Feb. 13, 2006
Long Beach, Calif. -
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UPCOMING:
Wed., Feb. 15 -- at Long Beach State, Walter Pyramid (5,000), 7:35 p.m.
Sat., Feb. 18 -- eBay Bracket Buster, vs. Eastern Washington, Titan Gym (4,000), 2:05 p.m.
IN A NUTSHELL: Cal State Fullerton (11-10, 4-7) goes back on the road where it has had relatively good success to complete the Big West Conference schedule with three games over the next two weeks. Fourth place and a first-round tournament bye are a mathematical possibility but it will likely take a 3-game sweep and some help. There are three more home games on the schedule but all are non-conference contests.
"RADIO": ALL Titan games can be heard live on the internet on computers with sound cards. Listeners may access the CSF Athletics home page at www.fullertontitans.com and follow the links. All ROAD Big West Conference games can be heard on KSPA (1510 AM) with Justin Alderson calling the action.
ABOUT THE 49ers: Long Beach State (11-11, 6-5) has split six games since winning at Fullerton in overtime on Jan. 19. The 49ers are 7-4 at home but are 1-2 in the last three and had to come from far behind to beat Cal Poly on Thursday night. Jibril Hodges leads five players in double figures in scoring at 15.0 ppg and has taken over the Big West lead in 3-point field goals at 2.91 per game, shooting 39 percent.
PROBABLE FULLERTON STARTERS:
No. Name Ht. Yr. ppg rpg Quick Notes
C 5 Justin Burns 6-6 Jr. 9.1 6.6 <
br>Posted three double-doubles in last 10 games; 16 rebounds at UC Davis
G 3 Bobby Brown 6-1 Jr. 17.6 2.9
CSF's No. 9 career scorer is 1-for-16 on 3-pointers in last three games
F 1 Jamaal Brown 6-7 Sr. 17.1 8.1
Averaged 21 points last week and matched assist high with 6 vs. Pacific
G 23 Vershan Cottrell 6-2 Sr. 5.7 3.5
Career highs of 8 rebounds, 6 assists to go with 12 points at UC Riverside
G 14 Jermaine Harper 6-3 Sr. 9.6 2.9
Averaging 14.0 points over last 11 games; 7 for 14 treys last week
OFF THE BENCH:
G 0 Frank Robinson 6-4 So. 9.6 4.6
Team's No. 3 scorer and rebounder comes off bench
C 34 Gary Nunez 6-7 Jr. 2.7 1.6
Had 8 points, 4 rebounds in 11 minutes at FIU
G 22 John Clemmons 6-0 Sr. 2.9 1.8
Career-high 10 points vs. UCSB, at UC Irvine and at UC Davis
G 33 Jerard Moret 6-4 Fr. 3.6 2.8
Had career-high 13 points at UC Irvine; missed 4 games with broken finger
C 15 Curtis Battles 6-10 Jr. 1.8 1.8
Has played 36 minutes in past nine games
C 52 Manny Montano 6-10 Jr. 1.4 0.8
Palomar College transfer hasn't played in conference games
G 11 Damien Massey 5-11 RFr. 0.0 0.0
Has played only 13 minutes vs. Hope and at UC Irvine
THE COACH: Bob Burton is 43-38 in his third year at Cal State Fullerton and career. At .531, Burton has the second best winning percentage of any Titans' head coach, trailing only Bobby Dye (109-78, .583). He is 3-2 vs. Long Beach State but has lost the last two. He is 1-1 in the Walter Pyramid.
SERIES HISTORY: Cal State Fullerton has played more games against Long Beach State than any opponent and trails the series, 53-36. Fullerton is 3-8 in the Walter Pyramid. In the previous meeting this year, the 49ers got a 3-pointer from Jibril Hodges at the end of regulation and a banked 3-pointer by Shawn Hawkins to win in overtime and set a school record with 14 in 34 attempts. The difference, however, was at the foul line where the Titans missed 10 of 21 shots while Long Beach State was perfect on 13 tries.
WHAT HAPPENED?: Most of the pre-season publications and polls picked Fullerton to win the Big West Conference with Pacific the primary challenger despite Coach Bob Burton's protestation that the losses of second-team All-Big West senior forwards Ralphy Holmes and Yaphett King and senior forward Hardy Asprilla (who missed half of the season) would be difficult to overcome. While five of the six returnees have produced improved individual scoring averages (Bobby Brown 17.6 ppg this year vs. 16.8 ppg last year; Jamaal Brown 17.1 ppg vs. 12.4 ppg; Justin Burns 9.1 ppg vs. 2.7 ppg; Jermaine Harper 9.6 ppg vs. 9.7 ppg; Vershan Cottrell 5.7 ppg vs. 1.8 ppg and John Clemmons 2.9 ppg vs. 1.9 ppg), the newcomers have been unable to fill the void. Holmes (16.9 ppg) and King (13.8 ppg) combined for 30.7 ppg and Asprilla averaged 8.5 in 12 games. They have basically been replaced by Frank Robinson (9.6 ppg), Jerard Moret (3.6 ppg) and Gary Nunez (2.7 ppg), who have combined for only 15.9 ppg. The team statistics are basically the same as last year. For other differences, read on.
CLOSE GAMES: Pick your measuring stick -- last season, Fullerton was 7-4 in games that went down to the final shot, 6-0 in games decided by 1 or 2 points and 3-0 in overtime. This year's team is 1-3 in overtime and 2-4 in games decided by 5 points or less. Fullerton missed game-winning shots in the final seconds of regulation at USF and vs. UCR and missed free throws allowed Long Beach State to make two buzzer-beating treys. Fullerton missed two potential game-winning shots at UC Davis and survived two by the Aggies before opening a 12-point lead in the third overtime and maintaining enough of it to survive a Davis 3-pointer at the buzzer. Both games vs. Pacific were tied with about 5 minutes to play and the Tigers won both with 17-8 and 14-9 finishes.
SECOND-HALF SWOONS: Fullerton is 7-6 after leading at the half, 1-0 when tied and 3-4 when trailing. The Titans have held second-half leads in 8 of their 10 losses: by as many as 19 points in the second half before losing at USF, by 7 vs. Texas-San Antonio, by 5 vs. Cal Poly, by 2 at Pacific and by 2 at home vs. Pacific, by 5 vs. Long Beach State, by 7 vs. UC Irvine and by 8 vs. UC Riverside. They have outscored the competition in first halves, 775-678, but have been outscored by 36 points in the second halves and by 6 points in overtime periods.
BENCH INCONSISTENT, TOO: Fullerton's reserves have scored only 34 points TOTAL in the last five home games. In between, the reserves erupted for 46 of the team's 68 points at UC Irvine and 29 of 94 at UC Davis.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN: Fullerton played only 12 of its 32 games last year in Titan Gym and this year's schedule shows another dozen games at home and at least 16 on the road. The Titans did not have a home game between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day, making trips to South Dakota/Kansas, San Francisco, San Jose and Miami. In a 46-day span, they were on the road for at least part of 23 days. Going back to last season, the Titans are 18-14 in their last 32 games away from Titan Gym. This year they are 7-5 away from Titan Gym, where they are 4-5.
BROWNS PAYING THE PRICE: Junior Bobby (17.6 pg) and senior Jamaal (17.1 ppg) have scored 44 percent of the Titans' points this year and rank Nos. 1 & 4, respectively, in the Big West Conference in scoring. They rank Nos. 1 and 2 in the Big West in minutes played and both are far from 100 percent healthy. Bobby had some back and ankle problems and Jamaal has had back and nose problems.
ALL EYES ON BOBBY: The opposing defenses and professional scouts have kept Bobby Brown under close scrutiny this year. He is the 18th member of the Titans' 1,000-point club and currently ranks No. 9 at 1,276. At No. 8 with 1,284 points is Cedric Ceballos (1988-89 and 1989-90). In the 4-game home losing streak, Bobby had 13 assists and 15 turnovers but against CSUN he had 8 assists and only 3 turnovers. In the last five home games he averaged 15 points on 29-for-76 shooting (.382) and was only 5-for-27 (.185) from the 3-point arc including 1-for-16 in the last three. Bobby has 327 career assists and needs 12 more to crack the all-time Titan top five. At Cal State Northridge on Jan. 7 he passed Chris Dade to rank No. 1 in Titan career 3-point field goals and now has 206. He made the all-tournament team at both USF and FIU. He has had some remarkably dissimilar scoring halves this season, to wit: 6 in the first half and 18 in the second half at San Jose State; 6 and 22 vs. Cal Poly; 10 and 0 vs. UCSB; 0 and 17 vs. CSU Northridge; 18 and 4 at Pacific; 0 and 17 (including overtimes) at UC Davis and 2 and 19 (including overtime) vs. UC Riverside.
JAMAAL THE INSIDE FORCE: Senior Jamaal Brown sat out almost the entire second half at UCI due to back problems after scoring only 4 points with 3 rebounds and then broke his nose with about 9 minutes to play at UC Davis after totaling 8 points and 3 rebounds. Still, he is No. 4 in the conference in scoring and No. 2 in rebounding. He posted his third 30-point game of the year with 31 vs. Long Beach State on Jan. 19, making 13 of 16 shots. In December he became only the third Titan (Leon Wood and Cedric Ceballos) to post back-to-back 30-point games with 30 vs. Chicago State and 36 at USF on Dec. 9 & 10. His 36-point one-game effort is topped only by Richard Morton's Div. I school record of 38 (vs. UC Irvine, 1/7/88). Ironically, Morton, currently the head coach of the San Francisco Pilots ABA team, was in attendance that night. Brown has had five double-doubles to go with eight last year for a total of 13, good for seventh place on the Titans' career list. He begins the week No. 2 in the Big West with a .512 field goal percentage.
Jermaine Harper: The senior guard is averaging 14.0 points over the last 11 games. Over that span he has made 34-of-72 (.472) from the 3-point line. In the first 10 games of the season he was 9-of-44 (.204) from trey-land and averaged 4.7 points. In his Titan career he has had seven games of 20 or more points and 16 of 4 points or less. Last year he made 70 of 191 treys (.366 percentage) and tied for fifth most in a season by a Titan. This season he is shooting .371 and is on pace to make about 57. He has jumped into the No. 10 spots on the career lists for 3-point field goals made (113) and attempted (307). He played 39 minutes vs. Cal State Northridge on Saturday and was primarily responsible for holding Mike Efevberha to 5 points on 2-for-5 shooting. BURNS CONTINUES TO IMPROVE: Junior Justin Burns was easily the most improved Titan player from the end of last season through the November-December schedule and he has continued to make progress. He has posted three double-doubles in the last 10 games. His absence due to foul trouble was critical in the losses at USF, vs. Cal Poly, at Pacific and vs. UC Riverside. He begins the week ranked sixth in the Big West in rebounding at 6.6 per game and had a career-best 16 at UC Davis on Jan. 28. He had the best game of his career at Cal State Northridge on Jan. 7, scoring a career-high 18 points and matching his previous rebounding best with 10. He nearly matched those numbers at UC Riverside with 17 points and 10 rebounds. At CSUN he attempted 20 free throws (making 12) to come up only two shy of the CSF school record of 22 attempts by Leon Wood on Nov. 19, 1981, vs. Texas-Arlington.
Vershan Cottrell: The other senior off guard continues to play above his 2004-05 level. He was the Titans' leading scorer (15 points) at Kansas State and he made all 5 shots in the first half vs. Cal Poly on his way to 12 points. At UC Riverside he had 12 points (all in the first half) along with career highs of 8 rebounds and 6 assists. He again had 8 rebounds vs. UCR on Feb. 4. Last year he averaged roughly 2 points and 1 rebound but this year is at 5.7 points and 3.5 rebounds and has started 17 times.
ROBINSON BREAKS SLUMP: Sophomore Frank Robinson had been the key Titan off the bench before earning a starter's role for one game -- at Pacific on Jan. 9. Since then, his contributions have been inconsistent. He scored only 9 points in the next 3 games. But he led the team at UC Irvine with 17 points and had 4 rebounds and 3 steals and then came off the bench for 13 points and 8 rebounds in 25 minutes at UC Davis before fouling out. Vs. UCR on Feb. 4 he had 7 points in 11 first-half minutes but no points in 7 minutes in the second half and overtime. Against Pacific he got into foul trouble and had 5 points and no rebound in 16 minutes and then had 7 points and 4 rebounds in 28 minutes vs. CSU Northridge. He is the Titans' No. 3 scorer at 9.7 points per game and the No. 3 rebounder at 4.7 per game. Twice he has scored 20 points -- vs. Hope and at CSUN. In the Florida International Tournament, he had 9 steals in the two games and made the all-tournament team.
John Clemmons: The third senior guard has emerged as much more than Bobby Brown's caddy. He has provided a consistent defensive spark off the bench at point guard and has played substantial minutes with Brown moving to off guard. Clemmons had a career-high 10 points vs. UCSB including a career-best two 3-point field goals (in 2 tries) and matched those numbers at UCI and again at UC Davis. His assist/turnover ratio (53/22) is outstanding at 2.41-to-1 (the Big West leader is CSUN's Bakari Altheimer at 2.33) but Clemmons needs to have 3 assists per game to qualify for the conference leader board and currently he is averaging only 2.65. He had 7 assists and no turnovers in 14 minutes vs. Long Beach State and 4 assists and 1 turnover in 15 minutes vs. UC Irvine on Jan. 21.
BRACKET BUSTERS: Fullerton will host Eastern Washington in a non-televised game at 2:05 p.m. on Saturday.
WESTCHESTER CONNECTION: Assistant Coach Marlon Morton joined the Titans' staff this year after a long career assisting at Westchester High School, one of California's most successful prep basketball programs in recent times. He sees a lot of familiar faces since Bobby Brown, John Clemmons, Jerard Moret and redshirts Scott Cutley and Jarrel Lake all played for the Comets.
LOOKING BACK: Last year's team accomplished a remarkable number of positive statistics and records, most notably tying for the second most victories (21) in a Div. I season (23 in 1977-78 and 21 in 1982-83) and posting only the third and fourth post-season (NIT) wins in school history to complete the first winning season since 1992-93. The Titans have not had consecutive winning seasons since 1983-84 and 1984-85.
THREE IS A BAD NUMBER: Fullerton opponents are having some sensational games with the 3-point basket. USF's Dommanic Ingerson made 6 of 7 in the final 11 minutes to lead a Don overtime win, Cal Poly's Dawin Whiten made 6 of 9 to lead a Mustang victory in the Big West opener, CSUN's Mike Efevberha made 8 of his last 9 tries (8 of 11 overall) in a narrow Fullerton win, UCR's Dedrick Bates (1 of 16 on the season) made 4 of 4 on Jan. 14 and then Long Beach State set a school record by making 14 in 34 attempts.
NATIONAL TV: Since advancing to the Western Regional Finals of the 1978 NCAA Tournament, the Titans have received minimal televison coverage beyond regional networks and they are winless on national broadcasts. The latest was Thursday night's 67-62 home loss to Pacific on ESPN2. In reverse chronological order, the Titans also lost at Pacific on CSTV on Jan. 7 of this season; at Georgetown in the 2005 NIT on March 22 on ESPN; at home in OT to Long Beach State on Feb. 19, 1990, on ESPN and at UC Santa Barbara in OT on Jan. 29, 1990.
WHERE ARE THEY NOW?: Seven players on last year's team are no longer on the roster. Ralphy Holmes graduated in August and is playing in the CBA with the Yakama team. Yaphett King is playing professionally overseas. Hardy Asprilla remains in school and is assisting the players with academics while providing an experienced and inspirational voice from near the bench. Derek Quinet had two years of eligibility remaining but decided to focus on his classroom work this year. Danny Lambert quit the team in October and redshirt Adam Tancredi quit on Dec. 11. Drew Awad passed away on Dec. 26 after battling for more than a year against a reoccurrence of leukemia.
GO EAST YOUNG MEN: Cal State Fullerton in December played on the East Coast (Miami, FL) for the third time in 14 months after making only one appearance there in the previous 30 years (at Providence, Connecticut and Richmond in 1974-75). The Titans opened last season at a tournament at Central Connecticut State in New Britain and ended it with a post-season NIT game at Georgetown in the nation's capital.