COMMENTARY : Basketball Program Plays Catch-Up

An investment has been made in the Cal State Northridge athletic program but the prospect of attaining the desired dividend is, a year later, still clouded.

The interest rate remains relatively low, a positive sign if the school were dealing in real estate but a discouraging one for a school trying to use sports as a vehicle to polish its image.

By moving athletics up to NCAA Division I classification a year ago, Northridge sought to take its rightful place among other institutions of its size and academic stature.

“You have to have that name recognition,” Bob Hiegert, Northridge athletic director said at the time. “Division I athletics is a constant reminder of where an institution is and what it’s doing.”

Northridge now has its designer label but, to the general public, the fit remains a bit odd.

The athletic program sags in revealing places, as illustrated by a question asked a few weeks ago in the press box at Fresno State during the NCAA baseball regional: A reporter who covers Fresno State and the Big West Conference asked, “Is Northridge (competing in) Division I in any sport other than baseball?”

With all the inroads Northridge made in its first major-college season of competition--a top 10 ranking in baseball, a postseason tournament bid in women’s volleyball, an individual champion in women’s track--the desired effect of an improved public image will not take place without success in the marquee sports of men’s basketball or Division I-A football.

Northridge plays Division II football and, for this century at least, has little interest in bankrolling a Division I-A team.

That leaves basketball.

And basketball leaves Northridge wanting. Basketball can’t keep up because it was behind to begin with.

In its past five seasons at the Division II level, Northridge had a 66-68 record and a best finish of fourth in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn.

This season, the Matadors were 8-20, good enough to rank 274th among the 296 major-college men’s basketball teams, according to the computer rating--based in part on strength of schedule--of one national publication.

That is nothing to brag about and, in most cases, probably not worth fretting over, either. Eight wins surpassed the expectations of many skeptics.

The problem is not so much where Northridge basketball is, but where it is going.

Several high school coaches recently said that Northridge’s recruiting practices, or lack of them, have made the school an unpopular choice in its own back yard. The coaches and their top players feel ignored.

Such criticism stings even more because it comes on the heels of a season in which Northridge stepped back when it should have been vaulting forward.

The Matadors’ opener last November at Colorado marked the debut of 10 new players and two new assistant coaches. The transfusion of new blood was not by design. Several of the players Northridge recruited for the purpose of making the transition to Division I ended up transferring to other schools.

Coaches left too. Rusty Smith, Northridge’s top assistant coach, resigned after seven years with the program to take a similar position at Eastern Washington. What peculiar timing.

Dave Fehte, a part-time assistant for the previous five seasons, was next to go. When it became clear he would not inherit Smith’s full-time position, Fehte bolted for St. Mary’s.

Tom McCollum was hired as the top assistant. McCollum’s biography, as written by the school’s publicity staff, says he was an assistant at Santa Barbara City College when its team produced records of 21-12 and 23-9.

What it does not say is that McCollum, as head coach of teams at Carpinteria High in the three years before he was hired by Northridge, had a record well below .500. It also does not detail much experience as a recruiter, and what Northridge needs more than anything else is an assistant who can root out a few good players.

Interestingly, supporters of Pete Cassidy, the Matadors’ head coach, would like to believe Northridge would have reached double figures in victories last season if McCollum had not been required to take over leadership of the team for the final eight games.

Northridge lost seven of those games, including decisions to lowly United States International and Division II Cal State Los Angeles while Cassidy was hospitalized with an intestinal ailment.

Actually, that Cassidy was not guiding the team makes the USIU and Cal State L.A. losses only slightly less embarrassing. Consider what happened at St. Mary’s when Coach Paul Landreaux resigned after a 4-7 start.

Fehte--remember him?--took over and led the Gaels to within one game of a berth in the NCAA tournament. St. Mary’s lost to Pepperdine in the championship game of the West Coast Conference tournament.

You think maybe if Fehte had stayed at Northridge . . . ? Nah.

Cassidy, who has been coach at Northridge the past 20 years, is the obvious choice to shoulder the blame as the basketball program flounders. But he has company.

The very same Northridge administration that wishes to have its image buffed has left its coach to cruise the high-rent district on a borrowed skateboard.

Money talks or recruits walk. Northridge, with 9.1 scholarships next season, is a transistor among boom boxes.

There are other excuses too. Northridge’s recruiting budget is extraordinarily small and the basketball staff is responsible for teaching classes while its competitors concentrate solely on coaching duties.

These handicaps have been well documented and they are similar to those experienced by every other coach at Northridge. The basketball staff was required to teach four class units during the past school year. The softball, women’s volleyball and baseball staffs each had more than double that class load.

Bill Kernen, the baseball coach who guided Northridge to 44 wins and a No. 10 national ranking, taught seven classes--four in the fall and three “in season,” during the spring. He also paid money out of his own pocket for essentials such batting helmets.

Northridge has given all of its coaches reasons to flounder, but few of them have. They complain, yes, and then go about the business of trying to overcome.

Pete Cassidy knows basketball. He can teach the Xs and Os. He is personable. He is caring. But he does not promote his program.

It has long been said that Cassidy would rather have players with great work ethic than those with great talent. He fails where he expects his players to excel: He does not hustle.

He has never been comfortable with the idea of begging high school players to take a college education for free. Coaching college basketball, when cast in such light, is an odd profession. But it is a chosen profession.

This whole move into major-college athletics did not exactly sneak up on Northridge. It was the unanimous recommendation of the school’s coaches back in November, 1986.

Cassidy was among them, but the job of taking the basketball program to a higher level seemed to daunt him rather than challenge him.

Others, even those with similar histories of comfort at the Division II level, have made an adjustment.

Gary Torgeson, who has been a coach at Northridge for 25 years, was out scouting softball tournaments last weekend. Among the games he saw were those for age 14 and under. “If you’re going to beat the top 10 or 15, you’ve got to start early,” he explained.

The first priority for basketball should be to pick up around home. Nurture relationships with local high school and junior college coaches, use their contacts, build rapport, ask their opinions--not only about their players, but others as well.

Network. Beat the bushes. Sleep in the car if you have to. Pay the dues. All those years in Division II mean nothing now. Precious time is ticking away.

Cassidy recently was awarded a two-year contract. It appears that should not be taken as a vote of confidence. Cassidy’s previous deal had been for three years.

Asked if there was any significance attached to the multi-year offer, Hiegert, the athletic director, replied, “The significance is, it’s a multi-year contract.”

George Steinbrenner has given more enthusiastic endorsements.