Baseball team could offer tips
OMAHA -- Rosenblatt Stadium and the Titan House are only about three miles from the Qwest Center, where Cal State Fullerton will open the NCAA basketball tournament Thursday against Wisconsin, and the Titans are hoping some of the baseball karma reaches that far.
“We’re going to talk to some of those guys and find out the secret to Omaha,” guard Frank Robinson said of the baseball team. “I heard it’s Titanville over there so I’m going to call someone and see what they did.”
The baseball team has appeared at the College World Series at Rosenblatt so often that a group of alumni in 2003 swung a deal to rent out a house across the street every time they came and they have been back in 2004, 2006 and 2007, winning the title in 2004.
The Titans have become an adopted home team for the city during the baseball tournament, and the basketball team is hoping that sentiment spills over to its players.
“We can use all the support we can get,” said forward Scott Cutley. “I know Wisconsin fans are going to be there in full throttle, so any support we can get will be a plus.”
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Fullerton is getting a lot of attention as a possible Cinderella team in this year’s tournament, mostly because it’s the 30th anniversary of when the Titans made one of the most memorable glass-slipper runs in tournament history by reaching the 1978 Elite Eight.
But Coach Bob Burton said the team is not used to all the attention it has been getting.
“I’ve never seen a response like this,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s the 30-year Cinderella deal or what, but interest in us has been phenomenal. It’s been exciting and overwhelming, actually.”
Burton added that he understands the interest.
“Fullerton basketball has been known by that season forever,” he said. “Even though we had players like Cedric Ceballos and Bruce Bowen and Leon Wood and Pape Sow since then, that’s what we are known for.”
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Burton has been coaching basketball since 1969, when he was an assistant at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. He moved into high school coaching for 10 years and coached at West Valley College for 21 years before becoming an assistant at Fresno State in 2002.
The next season, the Fullerton job opened, Burton applied and got the job.
“I spent 30 years as a head coach, but it was difficult to become a Division I head coach,” he said. “Then I sit 18 inches to the right of a head coach on a Division I bench and all of a sudden I get an interview.”
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Junior guard Josh Akognon, the Titans outside marksman, will be a key factor in neutralizing the height advantage of Wisconsin, and he’s more comfortable with that role after being selected most valuable player of the Big West Conference tournament.
Akognon had struggled during regular-season games against UC Santa Barbara and Cal State Northridge, the two teams that tied Fullerton for the Big West title.
He shot only 22% (12 of 54) and averaged 13.5 points in those four games as Fullerton went 1-3. But Akognon, who averages 19.9 points, earned Big West tournament MVP honors after averaging 22.3 points on 44.7% shooting.
“I was labeled this year as not stepping up in big games, so that was enough motivation for me,” he said.
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