The Odd Couple

On the surface, Ian Boylan and Cal State Northridge don’t seem like a match.

Boylan was born and raised in Norman, Okla., in the shadow of a university renowned for its mighty athletic program. Indeed, while he plays forward for the Northridge basketball team, he still considers himself a die-hard member of the University of Oklahoma’s Sooner Nation, not too far removed from those Saturdays in the fall when he used to sneak into football games at jam-packed Memorial Stadium.

“Growing up there, Oklahoma is it,” Boylan said. “All the jobs in Norman are somehow associated with the school. There’s no other schools around, not even any small schools to root for. Everywhere you look, there’s OU.”

Northridge is the antithesis, a nondescript commuter school in the San Fernando Valley with no football, little athletic tradition at the Division I level and facilities that look as if they belong to a high school.

But as he leads the Matadors back to the scene of last year’s memorable run in the Big West Conference tournament, the 6-foot-6 former Oklahoma high school star is at home in Southern California and has no regrets about coming to a place he knew little about four years ago.

Northridge, with a 17-12 record, is seeded fourth and Thursday will play the highest-seeded remaining team from first-round games that begin tonight in the Anaheim Convention Center.

“It hasn’t set in yet,” Boylan said. “When it’s the last game of the season, I’m sure I’m going to look back and miss everything.”

Coach Bobby Braswell is dreading that day. Boylan will finish his college career as the Matadors’ second all-time scorer, their most prolific three-point shooter and leader in steals.

He also has been a model court leader, one willing to sacrifice to get teammates involved in the offense but ready to take over when needed. This season, Boylan is averaging a team-leading 14.9 points and 3.6 assists, and has a conference-leading 75 steals.

“The one thing besides being able to create his own shot is that he’s their leading assist man,” UC Irvine Coach Pat Douglass said after Boylan scored 25 points against the Anteaters. “When the ball gets to his hands, it’s double trouble because he can score, he can get to the foul line and he can also create offense for other people.”

At Norman High, Boylan was one of Oklahoma’s top players in a senior class that included Shelden Williams, a junior forward at Duke, and Kelenna Azubuike, a junior guard at Kentucky.

It was at a summer showcase camp in Las Vegas that Braswell first saw Boylan. The coach was there scouting Andre Patterson, a former UCLA player now at Tennessee.

“The team [Patterson] was playing [against] was Ian’s team,” Braswell said. “I saw this 6-5 guy come down the court and hit big shot after big shot. He played so hard, took charges, got on the floor for loose balls. He stood out.

“There were probably 60 Division I coaches in the gym. I turned to [former assistant] Eric [Brown] and I said to him, ‘Man, that kid’s going to be pretty good.’

“At the end of the game, [Eric] said, ‘Coach, there are a lot of schools between us and Oklahoma.’ I said, ‘You’re right, but we’re going to recruit him anyway.’ ”

Little did they know that Boylan already had a scouting report on them. In his senior year in high school, he attended a game at Oral Roberts while on a recruiting trip. Oral Roberts’ opponent was the Matadors, who won, 76-74, and left an impression with their frenetic style.

“He knew more about us than we did about him,” Braswell said.

What they also found was a player unlike many other recruits enamored with the trappings of a major college basketball program. At Northridge, he wouldn’t find a sparkling arena and a regular opportunity to perform on television.

Instead, he has excelled in near obscurity. Northridge has rarely sold out its 1,600-seat gymnasium, and his feats don’t appear among the sports highlights on local newscasts.

Not that it matters.

“I don’t mind being one of the have-nots,” he said. “It doesn’t matter about the gym. I’m not in awe of anybody’s gym or the [uniform] they wear or the way they travel. You’re in awe of people and the way they play basketball.”

Only one scenario could have prevented Boylan from going to Northridge, and the Matadors have Kansas Coach Bill Self to thank. Self was recruiting Boylan to play at Tulsa but stopped when he left there to take over at Illinois.

“I didn’t want to stay in Oklahoma,” Boylan said. “I kind of wanted to get away. But if Tulsa would have offered and Self had stayed, I think I’d have gone there.”

The hometown Sooners were never an option. Oklahoma Coach Kelvin Sampson would have taken him only as a walk-on and even though his parents were graduates, there was no emotional connection to the program.

“I don’t think it would have mattered if they did offer him something,” said Boylan’s father, Nathan. “He wanted to get away and see some things. He’s always been kind of an independent person.”

It is that quality that Braswell said he will miss most. To this day, he feels fortunate to have run across Boylan.

“I don’t believe in chance,” the coach said. “I believe everything happens for a reason. If I wasn’t there that day, I would have never seen him and would have never thought about seeing him.

“The rest is history.”