 last season, and the women’s team was 2-25.

“I’m not at all discouraged because I think I came in with realistic expectations,” Ehardt said. “The good thing is that when you start from the point we did, it’s going to feel so much more rewarding when you start getting better.”

Ehardt expects an immediate boost next season from two players who are redshirts this season. Guard Tricia Lamb is sitting out this season after transferring from Washington State. Guard Trilena Amos, a freshman from Crenshaw High, is academically ineligible as a partial qualifier.

Lamb was an All-Pacific 10 Conference selection as a sophomore but played only six games as a junior last season at Washington State.

“She didn’t click with the new coaching staff there last season,” Ehardt said. “But we think she’ll be an outstanding player for us.”

Amos was named to the City Section all-star team and was The Times’ Central City area player of the year.

“They’ve made it very difficult for our other players in practice,” Ehardt said. “They, and the other players we bring in for next season, will make a difference.”

Injuries and illness have taken their toll on the men’s team this season.

A stress fracture in his foot cost Ike Harmon four weeks of practice before the season, then he missed the first two games of the season because of a suspension. “You can’t miss that much time and come back sharp,” Daniels said.

Brandon Campbell, a starter last season, played in only two games because of a knee injury before deciding to redshirt, and center Matt Caldwell has been sidelined since Dec. 22 because of swollen lymph nodes.

Guard David Castleton didn’t become academically eligible until the eighth game of the season.

“One of our problems is that we have some guys playing too many minutes to be effective,” Daniels said. “And that’s a matter of depth.”

But Daniels says he doesn’t want to use that as an excuse. “We’ve been blown out of a lot of games, and haven’t played as well at home as I hoped we would,” he said.

Recruiting also will be the key for the men’s team.

“We need to get our full complement of players,” Daniels said. “That’s where the probation has hurt. Probation does exactly what it’s supposed to do to a program, and it’s done that to Fullerton. Community college players have been very successful in our league, and we want to take advantage of that when we can.”

The men’s program will have its full allotment of 13 scholarships restored for next season after losing two for each of the last two years because of probation. Fullerton also will be able to resume offering scholarships to community college players after Nov. 30 of this year, according to June Kearney, the athletic department’s compliance director.

NOT VANGUARDS

Vanguard’s women’s basketball team fell out of the NAIA top 25 last week for the first time since early in the 1998-99 season, after opening Golden State Athletic Conference play with losses to Azusa Pacific and Fresno Pacific. The Lions are 10-4 overall and 3-2 in the GSAC.

“We’re not shooting the ball well and we’re having trouble scoring,” Coach Russ Davis said. “At Fresno Pacific we missed 33 shots in the paint and didn’t score in the last six minutes of the game.”

One bright spot has been the play of junior center Kelly Boeke, formerly of Fountain Valley High. She is averaging 12.9 points and 8.3 rebounds and is the fifth woman in school history to reach the 1,000-point plateau. The school record for points in a career is 1,235 set by Elaine Whittemore from 1994-98.

“[Boeke is] a hard-working kid,” Davis said. “She’s self-motivated. I don’t want to take any credit for her performances. She comes into the gym and does the extra things because she wants to get better.”

DIAMOND DELAY

The first phase of renovations at the campus baseball stadium at UC Irvine has hit a snag. Bids from contractors came in over the projected budget of $3 million, a spokesman said. Construction, which was scheduled to begin in December, has been put on hold indefinitely.

But that won stop the Anteaters from holding ground-breaking ceremonies at 11:45 a.m. Jan. 25, exactly a year from the first scheduled baseball game with UC San Diego in 2002.

Baseball is returning to UCI after 10 years. Coach John Savage, a former USC assistant, was hired in July and signed 18 players last November.

NOTABLE

UC Irvine junior guard Jerry Green has been named Big West Conference co-player of the week, marking the third time in the past four weeks he has received the honor.

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Staff writer Paul McLeod contributed to this story.